Romeo and Juliet

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Romeo and Juliet

• Love and Romance Attitude Analysis

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Romeo and Juliet

• The first step in this analysis is to review
  your survey results to determine what is
  potentially the most interesting or important
  information. This could be a response that
  generated near-unanimous agreement or
  disagreement, or one that illustrated a wide
  debate. Review your survey summaries.

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Romeo and Juliet

• To get the paper started, choose one response to
  focus on here, lets choose the love at first
  sight question.
• Lets say your results showed that most
  respondents disagreed with the notion of love at
  first sight.

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Romeo and Juliet

• That one result will get the paper going (you
  will discuss two or three other results later in
  the paper).
• Now, we need to craft an introduction or
  opening. Lets review three types of journalistic
  leads summary, descriptive, and anecdotal.

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Romeo and Juliet

• A summary opening gets right to the heart of
  the story, right away, with the most interesting
  or important information.
• Example
• Love at first sight is not only impossible but
  also highly undesirable, especially for
  teenagers, according to a survey exploring a key
  theme of William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet.

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Romeo and Juliet

• A descriptive opening re-creates a scene and may
  build to a punch line
• Example
• Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl.
  Boy marries girl all within the space of a few
  hours.

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Romeo and Juliet

• The anecdotal opening includes a little story (a
  vignette) to help illustrate the bigger topic.
• Example
• When Erin Swanson was five years old, she
  pledged to never love a boy more than the
  blonde-haired, blue-eyed prince who sat next to
  her in kindergarten.
• I thought he was so choice, said Swanson, now
  a freshman at Wayzata High School. I knew the
  minute I saw him that he would be mine. Oh yes,
  he would be mine.
• Ten years later, Swanson has jettisoned both
  her prince, whom she actually dismissed a week
  after she met him, and the belief that love at
  first sight is possible.

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Romeo and Juliet

• Now the key is to build on whatever opening you
  choose by providing more information about your
  opening and your findings (the survey).
• Lets re-visit the summary opening

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Romeo and Juliet

• Love at first sight is not only impossible but
  highly undesirable, especially for teenagers,
  according to a survey exploring a key theme of
  William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet.
• Ninety percent of those surveyed indicated that
  love at first sight just doesnt happen,
  especially not between two young teenagers who
  surely dont even know what love is.
• The survey was administered to a range of age
  groups made up of both genders, and included
  questions about love, romance, and marriage. The
  contemporary responses were then compared to the
  prevailing attitudes of the key characters in
  Shakespeares tale of the two young,
  star-crossed lovers.

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Romeo and Juliet

• Lets do the same thing with the descriptive
  introduction
• Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl.
  Boy marries girl all within the space of a few
  hours.
• What seemed perfectly normal for Romeo and
  Juliet, the star-crossed protagonists of William
  Shakespeares tragedy of the same name, would be
  seen as highly improbable, if not utterly weird,
  today, according to the results of a recent
  survey on love, romance, and marriage.

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Romeo and Juliet

• Now lets try with the anecdotal opening
• When Erin Swanson was five years old, she
  pledged to never love a boy more than the
  blonde-haired, blue-eyed prince who sat next to
  her in kindergarten.
• I thought he was so choice, said Swanson, now
  a freshman at Wayzata High School. I knew the
  minute I saw him that he would be mine. Oh yes,
  he would be mine.
• Ten years later, Swanson has jettisoned both
  her prince, whom she actually dumped a week
  after she met him, and the belief that love at
  first sight is possible.

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Romeo and Juliet

• He was the classic case of nice house
  nobody home, Swanson said. I learned that
  love at first sight is a fools paradise.
• Swansons dismissal of the notion of love at
  first sight is mirrored in a recent survey on
  love, romance, and marriage, administered to a
  range of age groups of both genders as part of a
  study of William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet.
• An overwhelming majority of respondents
  indicated love at first sight is impossible,
  especially between two young teenagers who surely
  dont even know what love is.

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Romeo and Juliet

• A key thing to remember No matter what type of
  opening you choose, dont wait too long to
  establish that your paper is about the survey.
  Again, this is your controlling purpose or
  the thesis that tells the reader what the paper
  is going to discuss or reveal. Dont make the
  reader wait too long to find out.

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Romeo and Juliet

• Now that weve established the controlling
  purpose of our paper the survey results we
  can start filling it in with more information.
  Lets return to the last points of our most
  recent example
• Swansons dismissal of the notion of love at
  first sight is mirrored in a recent survey on
  love, romance, and marriage, administered to a
  range of age groups of both genders as part of a
  study of William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet.
• An overwhelming majority of respondents
  indicated love at first sight is impossible,
  especially between two young teenagers who surely
  dont even know what love is.

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Romeo and Juliet

• Now we can add more information, including a
  second result from the survey and a comparison to
  the play itself
• Ninety percent of respondents also indicated
  you can be too young to fall in love.
• That response represents a 180-degree
  difference from those expressed in fair Verona
  more than 500 years ago in the world of Romeo and
  Juliet. Juliets mother, Lady Capulet, doesnt
  even flinch at the idea of her 13-year-old
  daughter getting married. In fact, she encourages
  it, as noted in this passage from the play
• Younger than you, here in Verona, ladies of
  esteem, are made already mothers, Lady Capulet
  tells Juliet (1.3.75-78).

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Romeo and Juliet

• Now, we can add another survey result and a
  comment from one of your respondents.
• Most contemporary 14- or 15-year-olds surveyed
  said, No way.
• I think thats disgusting, and I dont agree
  with it, said Katie Johnston, a WHS sophomore.
  And its disturbing so disturbing that (any
  girl) who is thinking about getting married at 13
  should go see a counselor.

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Romeo and Juliet

• Now, we can add another comment from the survey,
  this time from another age group.
• Johnstons mother, Anne Johnston, echoed those
  sentiments.
• Back in old times it was a common thing, she
  said. Nowadays, I think its ludicrous. I think
  even age 18 is ludicrous.

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Romeo and Juliet

• You can even add a dissenting opinion from your
  results
• The lone respondent in favor of love and
  marriage at such an early age, 15-year-old
  Natalie Crosby indicated she would have no
  problem with marrying 24-year-old actor Zac
  Efron, who coincidentally bears a striking
  resemblance to actor Leonard Whiting, who
  portrays Romeo in the 1968 film version of the
  play.
• Id prefer Johnny Depp, said Crosby. But you
  have to draw the age line somewhere. Its just so
  hard to choose. Theyre both so dreamy.