ENGL 4313/5583: Shakespeare: Tragedies                  Fall 2008                                  Mercer

 

FINAL ESSAY EXAM

 

Assigned Topic

Write a well-developed essay that develops an original, focused thesis on the topic of family relationships in Shakespeare’s tragedies.  The purpose of the essay is to demonstrate your comprehensive understanding of all eight (8) assigned tragedies.

 

Your essay could discuss relationships between one (1) or more of the following:

  • Husbands and wives (could include common-law couples such as Antony and Cleopatra)
  • Parents (or stepparents) and children (or stepchildren)
    • Fathers and sons
    • Fathers and daughters
    • Mothers and sons
    • Mothers and daughters
  • Siblings
    • Brothers
    • Sisters
    • Brothers and sisters
  • Uncles (or aunts) and nephews (or nieces)
  • Cousins
  • Relatives by marriage (in-laws)

 

One (1) or more of the following questions might help you focus the thesis of your essay:

  1. What happens in the family relationships?  Is the plot concerning one type of relationship usually different from the plot concerning another type of relationship?  Within one type of relationship (such as brother-sister relationships), are particular scenarios repeated from play to play?
  2. What is the quality of the family relationships?  Are the relationships close or distant, nurturing or destructive, supportive or combative?
  3. What are the main problems in the family relationships?  What are the primary strengths of the family relationships?
  4. What is the quantity of the family relationships?  How frequently do the plays depict one kind of relationship as opposed to another?  What can you gather from the frequency or infrequency with which a relationship is depicted? 
  5. How fully developed are the family relationships in the plays?  Are they flat or round, one-dimensional or complex, believable or unbelievable?
  6. What functions do the family relationships serve in the plays?
  7. What stereotypes about family relationships do the plays depict?
  8. What universal truths and/or psychological insights do the family relationships reveal?  (I especially like this approach.)
  9. In what categories can the family relationships be placed?
  10. What attitudes toward family relationships do the plays reveal?

 

 Instructions for Writing Essay

 

  1. MANUSCRIPT FORM
    1. Use Times New Roman 12 as your font.
    2. Default margins in Word are 1.25 inches.  Change your margins to one (1) inch on all four sides of the page.  Because you are allowed a maximum of four (4) pages for your essay, you should not need to reduce your margins to less than one (1) inch.
    3. Double-space the entire essay.  Do NOT leave extra spaces between paragraphs.
    4. Indent each paragraph one-half inch from the left margin.
    5. Use left (NOT right or full) justification.
    6. Omit the usual four-line heading from the upper left of the first page.  Instead, insert your nine-digit SSN (followed by one space) and the page number as a header in the upper right of each page, beginning with page 1.  To protect the security of your SSN, you may transpose or otherwise falsify the first five (5)  numbers as long as the last four (4) are correct. Because I don’t want to know whose essay I am grading, please do NOT put your name anywhere on the essay.

 

  1. OUTSIDE HELP 
    1. Work independently.  This is not a group project; do not collaborate with your classmates.  Do not submit an essay that is like a classmate’s in content or organization.
    2. This is not a research paper; do NOT consult outside sources.  Plagiarism of the words or ideas of sources will result in your receiving an “F” or a “0” on the essay.    
    3. For best results, get feedback from me on your thesis and main points and later on a complete draft.  The best way to get feedback on a complete draft is to make an appointment to discuss your essay with me during my office hours.  Usually I am able to respond to complete drafts by e-mail only from Friday afternoons through Sunday afternoons.  The deadline for submitting complete drafts by e-mail (cut and pasted, NOT by attachment) for my feedback is Sunday, December 14, at 2 p.m.  You may continue to ask questions by e-mail after that time, and I will respond to drafts in hard copy during my office hours on December 15-17.  

 

  1. TITLE
    1. Give your essay a title that clearly and specifically reflects

                                                               i.      the content of the essay and especially key words or concepts of the thesis.

                                                             ii.      the literary texts you’re writing about (Shakespeare’s tragedies). 

    1. Do NOT underline or italicize the title of your own essay or place it in quotation marks. 
    2. Capitalize the first letter of the first word, the last word, and all other words in your title EXCEPT for articles (a, an, the), prepositions (throughout, between, to, for, in), coordinate conjunctions (and, but, or), and to when used with infinitives.

 

  1. THESIS
    1. Clearly and concisely state an original, insightful, focused thesis as the only (or last) sentence in a separate opening paragraph.
    2. Optional:  If you choose to list in your thesis the main points you will cover in the body of the essay, list them all in one (1) sentence and in the same order in which they will appear in the body of the essay.    
    3. Be sure the thesis states the one idea that the body of the essay actually supports.
    4. Beyond a statement of thesis, no other introduction is desired or necessary.  Use your limited space to develop the body of the essay. 

 

  1. ORGANIZATION OF BODY
    1. Organize the body of the essay into at least three (3) and no more than about five  (5) or six (6) paragraphs.     
    2. Be sure that your body paragraphs do not illogically overlap each other.  (For example, a body paragraph on “aggressive brothers” would overlap one on “rival brothers.”)   
    3. Begin each body paragraph with a topic sentence that covers the entire paragraph (and therefore does NOT refer only to the first play discussed in the paragraph).

