Demonstrate ability to respond to literature and persuade.
In the fourth quarter, your essay will demonstrate your ability to respond to literature and persuade. You will focus on Hamlet for this essay, and you do not need to do outside research. You will, however, need to use specific quotes from the play to support your argument. To be persuasive, you will need to have a clear thesis statement which expresses your stance/opinion on a specific issue in the play, and then you will persuade the reader to see your point of view by using specific quotes from the play to support that opinion for the remainder of the essay. You must use the persuasive technique of point/counterpoint and statement of fact within your paper. I will be going over this in class. In your conclusion, you will give a final argument (think of a court room)—trying to make the reader agree that your opinion is correct.
Sample Topics: (HINT: Use Theme page of packet for more topic ideas!
• Hamlet is mad
• Hamlet is not mad
• Gertrude is a good mother
• Gertrude is not a good mother
• The ghost is real
• The ghost is in Hamlet’s imagination
• Hamlet loves Ophelia
• Hamlet does not love Ophelia
• Other creative ideas?
See instructor for approval
Requirements:
1. Jane Schaffer with weaving
2. 4 paragraphs (Intro, 2 Body paragraphs, Conclusion)
3. 2-chunk body paragraphs. All CD’s must be quoted material from play
4. Double spaced, typed
5. MLA format – (HINT: Use HOW TO QUOTE FROM THE PLAY handout)
6. Turnitin.com
Statement of Fact and Point Counter Point Techniques
*First Body Paragraph is a Statement of Fact paragraph:
TS- What the main idea of the paragraph is
CM- Your first idea that you are going to focus on within this paragraph
CD- Pick a quote that is not able to be argued/ something that is not debatable and helps prove your thesis.
CM- How does this CD prove your thesis?
CM- Expanding even more upon how this CD proves your thesis.
CM- Your second idea that you are going to focus on within this paragraph
CD- Pick a quote that is not able to be argued/ something that is not debatable and helps prove your thesis.
CM- How does this CD prove your thesis?
CM- Expanding even more upon how this CD proves your thesis.
CS- Wrap up with you main ideas of the paragraph that you wanted to get across
*Second Body Paragraph is a Point-Counter Point Paragraph:
TS- What the main idea of the paragraph is
CM- Your first idea that you are going to focus on within this paragraph
CD- Pick a quote that is up for debate and can have multiple interpretations
CM- State the opposition’s point of view and start it off like so: (ex. The opposition argues or the opposition claims….).
CM- In this CM state why the opposition is wrong and how the quote should be interpreted
CM- Your second idea that you are going to focus on within this paragraph
CD- Pick a quote that is up for debate and can have multiple interpretations
CM- State the opposition’s point of view and start it off like so: (ex. The opposition argues or the opposition claims….).
CM- In this CM state why the opposition is wrong and how the quote should be interpreted
CS- Wrap up with you main ideas of the paragraph that you wanted to get across
HOW TO CITE LINES FROM PLAY:
1. Italicize the titles of plays, as in Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet.
2. When you quote from a play, divide lines of poetry verse with slashes the way you would if quoting poetry. You can tell a passage is in verse by examining it to see if every line starts with a capital letter, regardless of whether the line starts a sentence.
Verse Example: From Act 5, Scene 1, lines 9-10.
At the end of the play, Richard tries to regain his kingdom by imagining his thoughts as his subjects, "And these same thoughts people this little world,/ In humours like the people of this world" (V.i.9-10). Or (5.1.9-10)
3. When you quote prose from a play, no slashes are necessary. You can recognize prose by the fact that, in prose, every sentence begins with a capital letter, but not every line on the page.
Prose Example: From Act 4, Scene 1, lines 214-216.
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bottom wishes to transform his experience into art: "I will Peter Quince to write a ballet of this dream. It shall be called ‘Bottom’s Dream,’ because it hath no bottom" (IV.i.214-16). Or (4.1.214-16).
4. Please note that your references at the end of your quotations should refer to Act, scene and line numbers (as in the examples above), not to page numbers. You may either use Roman numerals or Arabic ones as you prefer.
Example: (1.1.12-23) or (I.i.12-23)
In this reference, the quotation would come from Act I, scene i, lines 12-23. The period should always appear at the end of your sentence, that is, after the parenthetical reference.
5. If you are quoting more than three lines, you will need to indent your quotation. The lines should be arranged as they appear in the text if you are quoting verse and arranged as a paragraph if you are quoting prose. The indented quotation should be single spaced.
Example:
Richard ultimately recognizes–and in eloquent terms–how he has destroyed his own
position:
. . . . How sour sweet music is
When time is broke, and no proportion kept.
So is it in the music of men’s lives:
Here have I the daintiness of ear
To check time broke in a disordered string,
But for the concord of my state and time,
Had not the ear to hear my true name broke.
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me (V.v.41-49).
6. Include your quotations from the plays within your own sentences, and end your paragraphs with your own thoughts rather than a quotation.
Example for multiple characters speaking from within a scene:
Hamlet’s madness stems from the unthinkable actions of his mother.
Hamlet
Now, mother, what is the matter?
Queen
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
Hamlet
Mother, you have my father much offended.
Queen
Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
Hamlet
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
Queen
Why, how now, Hamlet?
Hamlet
What’s the matter now?
Queen
Have you forgot me?
Hamlet
No, by the rood, not so.
You are the Queen, your husband’s brother’s wife,
And (would it were not so) you are my mother (3.4.11-21).
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