Yep, that is the name of my essay :)

At the end of our year abroad, students are required to write a mini dissertation. I say mini....meaning 8000 words rather than 10,000 words. So not MINI. In fact, it will be the longest essay I have ever written.

I was desperately trying to come up with something to do with Sherlock or Doctor Who. And I have been watching Elementary a lot recently, with the excuse that it is 'research'. Literally till this morning I was going to do an essay comparing the twenty first century media interpretations of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic work - British vs American. (Let me tell you know, of course British (CUMBERBATCH) would have won. But hey ho. I didn't there would be enough literature or enough to really explore. I need references and historical sources as such for it to be even remotely gradable by Warwick. I have to get back into the Warwick mindset - hard flipping work. Here, if you work hard, you will get an A. Which is the way it should be, and a nice sensible way. In Warwick, if you work hard....you might scrap a 2.1. You have to work hard and go out of your way to do as much research as possible (I'm talking a two page bibliography for a 5 page essay) , get sources 'outside of the box' aka film interviews, primary sources you have uncovered at a museum, diary entries, etc, do something experimental with your essay (and Im not talking writing your own fictional account like what some people did for Carribean Literature first quarter) and have practically perfect grammar and spelling to just get a first....maybe. Even then it depends on the marking scheme of the teacher (I am not only talking about the humanities). Some teachers want you to argue a completely new point of view whereas love for you to be traditional. You have to figure them out...hopefully before crunch time.

Anyway, so to cut a long story short, I knew that the Sherlock thing wouldn't cut it as I didn't have enough background sources or interesting new ways of portraying the information - I would just harp on about Benedict Cumberbatch and his incredible acting.

So, in a weird circle way, I focused on the thing that actually made me pick San Diego. Seaworld. I wanted to be an animal trainer when I was younger. I wanted to work with the dolphins at Seaworld. Literally that was my dream. However, then Mum said I had to be a marine biologist (UTTER RUBBISH) and therefore that dream slowly slipped from my hands when a certain teacher because my biology teacher and biology became so very very dull.

So instead I decided to focus on some of the most controversial parts of Seaworld - animals in captivity - especially Shamu. There has been lots in the media about Killer whale attacks on trainers despite the fact they are not very frequent. But now Seaworld does not allow its trainers in the water with the animals. There is therefore a lot of information and different arguments for and against the creatures being in captivity and whilst I am here! Where better to do a research paper on the beautiful creatures. Laura was very smug about this when I told her as because she is against the Killer Whales being kept at Seaworld. She says I am "opening my mind". Hey, who said I didn't have an open mind before>???? We were discussing this earlier in the week. Open minds vs closed minds. I always think surely if one has a very stern opinion on something another person could call them closed mind. As long as you have an opinion someone could say you have a closed mind. So Laura (who I know reads this) I could say you have a closed mind for not researching Seaworld more and listening to the arguments for Seaworld :P Also lets not go into your job :P But in all seriousness I probably will call upon Laura for her opinion during my research as I know she has many strong emotions about this particular topic and all opinions are valid in my opinion.

Anyway, I hope this will be an interesting research paper. I have a feeling I will really enjoy doing it. I just also hope I can separate myself enough from my research so as to not a) blindly argue Seaworld is amazing no matter what the evidence or b) get emotional affected to the point I can never enjoy Seaworld again.

Wish me luck :) x