Embedded Files
This
is the first assignment in our Research Paper. We are writing a
1200-word paper on a topic of our choosing based on class themes. After
considerable research which begins with a research question, we develop a
strong thesis statement, which guides us through the writing process.
We also outline and write a first and second draft before turning in the
final essay. All five Research Paper assignments will be posted here to
show our entire writing process.
Detective stories have lots of kinds, because of their different eras. But the thing that doesn’t change is that, whatever they change their still readers who liked it, no matter to its history. Because of this, I am going to try to define some categories of the mystery stories, and also do some comparisons between them. Authors in different places make the detectives have different roles and also different personalities. I will compare two categories of the style of murder mysteries. The first one is Conan Doyle's style, the second is Raymond Chandler's style. And I will start with writing these two types of writing, then I will do some comparisons between these two.
The first kind of writing is the style of conan doyle. The background of the detective Sherlock Holmes was a person who was doing medical casework, he was under Dr.Joseph Bell in Edinburgh. Bell finds things in small details. This makes Sherlock Holmes very sharp at defining things and also being an excellent detective. He can use small pieces of evidence or small events and link back to the main case. Then comes his partner Watson, Watson is a doctor, and he isn’t really good at detecting, sometimes he is a step later than what Holmes is thinking. Watson's main purpose is this story is narrating the story, and it prevents the reader from what Holmes is thinking, but reveals when the case is solved. Next is about the clues, the clues are given to the readers but almost all of their meanings are concealed, this makes the mystery look simple and easy to understand but actually the thinking may be very deep.Going on to the characters, the main characters are sherlock holmes, watson and scotland yard. Sherlock Holmes represents using logic to think going step by step and connecting things together. Watson represents emotional reliability, he is fearful about the danger that they may face. Also he tells the story as he experiences it. Lastly, he cares more about people than the crimes, Holmes only does his detect, but Watson would care about the people getting robbed or other family members if one of them got killed. Next is the background of the story, a lot of times the background of the place is foggy, this links to the mystery, foggy and you can’t see the end of it. And also represents anxiety about crime. Then there is the writing style of Doyle, he is very precise about the words and also conversational and a lot of dialogues between the characters, this lets the reader feel more engaging and understand more about the whole story. The core thinking of this type of mystery is “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains… must be the truth.” said by The Sign of Four (1890), p. 111 (varies by edition).
Raymond Chandler’s style of writing is another kind of murder mystery style, it is very different from Conan Doyle’s. Raymond Chandler’s is about the hard- boiled detective when Doyle focuses on logic, whereas Chandler focuses on atmosphere, emotion and more complexity. The story of Chandler’s is first person narrative, which is Phillip Marlowe, the narrator is not outside like Watson in Holmes mystery. And this reflects the immediate voice, event ,personality and attitude. Going on to the type of story and the main theme. He doesn't just solve the mystery, the author believes that crime is a part of society, without crime what are the jails for, and not everyone is friendly. Next, wealth and wealth corruption are together, wealth can lead to corruption too, also the world is a place where justice is uncertain, when rich people pay more, they often win the court though they are the one who did the wrong things. All of this is shown in Chandler’s mysteries. Next is about the plot of the story. A lot of the story’s plot is very messy. There are also some characters that seem to come out of nowhere, then just disappear like how it came. Also there are a lot of twisting parts of evidence and it is harder for people to think through. Then going on to the character Phillip Marlowe himself, he is very intelligent and tough, though he is in some ways disappointed about the society, he is like the lone hero in the mystery. The one who doesn’t care about fame and money, what he only cares is the justice and unfairness between the society. Another thing that is confusing about the character is that he likes to make people pissed off a little bit, but not too hard, like stepping on the break at the last minute.
