I apologize in advance for this post being so tardy. This week was another productive week outside of the weekend, which I hoped would be more productive. On Monday, I followed up on my promise to review the last Evening Bulletin materials for Monument Cemetery at Special Collections. Now I have all that I need when I write down the paragraphs for my case studies. As a matter of fact, three of the four case studies are right where they need to be outside of tying loose ends. The only one that has yet to be completed is Union Burial Ground, but I have the necessary research I need to complete this research by the first Mini-Draft. Monday was the most productive day this week. Wednesday was the longest I spent at Special Collections thus far at three and a half hours. There were some more productive developments, including finding a student-run documentary about Monument Cemetery done last year. That was the inspiration behind this project, and it will be of great benefit to utilize it going forward. It also features Thomas Keels, the author of “Philadelphia Graveyards and Cemeteries.” He makes great points about cemetery removal that will help me build onto my argument. I may reach out to him for assistance if time allows. The latter part of the week saw me work more secondary sources into my writing for the first time in a while. This happened because I focused on my primary research for the past few weeks. If I can find a way to combine primary and secondary materials I feel like I will be in good shape in that department.
In the week ahead I will be more limited with time, but it is not my intent to let this stop me. I would like to incorporate a current events section into the last portion of my paper. I know what I want to write, but it is about putting my thoughts into paragraphs at this point. The same can be said about my still not fully developed introduction and conclusion, but these areas are slightly foggier. I would like to open my paper on the Presbyterian Cemetery that was removed in the 1920s to make way for the Ben Franklin Bridge. Unfortunately I do not have enough information to include it in my first mini-draft. Now that I have more direction in my paper, though, I can more easily write a satisfactory conclusion. I plan to put more thoughts into words over the next three days and seek help if needed. Then I will prepare for the next draft later in the week. I hope it can be another productive week for this project.