Process Paper

I have always had a love for Tolkien’s works and Peter Jackson’s adaptations. My teacher told
my class to pick something that we are passionate about or at least interested in. I immediately
thought of Middle Earth and easily found connections between it and the theme. I love Tolkien’s
works and though it is quite easy to find sources on them. I had to find a pinpoint topic within
my interest in Middle Earth. I knew that Tolkien created his lore around the languages and
dialects that he had created, but that only acted as a contributor. After a bit more research I found
what language creation contributed to, world creation.

I went to the appendices in Lord of the Rings and watched the parts about the history of the lore.
It explained the process and conditions of Tolkien’s writing. Some of my research questions
were about the effect of Tolkien’s works on fantasy literature, the barrier between fiction and
reality, and the effect of language creation on immersiveness of a text. I decided on my sources
by looking for professors with a connection to JRR Tolkien. I read through the texts and
references in the back of books and letters from Tolkien. There are multiple books and texts on
Tokien’s works alone, some written by his biographer and by his son. SPeaking of his son, I
looked into Christopher Tolkienand found a few more sources that he used to finish/continue the
lore. There is a specific compilation of information on Middle Earth that Christopher Tolkien
used to continue unfinished work from his father. My topic went back and forth between a few
main ideas, those being; a focus on language creation, an overall world creation, and the bringing
in of personal experiences in a text. The type of information I gathered was mainly papers,
letters, and texts from professors who focussed on Tolkien and his text. I knew of a few people
who had books and papers on Tolkien and I had owned some of said books. My research was
quite easy, because I knew exactly what I was looking for.
I continued my research and found myself sorting through my sources and trying to find more.
The sections really helped me decide what to find. The questions guided me to find new sources
and evidence to support my thesis.
My topic relates to the theme by showing the connection between fiction and reality. The fiction
being JRR Tolkien's works. My topic shows that one work can change how people perceive
fiction. The different elements that Tolkien put into these works, like language creation and
bringing in historical moments, brings readers into the world of Middle Earth. Tolkien’s works
inspired filmmaker Peter Jackson to create adaptations of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit,
creating Middle Earth in the country of New Zealand. Tolkien’s creations allowed other people
to break the barrier between fiction and reality. World creation in author Robert Foster’s Wheel
of Time series was heavily inspired by Tolkien’s own. People like Verlyn Fletcher and Tom
Shippey have based part of their careers on Tolkien and his works. Tolkien’s work in fantasy
literature not only crept into reality by itself, but through other people’s work. Maps of Middle
Earth and Britain are merged together to see similarities between land masses. Plate tectonics
explain the reason that the maps don’t match up perfectly. Land masses move overtime and
become different shapes. The way that Tolkien writes is that of a scribe. He writes of a world
that exists and is being told to new people. Tolkien himself said that he imagined Middle Earth to
exist about 6000 years ago.

I chose the website, because I like to visually represent information. I not only take in
information better in this way, but I find visually creating things enjoyable. If I had more time, I
would have liked to do an exhibit. But, a website is easier to manage and to finish. Building my
website was quite simple, for I know how to use the software to build my website. I also
prepared everything beforehand on a separate document. This made everything easier to manage.
I organized everything in a way that made it easy to transfer the information directly onto the
website. The only thing I had to do from there was formatting.