 

  1. DEVELOPMENT OF BODY PARAGRAPHS 
    1. In each body paragraph, support your assertions with brief, very specific, and logically appropriate references to the assigned tragedies. 
    2. In each body paragraph, integrate references to as many assigned tragedies and family relationships as are relevant (at least three (3) assigned tragedies per body paragraph).  
    3. In the essay as a whole, discuss all eight (8) assigned tragedies.  (“Negative evidence” is acceptable: A statement that a play does NOT depict a particular type of family relationship counts as a reference to the play.)
    4. Refer to the plays in your own words and in very brief quotations integrated into your paragraphs.  Do NOT quote more than three (3) lines of poetry at a time.
    5. Be sure to correctly spell the names of characters. 
    6. To save space, throughout the essay you may use and underline the standard MLA abbreviations for the titles of the plays (Tit., Rom., JC, Ham., Oth., Lr., Mac., and Ant.), or, if you prefer, you may use one-word abbreviations (Titus, Romeo, Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, Lear, Macbeth, and Antony).   
    7. When you refer to the plots and characters in your own words, use present tense verbs. When you quote, leave verb tense as it is in the play.

 

  1. DOCUMENTATION:  Observe MLA form for quotations and parenthetical documentation.  (The quotations below are italicized only to make them stand out.  Do NOT italicize the quotations in your paper.)
    1. Smoothly introduce and integrate all quotations into your essay.  Do NOT just begin quoting at the beginning of your sentence.  (See examples below.)

 

    1. Always quote accurately.  Any changes you make within quotations must be placed inside square brackets, NOT parentheses.

 

    1. Immediately after each brief quotation, use all Arabic numerals to document in parenthesis the act, scene, and line numbers.

Like this:  Under the influence of the love potion, Demetrius calls Helena “goddess, nymph, perfect, divine” (3.2.137).

NOT: Under the influence of the love potion, Demetrius calls Helena “goddess, nymph, perfect, divine” (III.ii.137).

 

    1. Do NOT use act, scene, and/or line numbers to introduce quotations. 

NOT:  In act 3, scene 2, line 137, Demetrius calls Helena “goddess, nymph, perfect, divine.”

 

    1. When parenthetical documentation immediately follows quotation marks, drop the punctuation mark at the end of the quotation (with the exception of a question mark or exclamation point), and after the parenthetical documentation place the punctuation your own sentence requires. 

Like this: Rosalind bluntly advises Phebe, “Sell when you can, you are not for all markets” (3.5.60).

NOT: Rosalind bluntly advises Phebe, “Sell when you can, you are not for all markets.” (3.5.60)

Like this: Feste asks Olivia, “Good madonna, why mourn’st thou?” (1.5.67).

NOT: Feste asks Olivia, “Good madonna, why mourn’st thou” (1.5.67)?  

 

    1. Leave one space between closing quotation marks and opening parenthesis.

Like this: Feste asks Olivia,“Good madonna, why mourn’st thou?” (1.5.67).

NOT: Feste asks Olivia, “Good madonna, why mourn’st thou?”(1.5.67).  

 

    1. When you quote two (2) or three (3) lines (maximum) of poetry consecutively, place a slash mark (preceded and followed by one space) to show where one line ends and the next line begins.  Do NOT use a slash mark, however, between quoted lines of prose.

Like this: Olivia admits that Orsino is “virtuous,  . . . noble, / Of great estate, of fresh and stainless youth” (1.5.258-59).   

NOT: Olivia admits that Orsino is “virtuous,  . . . noble, Of great estate, of fresh and stainless youth” (1.5.258-59).   

NOT: Olivia admits that Orsino is “virtuous,  . . . noble,/Of great estate, of fresh and stainless youth” (1.5.258-59).   

 

  1. CONCLUSION
    1. Conclude the essay with a one- or two-sentence paragraph that restates the thesis (in different words).
    2. No other conclusion is necessary.  Use your limited space to develop the body of the essay.

 

  1. LENGTH
    1. The essay should be no shorter than three (3) full typed, double-spaced pages and no longer than four (4) pages. 
    2. Essays shorter than three (3) full pages will NOT receive a satisfactory grade.

 

 

  1. LIST OF WORKS CITED
    1. On a separate page after the essay, list (in any order)

                                                               i.      the titles (or abbreviations of the titles) of the plays to which you refer in your essay

                                                             ii.      the number of times you refer to each play

    1. At end of your list, report the total number of plays discussed in your essay (8 required) and the total number of times you refer to each play.

 

  1. EDITING AND PROOFREADING
    1. Edit your draft to ensure that the sentences are clear, smooth, and logical.
    2. Before you print the final version of your paper, proofread carefully and use spell-check. 
    3. After you have printed the paper, carefully proofread it again.  If you can=t reprint, make corrections in black or blue ink.

 

  1. SUBMISSION OF ESSAY
    1. Staple the pages of your essay in front of the works-cited page.
    2. Because this is a final exam, your essay will not be returned to you.  For this reason, you do not need to submit a copy of this document with the essay.
    3. Submit your essay in class at 7:20 p.m. on December 18.  Because this is the last day of final-exam week, you must submit your essay on time.  

 

Criteria for Grading Essay

 

1.      Adherence to assigned topic and instructions, including requirements for number of assigned tragedies (all 8), number of body paragraphs (at least 3), number of assigned tragedies in each body paragraph (at least 3), and number of pages in the essay (at least 3 full pages). To receive a C, the essay must meet all these minimum requirements.  To receive an A or B, the essay should significantly exceed some or all of these minimum requirements.

 

  1. Clear, logical, insightful, original thinking about the assigned topic as it relates to the assigned tragedies

 

  1. Demonstration of your comprehensive understanding of all eight (8) assigned plays (by including specific references that are numerous, brief but very specific, and logically relevant)

 

  1. Mechanical correctness, especially in the spelling of characters’ names, consistency of verb tense, and form of documentation