Thesis Pitch

• Working Title
• Deconstruction of Hetero-Normative Behaviors in Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway"
• Research Question
• Untangling Mrs. Dalloway through the combined use of a feminist psychoanalysis lens, reader response theory, toxic masculinity, and comparative analyses in response to the suicide of Septimus and its ultimate role in changing literary analysis praxis.  
• 3 Key Papers
• "Railed in by a Maddening Reason: A Reconsideration of Septimus Smith and His Role in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway." - Sabine Sautter-Leger
• "Mrs. Dalloway, the Dictator, and the Relativity Paradox" - Christopher Herbert
• "Chiastic Modernism: Rational Uncanniness and Uncanny Reason" - Daniel Darvay
• Motivation
• The motivation behind this project is to use the skills that I have gained through the process of earning my B.A. In English Studies with concentrations in Literature and Writing to deconstruct a piece of literature that widely interests me. Also, Virginia Woolf is an author that has always intrigued me and I have always found something much larger to every one of her pieces. In addition, no student has really tackled Virginia Woolf with their Senior Thesis and I have always been the person to try doing what other students shy away from - simply because I like the challenge.
• 3 Core Aspects
• Idea: Formulate an analysis around "Mrs. Dalloway," specifically Septimus's suicide and what that means for the novel and for those reading the novel.
• Data: Will be collected through the use of database research across all mediums
• Tools: Feminist psychoanalysis lens, reader response theory, toxic masculinity lens, and comparative analyses 
• 2 Key Questions
• What's New?: This is still a work in progress to hopefully find something that hasn't been said before. Again, I am hoping for something connected to Septimus's suicide, but that is something that will change and flex throughout the research process.
• So What?: I want to connect this with middle or high school curriculum and see if this novel could sufficiently replace another novel being studied (to promote women writers and to break down the normalization of hetero-normative behaviors) while still meeting the outlined curriculum requirements.
• 1 Bottom Line
• Contribution: As stated above, I want to deconstruct the normalization of hetero-normative behaviors and promote women writers while still meeting curriculum requirements
• Other Considerations
• At this point, the project idea sits wide open and I am open to changing topics or ideas. specifically, I am set on studying Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway," but the scope in which the research is done is flexible.

Beth Hill Blog Analysis

Beth Hill is a highly regarded publisher, editor, and writer of fiction. Hill has published two books that focus on her passion for editing: "The Magic of Fiction, Crafting Words into Stories. The Writer's Guide to Writing and Editing" and "Punctuation in Dialogue." As of now, Hill does most of her work behind a computer screen through the use of her online editing service, "A Novel Edit." Hill also relies heavily on her blog, "The Editor's Blog," as a source of interaction with others within the writing and editing community.

Looking through Hill's blog, I have noticed a few things that are quite striking. For one, her layout is very simple and easy to navigate. Also, the color scheme of her blog is quite like what you would expect for a stereotypical writer and editor to have - black and white. The only colors on the blog are ones used in a few pictures, or the pictures of the books that she has published. Hill's blog seems to be extremely useful in the sense that it goes straight to the post and most of the posts are not long-winded. Everything that Hill posts has a purpose, and if that post is long, then it needed to be long to fulfill its purpose.

While I would like to say that every blog written by a professional writer or editor is always going to be fun and interesting, I just cannot lie like that. While reading through Hill's blog, I noticed that a lot of her posts seemed like she could not find a good balance between cut and dry, and adding personal antidotes. I would have liked to see more of a personal side of her come out through some of her writing - instead of her trying to sound extremely formal in some pieces. I also wish that some of the things she says in a few of her posts would make great stand-alone quotes that could have easily been emphasized with changing the text font or color (or even pulled the quote out and place it separately on the page). Overall, Hill's blog did a good job in what it set out to do: aid in the writing and editing process for fellow writers and editors.