in 800 words or less...

My junior high, high school, and "college prep" days of UVU did not prepare me for this little beast I am now facing. It's called The Research Paper in 800 Words or Less. In this case, it must be done in 700 to 800 words. The word count made many in my English class rejoice. I, however, am close to tearing my hair out due to the length of the paper. Why?

800 words is NOT ENOUGH.

I have never had to write a short research paper. They've always been 8 pages or more, which is way more than 800 words. 800 words double spaced is about two and a half pages, including all of the mumbo jumbo formatting at the top that MLA format requires. I mean, most of my blog posts are in the 600-700 word range! Grrr. Beastly thing.

In short (haha), this is very difficult for me. Finding a topic and narrowing it down to the required specificity has been such a huge mountain to climb for me because I don't research in specifics. Think National History Fair size: start with a broad topic, make it a tad bit narrower, and BAM. Enough information to make 1500-2500 words. This one...it's taken me three days to come up with an angle small enough, and even now I keep wanting to branch out and bring in more information. But that adds to the word count. Buh.

Call me Hermione, but yes. I'm Hermione. I've even got the hair to go with it.

whups...

I forgot to mention that it was my sister's birthday yesterday. Declaration of Independence baby! No, the DoI is NOT my sister, but my sister is a DoI baby. MM just turned 15. She said that this is the first birthday she's had where she actually felt older. I told her to wait until she hits 17. Everyone treats you like your life is half over for six months, and then they get all excited about hearing you're close to 18. And a little worried.

I probably should have talked about the signing of the DoI as well, since it was actually on July 2, 1776. It just wasn't accepted by the people/there wasn't time to get a big enough celebration the day it was actually done. I should know more about it; it's my assigned section for my sisters' and my History Fair project. Yes, I got dragged into it again. But if there's the slightest inkling of an idea of visiting the Library of Congress, I'm so in.

Tomorrow is the 4th. Happy 4th. But fireworks are expensive, my mom is sick in bed after a small "mini stroke" as the doctor called it last time (her second one was yesterday), Misty keeps attacking things so I'm afraid to take her places, my sisters' and I can hardly walk, we all slept through the Balloon Festival, and my brother and sister-in-law are out of town. I think we'll have to think of something else to do today and tomorrow. Not the parade-you have to set up a tent and stay there four days in advance now-a-days. It's ridiculous, but it's a necessity now because otherwise-there are NO spots left. Perhaps the Art Festival though. And maybe the BYU Museum of Art, if they're open. Hm...