Then there is the comparison between these two authors' writing. The first thing that I am going to compare is the detective method. Conan Doyle uses logic and deduction to solve mysteries, whereas Chandler’s uses more of experience and moral judgement than strict logic so the solution of Chandler’s mystery may be unclear in some ways. The next thing is the narrative voice. For Coana Doyle, his stories use other characters' voices to let the readers know what it is talking about, in his case it is Watson. But in Raymond Chandler’s mysteries, it is Phillip Marlowe himself telling the story, this makes the story have first hand emotions and the events and reacts directly. Then is the language style, Conan Doyle’s mystery is more precise and clear, which makes it easier to understand. But the ones by Raymond Chandler are not that clear, and he uses some slang that is seldom heard right now. This shows that Conan Doyle has more clarity of reasoning when Raymond Chandler focuses on personality. Furthermore is the plot structure, Conan Doyle’s clues are more clear but may be hard to think, but it still clearly gave it to the readers. But most of the time, only in the end the answer of the clue would be revealed. Compared to Conan Doyle, Raymond Chandler is more confusing about the plot, some of it just jumped in and then jumped out in a short period of time, this makes the story contain more mystery pictures in it. Then is the view of society, in Conan Doyle’s mystery, those crimes are committed individually, and after that. The world can be in order again. The difference between these two authors is that Raymond Chandler’s mystery is more like an everyday job, crime gets committed, but it never stops, and never ends. This is where it is shown about the uncertainty of social justice, because of this, this kind of story may be more similar to the real world. Next is the detective's personality, Sherlock Holmes is more confident and emotionally distant, and Watson in there has more feelings for normal citizens. But Phillip Marlowe, who is the detective by Raymond Chandler, is very lonely, moral. He is talented in detecting, but also cares about people. That is like a combination between Holmes and Watson. The last difference is the setting of the story and the atmosphere. Conan Doyle’s story is set in foggy streets which is similar to the mystery, polite society and mystery is under the calm usual world. Whereas Raymond Chandler’s mystery is very messy, the words they use are more straightforward and more of reality. That whatever the people do, crime still exists.
Then there are the similarities between these two. I have four things to talk about. The first one is the figure of the main character. Both Marlowe and Holmes are strong and memorable characters that exist in different eras and different writing styles. They are both independent thinkers who don't just follow the rules of the society. The second thing is the crime and story foundation of these two. Both authors mainly focus on mystery crime, involving violence like fighting or using guns. And the plot of both stories starts with a problem that needs to be understood. The third part is the investigative process, they both think and find evidence and combine it together to get the big picture of the crime and then get the criminal. Holmes uses physical details. Whereas Marlowe in The Third Man thinks of people’s behaviour and then decides. The last one is social reflection, both of the authors use this type of writing to reveal the truth of the society. Doyle uses hidden terrorists to show that the dark side of society is often very harsh and dangerous. Raymond Chandler mysteries reveal corruption in urban America in 1930s to 1950s.
This is my first drat, I am basically making some comparisons between two famous authors Raymond Chandler and Conan Doyle. Differences on character traits, background and the theme of the story. And some similiar parts that happened both types of books. In later drafts, I want to make the pragraphs more cutted and some places that could add more details.
This is my final draft
Detective stories have lots of kinds, because of their different eras. But the thing that doesn’t change is, whatever changes there would still be readers who liked it, no matter to its history. Because of this, I am going to try to define some categories of the mystery stories, and also do some comparisons between them. Authors in different places make the detectives have different roles and also different personalities. I will compare two categories of the style of murder mysteries. The first one is Conan Doyle's style, the second is Raymond Chandler's style. And I will start with writing these two types of writing, then I will do some comparisons between these two.
The first kind of writing is the style of conan doyle. The background of the detective Sherlock Holmes was a person who was doing medical casework, he was under Dr.Joseph Bell in Edinburgh. Bell finds things in small details. This makes Sherlock Holmes very sharp at defining things and also being an excellent detective. He can use small pieces of evidence or small events and link back to the main case.
Then comes his partner Watson, Watson is a doctor, and he isn’t really good at detecting, sometimes he is a step later than what Holmes is thinking. Watson's main purpose is this story is narrating the story, and it prevents the reader from what Holmes is thinking, but reveals when the case is solved. For example：In the book called a study of scarlet, Holmes identifies the killer through footprints, handwriting, and logical deduction.
On the other hand, Farewell, My Lovely, a book by Raymond Chandler, Marlowe relies on instinct, experience, and judgment rather than strict logic. The detective method reflects the author’s writing style rather than a simple detective trait, as Conan Doyle builds his mysteries around education, while Raymond Chandler relies on intuition and moral judgement to shape the narrative.
Next is about the clues, the clues are given to the readers but almost all of their meanings are concealed, this makes the mystery look simple and easy to understand but actually the thinking may be very deep.Going on to the characters, the main characters are sherlock holmes, watson and scotland yard. Sherlock Holmes represents using logic to think going step by step and connecting things together. Watson represents emotional reliability, he is fearful about the danger that they may face. Also he tells the story as he experiences it.
Lastly, he cares more about people than the crimes, Holmes only does his detect, but Watson would care about the people getting robbed or other family members if one of them got killed. In Doyle’s The Speckled Band, Holmes discovers clues through careful observation of physical details, while in Chandler’s The Big Sleep, Marlowe uncovers clues by navigating dangerous conversations and criminal environments.
