First time I post here.
I have never pay attention to my grammar, as I don't have to mess with writing too much in my math classes, and my history professor rarely gives me problem on my grammars, they only care about the proofs.
But now I'm working on the honor thesis for my history degree, and the professor is cracking down on the gammar thingy. Please revise my paper and let me know how I can improve my writing.
Thank you!
KK
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Thesis Review: A
Gooney Bird in the Hornet’s Nest -
Carolina’s Historical Aviation Commission’s
Douglas DC-3
By Kenyon Travis Lail
Kenyon
Lail was a student in the University
of North Carolina at Charlotte
whom had completed History Honor Program. In his honor thesis, A Gooney Bird in the Hornet’s Nest, Lail has detail the early days
of aviations, the difficulties that the early aviators faced, as well as the
influences and impacts from the political and economic aspects during the
course of development. Furthermore, the
author has focuses on the struggle of commercial flights, the quest of a dream
trip for any average person to be realized.
In particular, the author had argued that the Douglas DC-3, an aircraft
known for its capacity and stability made famous by its wide use during WWII,
had provided the commercial airline business with a rarely suitable aircraft
for their use, and greatly enhance the realization of air travels.
The author of Gooney Bird has provides extensive knowledge over the building of
commercial aviation in the United States. Starting with the early days of aviations, in
which was carefully examined by the author, whom points out that the lack of
comfort, the limitation of capacities, mixing with the unusually high cost, had
prevented the growth of commercial flights, with only a few selective elites
being able to enjoy air travels.
Furthermore, for those whom could afford air travel would certainly
preferred other modes of transportation such as trains and ships, that could offered
much higher quality of service. The only
sell point of flights being speed. A
factor that would be largely enhanced by the governments, as pointed out by the
author, for the sake of making war.
The
thesis is well defined in Gooney Bird, as the author has clearly emphasis
on his argument that the Douglas DC-3 aircraft is the founding symbol of
flight, provided aids for the Piedmont Airlines in its building, and most
importantly, promoted the development of commercial passenger air service. The author has demonstrates detailed
knowledge of the technical aspect of the aircraft, and use it to strength his
claim of how the DC-3 had provided what the other early aircrafts could not,
namely the stability and capacity that are essential towards creating a
civilian airline. Furthermore, the
Douglas DC-3’s importance has been claimed by the author as representing flying
in not only for pleasure, but also in business as well as military use for an
entire generation.
The
author has takes advantage of chronic natural in his thesis. He has provides readers with an extensive
amount of background information of aviation, such as the innovations that lead
to the first flight and the early public response towards this new invention. Then the author gives a general picture of
the developments from early experimental flights, into military/elite dominated
air transportations, into the near modern days of commercial/business
flights. During the narration of flight
developments, the author has describes the influential factors that had been
dominating early aviations, from state building that requires the integration
of flights into the military, comforts were often being ignored while all
researches were dedicated to enhancing capacity and speed. Although the interventions of government had
initialized a constant flow of fund towards aviation developments, it had,
however, also placed military purpose into top priority in expense of comfort
and cost, things that are necessary for the creating a private airline. The author then has shown the readers the technical
advantages of the Douglas DC-3, and how it had suited to become the model
aircraft compatible with commercial airlines.
An
interesting fact of this thesis is the author’s ability to draw multimedia
sources into his project. Even through
the main sources that he used to construct his thesis were the books that the
author gathered, especially the works of The
Legacy of the DC-3 and Turbulent
Skies: The History of Commercial Aviation; however, a great deal of
information the author uses were drew from sources in which students usually
overlook, such as oral interviews and video recordings. A number of personnel with knowledge of the
DC-3 were interviewed by the author, most of them are in some way related to
the Carolinas Aviation Museum, including Scott Edwards, a pilot for US Airways
and the chief pilot of the museums; Vicki Haren, a former Piedmont employee;
and most significantly, Shawn Dorsch, whom had served on the Board of Trustees
at the Carolinas Historical Aviation Commission. These interviews had greatly strengthen the
author’s claims as they held the key to first hand experiences, in which the
words of the interviewees can allow the author to examine how aviation had
evolved through out the years, helping the readers to understand how the public
reacted to flights, how the first private airlines was started, and how
importance was the DC-3, all from the people directly involved.
A
secondary source that the author has use in Gooney
Bird was video recordings, through not much in number, contented with only
two DVDs of The flight of the Pacemaker
and The Plane That Changed the World,
these usual sources of information had nevertheless provided the author an
easier way to organize his thesis structure, and possible aided both the author
and the readers in our quest to understand the thesis through the use of visual
and sounds. As it should be noted, some
technical information of aviation cannot be easily described with words, such
as the actual stability during the flight and some critical mechanisms of the
machine. The clever use of DVDs by the
author had compensated these weaknesses.
There are, however, still rooms for
improvement in Gooney Bird. Although the Douglas DC-3 has been lay out in
details in the thesis in terms of its technical characteristics and its impact
onto aviation developments; not enough information is being offered regarding
aircrafts during the days of the DC-3 for comparison. Even through a few early aircrafts were
mentioned, along with a comparison between DC-3 and modern days aircrafts, it
might have strengthen the author’s claim if he could provide the readers some
counter-examples of aircrafts that were potential rivals of DC-3, and show how
they were unable to match DC-3 in terms of being a model aircraft for
commercial flights.
On
the other hand, I do not see the benefit of having the chapter of “Restoration
Project” in this thesis. Although it
does allow the readers to see the symbolism provided by the DC-3 and how people
are trying to revive it, it would serve the thesis better had it been included
in the introductions as the opening of the glorious days of the DC-3 buried in
the minds of those whom tried to revive it.
It can be said that this chapter is clearly out of place.
Despite
the shortcomings, Gooney Bird had
provided readers with a defined thesis, a strong structure, and plenty of
evidences, drew from varies type of sources, to support the author’s claims. The author had explored the early days of
aviation, shown the rough path that commercial flights were built upon, and the
unique role that the Douglas DC-3 had played.
Through Gooney Bird, with the
skillful use of rare sources, readers get a feel of the first hand experience
of this magnificent aircraft that allowed average civilians to enjoy the
pleasure of air travels.