Feedback on Paper Proposals

1
Feedback on Paper Proposals

• ENGL 305
• Dr. Fike

2
How You Got Graded

• Did you have 2 FULL pages?
• Did you show me that you had read your play?
• Did you present a focused topic?
• Did you start chipping away at that topic?

3
Frequency of Topics

• Were okay on this. The proposals were not
  concentrated on any one play.

4
Focus

• Area of inquiry The Tempest
• Topic Caliban as a native American
• Focus Caliban and alcohol
• Thesis The way Stefano and Trinculo give
  Caliban alcohol illustrates the dark side of
  Europeans colonization of North America.

5
Avoid Plot Summary

• You do not have to retell the story.
• Narrative details should appear in your papers to
  support critical points.
• Such details do not belong in your papers for
  their own sake.

6
Things To Remember To Do

• Italicize or underline play titles.
• Print only on one side of the page.
• Quotations longer than 3 lines of verse must be
  set off with double indentation but without
  quotation marks .
• Quotations 3 lines or fewer may be woven into
  your text, as follows.

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How To Quote Helena

• She says, Things base and vile, holding no
  quality, / Love can transpose to form and
  dignity (1.1.232-33).
• Also acceptable dignity (I.i.232-33).
• Notes
• Use a forward slash mark to indicate the line
  break. Put a space on either side of the slash
  mark.
• Put a space after the closing quotation mark,
  then the citation, then the period.
• In the citation, use periods, not commas or
  spaces.

8
Correct This

• Through Athens I am thought as fair as she,
  (Shakespeare, 153).
• The line comes from act one, scene one, line 227.

9
Corrected Version

• Through Athens I am thought as fair as she
  (MSND 1.1.227).
• OR
• Through Athens I am thought as fair as she
  (MSND I.i.227).
• Note, however, that you can omit MSND or Dream if
  it is obvious that youre quoting from that
  specific play.

10
This Citation Is NOT Acceptable

• He says, The eye of man hath not heard, the ear
  of man hath not seen, mans hand is not able to
  taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to
  report, what my dream was. (173)
• POINTS
• Give act, scene, and line numbers.
• Do not give page numbers.
• Put the period after the citation.

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Stuff To Remember, continued

• Minimize the use of this as a transitional
  device.
• Put closing quotation marks outside the period
  like this.
• Do not split infinitives. For example, do not
  say to later fulfill something.
• Do not use yucky phrases like it may be argued
  that something is the case. Wordy.

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More Stuff

• Do not use quote as a noun in ENGL 305. Use
  quotation.
• Do not say as when you mean because or
  since.
• Write about literature in PRESENT tense.
• Do not talk about society, especially todays
  society.
• Do not use contractions.
• Say toward rather than towards.

13
Spelling Test

• Which is the correct spelling?
• Playright
• Playwrite
• Playwright

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Answer

• PlayWRIGHT, like shipWRIGHT.

15
Still More Stuff

• Use that after verbs of cognition like think,
  believe, feel, and know. Also use it wherever
  clarity will benefit.
• Get straight on that vs. which the latter
  requires a preceding comma and introduces
  nonessential information. With that, do not
  use a preceding comma because the word introduces
  essential information.
• Also use that to introduce independent clauses.
• Examples
• I thought THAT Bottom was a stronger and much
  deeper character than his roleallowed him to
  be.
• Bottoms main problem is THAT he is overly
  charismatic about everything.

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Pronoun Agreement

• Each takes a singular pronoun.
• Example The group project will consist of four
  students, each assigned his/her own task. Not
  THEIR own task.

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How To Use Like

• Like does not introduce a clause (i.e., a group
  of words having a subject and a verb).
• Like introduces nouns.
• Examples
• Incorrect I feel like it was essential.
• Correct I feel THAT it was essential.
• Correct I feel AS IF it were essential.
• Correct I feel like a freshman right now.

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Do Not Feel in Your Papers

• What to say instead think.

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Avoid Passive Constructions

• It is a depiction of passion in its extremity
  and the hazards posed by such unbridled passion.
  The passion of the lovers in the main play is
  reflected in the inner work.
• Revise this.
• Advice Make the subject the subject.

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Revision

• Unbridled passion is hazardous to the lovers.
• OR
• The play depicts the hazards of the lovers
  unbridled passion.

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Oxford English Dictionary

• Use definitions that are historically accurate.
• I dont want anybody to cite Websters.

22
Works Cited List

• Every proposal was supposed to have one it was
  in the directions.
• Every assignment from now on MUST have a W.C.
  list.
• Of those who DID have a W.C. list, not one of you
  did it correctly.

23
Fix This

• Shakespeare, William. Macbeth The
• Complete Works of Shakespeare 5
• (2004) 1255- 1292. Ed. David Bevington.
  New York Pearson Education Inc.

24
Corrected Version

• Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. The
• Complete Works of Shakespeare.
• Ed. David Bevington. 5th ed. New
• York Pearson Education, 2004.
• 1255-92. Print.

25
Fix This (paper is on MSND and Macbeth)

• Bevington, David. The Complete
• Works of Shakespeare.
• Ed. 5.
• Chicago, IL. The University of Chicago. 2004.
  1005-1050.

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Corrected Version

• Bevington, David. The Complete Works of
• Shakespeare. 5th ed. New York
• Pearson Education, 2004. Print.
• Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Bevington
  1005-50.
• ---. A Midsummer Nights Dream.
• Bevington 148-79.

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What I Expect

• If your W.C. list has glitches that you do not
  understand, come see me.
• If your citations and/or W.C. list are incorrect
  on subsequent assignments, I will deduct up to 1
  point.
• On your analysis paper, you should have at least
  your play on the W.C. list.

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What About Criticism?

• Do not read criticism yetit will poison the
  well.
• Depending on your topic, it is okay to read
  primary or secondary sources that provide
  background information.
• Example Someone is writing about Feste, the
  fool in Twelfth Night. I suggested Erasmuss The
  Praise of Folly. Thus she would have her play
  and Erasmuss book on her W.C. list.

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Analysis Papers

• The assignment will work best if you zero in on a
  substantial passage related to your topic.
• Example Someone is writing about the animal
  imagerysnake and lionin AYLI. For the analysis
  paper, she will look really closely at the
  details in this scene.
• Why a snake and a lion?
• Why a maternal lion?
• What is the significance of Orlandos actions?
• What are the antecedents/interpretations of snake
  and lion in mythology, psychology, and the Bible?
• What connections can be made between the key
  passage and other details in the play? Example
  Orlando as Hercules, Herculess fight with the
  Nemean lion.
• What do the snake and the lion suggest about
  Orlandos relationship with Rosalind?