Next is the background of the story, a lot of times the background of the place is foggy, this links to the mystery, foggy and you can’t see the end of it. And also represents anxiety about crime.
Then there is the writing style of Doyle, he is very precise about the words and also conversational and a lot of dialogues between the characters, this lets the reader feel more engaging and understand more about the whole story. The core thinking of this type of mystery is “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains… must be the truth.” said by The Sign of Four (1890), p. 111 (varies by edition).
Raymond Chandler’s style of writing is another kind of murder mystery style, it is very different from Conan Doyle’s. Raymond Chandler’s is about the hard- boiled detective when Doyle focuses on logic, whereas Chandler focuses on atmosphere, emotion and more complexity. The story of Chandler’s is first person narrative, which is Phillip Marlowe, the narrator is not outside like Watson in Holmes mystery. And this reflects the immediate voice, event ,personality and attitude. Conan Doyle’s writing style controls emotion to support logic and order, as seen in The Hound of the Baskervilles, while Raymond Chandler’s style embraces emotions through voice, metaphor, and reflection to express moral uncertainty, as shown in The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye.
Going on to the type of story and the main theme. He doesn't just solve the mystery, the author believes that crime is a part of society, without crime what are the jails for, and not everyone is friendly. Next, wealth and wealth corruption are together, wealth can lead to corruption too, also the world is a place where justice is uncertain, when rich people pay more, they often win the court though they are the one who did the wrong things.
Conan Doyle presents crime as a disruption to an otherwise normal and orderly society, as seen in The Blue Carbuncle, where everyday life is quickly restored through logic. In contrast, Raymond Chandler portrays a dark world where corruption is already normal, as shown in The Big Sleep, in which crime is deeply connected to wealth, power, and society decay.
All of this is shown in Chandler’s mysteries. Next is about the plot of the story. A lot of the story’s plot is very messy. There are also some characters that seem to come out of nowhere, then just disappear like how it came. Also there are a lot of twisting parts of evidence and it is harder for people to think through.
Then going on to the character Phillip Marlowe himself, he is very intelligent and tough, though he is in some ways disappointed about the society, he is like the lone hero in the mystery. The one who doesn’t care about fame and money, what he only cares is the justice and unfairness between the society. Another thing that is confusing about the character is that he likes to make people pissed off a little bit, but not too hard, like stepping on the break at the last minute.
In Conan Doyle’s stories, the plot presents a mostly normal society disrupted by crime, and Holmes enters as an outside force to restore order, as seen in The Speckled Band and The Blue Carbuncle. In contrast, Raymond Chandler’s plot places Marlowe in a dark and corrupt world from the beginning, where crime is normal and detectives cannot fully fix what is broken, as shown in The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye.
Then there is the comparison between these two authors' writing. The first thing that I am going to compare is the detective method. Conan Doyle uses logic and deduction to solve mysteries, whereas Chandler’s uses more of experience and moral judgement than strict logic so the solution of Chandler’s mystery may be unclear in some ways. The next thing is the narrative voice. For Coana Doyle, his stories use other characters' voices to let the readers know what it is talking about, in his case it is Watson.
But in Raymond Chandler’s mysteries, it is Phillip Marlowe himself telling the story, this makes the story have first hand emotions and the events and reacts directly. Then is the language style, Conan Doyle’s mystery is more precise and clear, which makes it easier to understand. But the ones by Raymond Chandler are not that clear, and he uses some slang that is seldom heard right now.
This shows that Conan Doyle has more clarity of reasoning when Raymond Chandler focuses on personality. Conan Doyle’s writing tone is calm and orderly, using clear and precise language to reinforce the idea that crime could be understood and resolved, as seen in The Carbuncle and The Speckled Band. In contrast, Raymond Chandler uses a dark, cynical tone and poetic but harsh language, filled with slang and metaphor, to reflect a corrupt world in novels such as The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye.
Furthermore is the plot structure, Conan Doyle’s clues are more clear but may be hard to think, but it still clearly gave it to the readers. But most of the time, only in the end the answer of the clue would be revealed. Compared to Conan Doyle, Raymond Chandler is more confusing about the plot, some of it just jumped in and then jumped out in a short period of time, this makes the story contain more mystery pictures in it. Then is the view of society, in Conan Doyle’s mystery, those crimes are committed individually, and after that. The world can be in order again. The difference between these two authors is that Raymond Chandler’s mystery is more like an everyday job, crime gets committed, but it never stops, and never ends. This is where it is shown about the uncertainty of social justice, because of this, this kind of story may be more similar to the real world.
