Humanities: Lets Get Riel

Welcome back to my blog(s) for the final post of the semester. Now you may be wondering what we could have done in the past three weeks, and the answer is a lot.

Despite the limited timeframe of this project,¹ we managed to get a lot done. We managed to tackle learning both the history of one of the most important figures in Canadian history and how to improve our writing in one fell swoop.

In case the title somehow didn’t give it away, this project was in fact about the one and only Louis Riel. To combine both our newfound writing skills and knowledge about riel, we would be creating a deceptively simple final product, a written multi-paragraph response to the driving question:

How has the portrayal of [Louis Riel] changed over time?

This project was a busy one, with us jumping between the historical knowledge and the writing skills we would need for our final product, but occasionally the two did intersect. The first obvious intersection between them came in the form of a paragraph analyzing Historica Canada’s Louis Riel Heritage Minute ² and how it portrayed Riel. At this point, we had only learned a bit about proper writing and the history of Riel and the Métis, leading to my first draft being mediocre at best. Luckily, we had a chance to revise our paragraphs after learning about proper sentence structure. This was very helpful because, to be perfectly honest, I never really had a good grasp of sentence structure. This was very useful to learn, as it not only applies to this project but any time I might need to write going forward.

The heritage minute wasn’t the only source we ended up analyzing. We also looked at some statues of Riel ³, some of which I ended up using in my final post. In terms of more conventional sources, we had a quick look at a textbook and watched a video or two, but we also looked at many primary sources. Primary sources are interesting, especially for this sort of project, as they can show the views of people at the time. Using secondary sources is great, but often looking through ancient PDF scans on an old site you can only access through the internet archive has its own sort of thrill.

As I mentioned before, we frequently flipped between writing skills and history, and it is now time for this post to do the same. One of the first skills we learned was using Frayer models, a tool for word analysis. To use a Frayer model, you write a word ³ in the centre of the model, and then in the surrounding spaces, you write down synonyms for the word, the definition, examples, and non-examples. An interesting variation on the Frayer Model has you write down how the concept relates to the five senses (how it feels, smells, etc.). With our newfound knowledge, we were able to transform a simple sentence, devoid of detail, into a much more engaging “super sentence.” ⁴

It was now time for us to combine everything we had learned up to this point to write our Multi-Paragraph Composition™. The first thing we did was create a topic sentence, which would serve as a starting point and semi-outline for our composition. After trying to settle on the key points I wanted to discuss and writing five wildly different versions, I settled on this:

Once I was done with the topic sentence, I could start forming the remainder of the composition. I first had to do some more research on Riel and find some portrayals I could use in my composition. The research process was interesting, as I would often try and follow source rabbit holes, which led me to some very useful stuff. ⁵ I used many sources to gain an understanding of riel’s life, but I only used a few in the final paragraph.

While writing, the skills I learned on this project were incredibly useful. When starting a paragraph, I would write a topic sentence, letting me flesh out what ideas I wanted the paragraph to convey. A proper knowledge of paragraph structure did make writing the composition far easier ⁶, but other skills, both taught and just picked up while working on this project, were also useful. For example, I used parts of a Frayer model I did on Riel as a base for my topic sentence.

Once we had completed our first drafts, they were printed out, and we did peer critique in groups, handing around ours and marking up everyone else’s. After around half an hour of being critiqued, my paragraph looked something like this:

With some pretty direct feedback to work with, I addressed all the grammar and readability issues and tried to put together an improved conclusion. While writing the conclusion, I noticed that, while I certainly wrote about how portrayals of Riel have changed over time, there was no mention of why. To try and remedy this, I finished the intended conclusion and then added some details to support that conclusion. After all of my edits, I was fairly happy with my final composition, so here it is:

Regardless of whether or not you read that, this post will keep moving.

The completion of the multi-paragraph document marked the end of this project ⁷, which, although rather short, taught me many invaluable skills that I will be able to use for decades to come.

That’s all for this post, save for the footnotes. ⁸