Taylors Top 10 2011

This has been my first year submitting my work to Scribd. Before this I ran a very small blog that was totally dependent on traffic that I drummed up on a daily basis, so it was nice to get something going that at least got off the ground. In the beginning I had only submitted a single research paper about Imam Bukhari that I had written for a history class. My intention with Scribd originally was to put up school work in hopes of getting critiqued and preparing a portfolio for grad school. My love, understanding, and use of Scribd has since grown. After submitting many school-related works I started to branch out to personal work and because of the very encouraging environment created on this website I was comfortable enough to upload most of what I have written. The experience has been great. Not only have I been encouraged to read and write better, but I have been able to open up my horizons and explore writing in a relatively safe and beneficial space. I have also learned different techniques for increasing traffic, both techniques that are genuinely helpful and those which only make the numbers change. So, without further adieu, my top ten for this year, including descriptions and why I think they made the cut: #10: Together 278 reads This is a poem that I added on March 28th. I wrote it for my wife and it was one of the earliest poems I uploaded. Its basic premise is something my wife has always told me; that she wants to die first. This made me think its not so bad to die, whats worse is to be alone. It was encouraging to get feedback on it, and this helped boost its numbers as well. Aside from those two things I think the brevity and succinctness both add to its readability. #9: What is Global Justice? 298 reads I wrote this for last years Student Speaker Challenge, the topic of which was What is Global Justice? Sure, the title isnt creative, but I was the first person to perform the challenge in a spoken word poetic style, which was pretty creative. Aside from the style (which got me some points) I got 3rd place because the content is pretty solid as well, however it flies so much in the face of the judges (many of whom were politicians obviously in favour of the nationstate system) that I didnt think I had a shot at winning anyway. It has been moderately successful here for the same reasons, I think.

#8: CIA on Guatemala: Revolutions of 1944 312 reads This is the first thing in the top-ten list that I did not author. I found this (and many other declassified CIA docs) while doing a research project for a history class. This document is relatively long, but comes up with some good search key-words such as CIA, revolution, assassination, President, and other names and places important to history. It is also one of few declassified CIA documents on Scribd, so it has a novelty factor to go along with its utility as a research tool. #7: Kha Kha Kha 315 reads I think its funny that this got as many hits as it did. Its a short collection of Muslim jokes made by Muslims. Its only one page, and the jokes arent particularly funny, more novel. I was inspired to write this after hearing an Amish joke from an Amish guy, and collected the jokes from various sources, mostly friends. I think the fact that its short and quite unique contributes to how well it has done, and it was also published early in the year. #6: Awful Love 320 reads This poem was a really big hit when it was first published, but has since not seen much action. It alludes to an adulterous relationship, but intends relationship with God, which is an interesting and dangerous take. There are a few markers that point to a relationship with God and not another lover, but the most obvious and important one Is in the very end of the poem, which says well be together in my grave and not in our graves. Again, its brief, clean, and pretty easy to read. #5: Fading Wings 459 reads Im really glad this poem made it as far as it did. This is probably my favourite poem, it is very short and simply talks about that brief moment, less than an instant, when I saw my baby boy in the world for the first time, lying as though dead on the table, reaching for this world, but not yet fully in it. It is short, easy to read and understand, and has great emotional significance, especially for those who have shared the experience. #4: Bukhari: A Historian for our time 567 reads This is the first thing I ever submitted to Scribd, which slants its numbers a little, but it also is the most frequently appearing thing on my monthly top 5 list, indicating that its numbers are quite consistent. It is a research paper I wrote for a history class that comes to some rather stunning conclusions. The theories of historical method, and especially things taken for granted like oral history and source criticism, seem to be completely off base

and missing a massive amount of work. The hole is so big that there was no way I could explore it in any detail at all for such a small project. The conclusions of this work (the most important of which have not been published) are what I will be using to attempt to get into grad school, and if that fails Ill find a way to investigate them on my own. The work Is fairly large and obscure, but it is generally read consistently and all the way through, and I think this is partially because of its conclusions, and partially because of a strong modern movement within Islam to investigate and evaluate our doctrines and accepted history. #3: Unsung Fathers Day 636 reads In contrast to the previous work this one is brief and emotional. I wrote it on fathers day, and published it a day later. It took some time to catch on, but I think the message is well understood and people relate well to the broken home, an increasingly common phenomenon. Though it is largely pulled out of feelings and sympathy rather than personal experience the message is the same. #2: CIA Assassination Plots in Guatemala 768 reads I have a pretty simple theory for this one: get a good primary resource with lots of great key-words and stick a really eye-grabbing title on it that even non-academics will want to look into, and youre golden. Yes, this document actually chronicles real assassinations proposed and carried out by the CIA, yes it is right out of the lips of the CIA. Theres pretty much no way to go wrong with a document like that. #1: So Youre Going to Teach? 1396 reads This was a really once in a lifetime thing. I happened to be thinking about careers for history students, happened to be working as a mentor at the university. My next thought was t create a list of really cool-sounding jobs that people normally dont think of history students having to help alleviate performance anxiety for history students trying to get into the faculty of Education (at my school they need a whopping 3.8 GPA just to be considered). So I sat down and busied myself with that thing I like, research. Not only did I find some sweet jobs, but I also found that guidance councillors and career resource people are absolutely atrocious for this sort of thing, yes, they were the ones asking So youre going to teach? Finally I had enough, I decided to publish a big list of jobs for history students that are diverse and really cool. They range from spy to movie props designer, to multi-millionaire-consultant, oh yea, and teacher if thats what youre into. Theyre not just off the top of my head either, I got these ideas from real research of either finding examples in

individuals or consulting employers you know, stuff that career resources should be doing. Anyway, by no intention of my own I happened to publish this right around graduation time, so it got readcasted by none other than Scribd itself, which gave me 1000 of those hits in one day. Thanks Scribd! Youre the best!