Next is the detective's personality, Sherlock Holmes is more confident and emotionally distant, and Watson in there has more feelings for normal citizens. But Phillip Marlowe, who is the detective by Raymond Chandler, is very lonely, moral. He is talented in detecting, but also cares about people. That is like a combination between Holmes and Watson. The last difference is the setting of the story and the atmosphere. Conan Doyle’s story is set in foggy streets which is similar to the mystery, polite society and mystery is under the calm usual world. Whereas Raymond Chandler’s mystery is very messy, the words they use are more straightforward and more of reality. That whatever the people do, crime still exists. Holmes' emotional distance and Watson’s empathy are clearly in The Speckle Band and The Hound of the Baskervilles, while Marlowe’s combination of intelligence, loneliness, and moral care appears in The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye, reflecting the darker and more realistic world of Chandler fiction.
Then there are the similarities between these two. I have four things to talk about. The first one is the figure of the main character. Both Marlowe and Holmes are strong and memorable characters that exist in different eras and different writing styles. They are both independent thinkers who don't just follow the rules of the society. The second thing is the crime and story foundation of these two. Both authors mainly focus on mystery crime, involving violence like fighting or using guns. And the plot of both stories starts with a problem that needs to be understood.
The third part is the investigative process, they both think and find evidence and combine it together to get the big picture of the crime and then get the criminal. Holmes uses physical details. Whereas Marlowe in The Big Sleep thinks of people’s behaviour and then decides. The last one is social reflection, both of the authors use this type of writing to reveal the truth of the society. Doyle uses hidden terrorists to show that the dark side of society is often very harsh and dangerous. Raymond Chandler mysteries reveal corruption in urban America in 1930s to 1950s.
Critical Thinking
What are some improvements you could make on this assignment?
For this semester, I did some research and writing about murder mystery, though some parts of my writing at first was not clear. But after the teacher gave us a lot of feedback, I made my writing flow easier. So the reader knows what I am talking about and what two things that I am comparing. Furthermore, I also did a lot of research about this topic, and how to really see and know a movie. Before this, I was just a student watching a movie having fun, but now I can know what the movie refers to and what type of society it reflects. For instance: movies from the 1940s often have a darker background than right now, because there was more chaos that was happening in that time.
How does this assignment connect to other work you've done in non-English classes?
This semester's work doesn’t just reflect in this class, it also helped us in some other classes like Geography. Because different themes make different feelings to the audience when they are seeing it. So we said a theme that is more sad in our geography project, which lets people feel about the society. Another place that it helped is that we need to write about the argumentative essay. In other classes, we sometimes also need to write some of those called argumentative essays or persuasive essays. Which is a lot of help because of this lesson. Also, in our PBL, we also need to do some research to back up our claims or show evidence so we could say what had happened and how we could help them. With the research skills that teachers teach us this semester, we had a more efficient and easier way to find those sources since we could give clear claims.
Growth
How does this assignment build on previous work you've done in previous years’ English classes?
This assignment reflects the whole semester. I learned a lot about those movies that were made in the 1940s. Because of the corrupted society, the movies are often darker. Also, with those movies, the teacher let us know a lot about movies, because those movies were earlier, so those important elements are more clear. After that we knew a lot about those plot structures and those elements. We started to write some essays about it, so I compared the style at that time and some that is more modern. Then the teacher gave us some feedback so I could polish it better, which makes me understand more of the movie itself when I am also improving my writing skills, which doesn’t make the essays feel boring.
How have you grown in your work/study habits in this assignment? How do you plan to grow in this area moving forward?
After I wrote all these essays, I changed some of my writing habits, such as being more patient with my writing. Also proof reading those papers that I wrote. Aside from that, I also started to split my homework into different days. Because 1200 words is too much at one time, so I would split it up into some pieces and see what day I need to finish this part and if I am on my schedule. I think that I could use some more professional writing using more formal words while cutting out some words that I used more than once. This not just helps me in school, in future movies, I would know easier what the movie is about and what the movie itself reflects.
How did feedback from your peers help you grow during the completion of this assignment?
My peers gave me some solid feedback like I need to cut my paragraphs into more pieces or it would be too messy for other readers to know what I am talking about, also cutting those paragraphs would make the flow easier and not too complicated. Next is that they also gave me some good ideas that I could compare with both Raymond Chandler and Conan Doyle. Some things like the character trait that refers society and how the story is told, is a very big difference. It contains different perspectives from different eras of people, and the way that people are thinking. Also they pointed out that sometimes my ideas were good but didn’t realy point out in those paragraphs, making it harder for people that don’t know what I am talking about have a lot of questions and felt boring about it.
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