Description
This is NOT a research assignment. To achieve the best results on this assignment, you must demonstrate independent thought and analysis. You are strongly discouraged from consulting literary criticism and interpretive commentaries on the plays.
Any use that you make of reference materials must be accurately documented. The unacknowledged use of another writer’s ideas or words constitutes plagiarism. If you have any questions about the definition of plagiarism, please contact the instructor before submitting the paper.
Assume that the reader of your essay has read the play; do not waste time and space on plot summary. Be sure to support your claims with brief quotations from the play. Each quotation should be properly integrated into your prose and must be accompanied by an Act-Scene-Line reference (e.g., 2.2.25-28). Include a “Works Cited” page with MLA-style entries for all sources cited, including your edition of the play. See the course outline for further instructions on presenting quotations.
Do not waste space praising Shakespeare. Your task is to analyze playtexts not to promote Shakespeare. The first sentence of your essay should refer to the play or to a literary device. Avoid beginning with a broad generalization about human experience.