Feedback on Paper Proposals

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?

Frequency of Topics

• 10 of you picked MSND.• 4 of you picked Helena’s problematic speech.• Several of you picked Bottom’s dream.• 4 of you picked Kate’s final speech in The Taming of the

Shrew.• A lot of you obviously picked MSND because you had

not taken the time to read around in the other plays.• PROBLEM: It is not in your best interest to write the

same paper as 3 other people.• Therefore, I encourage some of you to change topics.

Things To Remember To Do

• Italicize or underline play titles.• Print only on one side of the page.• Get straight on the difference between “its”

and “it’s.” The latter means “it is.”• 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.

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.

This Citation Is NOT Acceptable

• He says, “The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s 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.

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.

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

“today’s society.” • Do not use contractions. • Say “toward” rather than “towards.”

Spelling Test

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

Answer

• PlayWRIGHT, like shipWRIGHT.

Still More Stuff

• Use “that” after verbs of cognition like think, believe, feel, and know.

• Also use “that” to introduce independent clauses.

• Examples:– “I felt THAT Bottom was a stronger and much deeper

character than his role…allowed him to be.”– “Bottom’s main problem is THAT he is overly

charismatic about everything….”

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.

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.

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.”

• Advice: Make the subject the subject.

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