Drama Analysis
Humanities
Review the chapter “Writing about Literature” (pp. 1089-1142) in your Backpack Literature textbook and model the format of your essay on the annotated sample essays in the chapter.
ASSIGNMENT: Write a short essay (750 words) using one of the drama analysis prompts below. For this paper assignment, we will continue to work with scholarly sources in order to use what specialists in the genre of drama have to say and to build upon their work to frame our own views in our our own academic writing. From the Graff/Birkenstein readings assigned last week (see the Week 4 Learning Modules folder) and the Week 4 Discussion Activity, you learned about how to effectively read, quote, and respond to sources by furthering the conversation — by either agreeing with a difference, by disagreeing with reasons, or agreeing and disagreeing simultaneously. Now it is time to demonstrate what you’ve learned by critically reading scholarly sources, effectively framing quotations from those sources, and presenting your original viewpoint by using one of the three ways to respond. For this assignment, you should frame and respond to at least one quotation from the scholarly source you used last week in the Week 4 Discussion Activity (it doesn’t have to be the quote you wrote about in the Week 4 DB activity), and search the TROY Library databases for one additional scholarly source that addresses a specific topic from the prompts below.
Prompt #1: Take just a single line or sentence from either Susan Glaspell’s Trifles or Sophocles’ Oedipus the King that you think stands out for some reason as greatly important. Perhaps it states a theme, reveals a character, or serves as a crisis (turning point). Write a critical analysis demonstrating its importance — how it functions, why it is necessary. Essay Outline: The introduction should identify the play under consideration, its author, and any necessary background information that is significantly relevant to the main focus of your essay. The introduction should conclude with your original idea (your thesis) presented as a response to an effectively framed quotation from one of the scholarly sources you found in the Troy Library databases (use the templates for introducing, explaining, and framing quotations in Graff/Birkenstein’s Chapter Three — pp. 42-50). Body paragraphs should support and develop your thesis with specific references to the play, bolstered by effective responses to your scholarly articles. Use the templates in Graff/Birkenstein for introducing, explaining, and framing a quotation (Chapter Three — pp. 42-50) and the templates for responding to sources in Graff/Birkenstein’s Chapter Four — pp. 55-66. Be sure to clarify what you “say” from what your source “says” by using the templates from Graff/Birkenstein’s Chapter Five (“Distinguishing What You Say from What They Say” — pp. 68-75). Your conclusion should place your original argument within a larger, meaningful context for your reader.
Prompt #2: Identify two or three meaningful objects in either Susan Glaspell’s Trifles or Sophocles’ Oedipus the King that you think stand out for some reason as greatly important. Try to relate the singular importance of each object to the play as a whole. Essay Outline: The introduction should identify the play under consideration, its author, and any necessary background information that is significantly relevant to the main focus of your essay. The introduction should conclude with your original idea (your thesis) presented as a response to an effectively framed quotation from one of the scholarly sources you found in the Troy Library databases (use the templates for introducing, explaining, and framing quotations in Graff/Birkenstein’s Chapter Three — pp. 42-50). Body paragraphs should support and develop your thesis with specific references to the play, bolstered by effective responses to your scholarly articles. Use the templates in Graff/Birkenstein for introducing, explaining, and framing a quotation (Chapter Three — pp. 42-50) and the templates for responding to sources in Graff/Birkenstein’s Chapter Four — pp. 55-66. Be sure to clarify what you “say” from what your source “says” by using the templates from Graff/Birkenstein’s Chapter Five (“Distinguishing What You Say from What They Say” — pp. 68-75). Your conclusion should place your original argument within a larger, meaningful context for your reader.
SOURCE CITATION: Your essay must properly cite either Trifles or Oedipus the King and the two required scholarly sources. Correct source usage consists of two elements: (1) brief in-text citations for any idea or passage that is not your original idea; and (2) a properly formatted list of all Works Cited at the end of the essay. Your Writers Reference textbook contains sections on evaluating and using sources and avoiding plagiarism. Email me with any questions about allowable use.
FORMAT: The essay must conform to MLA standards: double-space, twelve-point font (Times New Roman or Courier), and one-inch margins on all pages. Your Writers Reference textbook contains sections on MLA format instructions and models.
EVALUATION:
15% Introduction: You effectively identify the author and play under consideration and provide brief and relevant background information if necessary.
15% Thesis: You state your main point (or argument) in 1-2 sentences. The thesis is the culmination of your introduction.
30% Organization. Your essay should follow that of a typical literary critique: Since your focus must be on critical analysis, your essay must contain well-structured supporting paragraphs that contain a topic sentence, quotes from the primary text (the play you are writing about) and secondary sources (the two scholarly articles you are using to respond to), an explanation/discussion of the significance of the quotes you use in relation to your thesis, and a concluding sentence or two that situates the entire paragraph in relation to the thesis. Your thesis will focus on some kind of critical analysis of the primary text, so your supporting paragraphs should be organized around each of the quotes you use, explaining the significance of the quotes and why (or how) they illustrate your main point, but you also need to make sure that your paragraphs contain strong transitions and at least six (or more) sentences.
10% Conclusion: Regardless of the argument you make, you want a conclusion that avoids summarizing what you’ve just said, and please avoid writing, “In conclusion.…” Your aim in a conclusion is to place the discussion in a larger context. For example, how might your critical analysis of a single line (or sentence) relate to other important single lines in the work? How might your thesis about important objects be applied to other less important objects found in the text?
15% Grammar and mechanics: Your paper avoids basic grammar mistakes, such as dropped apostrophes in possessives, subject/verb disagreement, arbitrary tense switches, etc. The paper demonstrates a commitment to proofreading by avoiding easy-to-catch typos and word mistakes (effect for affect, for example). The paper adheres to MLA formatting style for in-text citations. Your paper uses the active voice rather than the passive voice and demonstrates an understanding of how to use active verbs (no “to be” verbs) and concise, concrete language.
15% Presentation: Your paper meets the minimum length criteria of 750 words, is typed with a title and your name on it. Your paper must be fully double-spaced throughout to allow room for my comments and editing or the paper will be returned ungraded.
