For your second formal paper, write a 3-4 page essay on one of the following topics. Please use double-spacing, normal (one inch) size margins and normal (twelve-point) size type. If your only source is our textbook, you do not need a works cited page. Use MLA style for indicating line and page numbers (see the summary of MLA rules for working with plays on the Bell Custom Writing site). A rough draft of the paper is due by October 1st. The final draft is due on October 4th.
Keep in mind that the topics below do not provide you with a thesis. You will need to provide a strong, specific thesis for your paper no matter which topic you choose.
Read the short story, "A Jury of Her Peers," and compare it to Trifles. (You can find the full text of "A Jury of Her Peers" on the Annenberg/CPB site.)
Choose one major difference between the two (Mr. Hale's character is more fully developed in the short story, for instance) and explain how it contributes to an overall difference in meaning between the play and the short story.
Choose one scene in The Glass Menagerie and imagine you are directing a production of it. What choices would you make regarding music, lighting, set design, and the actors' interpretations of their characters? For example, would Amanda seem fairly strong and resilient or more fragile? (As part of your discussion, you may want to indicate whether or not you would follow Tennessee Williams' stage directions and production notes, and why.) What overall themes and effects would your choices be designed to emphasize?
Choose one aspect of the BBC production of Twelfth Night that you feel had a great impact on the message of the play. What was the message, and how did the production build on elements that exist within the written play to help produce that message?
As you write and revise your paper, keep in mind the following criteria, which I will use when I grade the papers. Please note that these criteria are listed in order of importance. (They should also be useful for peer response.)
1. Is the paper focused? That is, does the essay have a clear overall thesis that all its parts contribute to? Is the nature and scope of the focus appropriate for the assignment and the length of the paper?
2. Is the paper's focus or thesis significant? In other words, do you make clear your readers should care about or be interested in the point of the essay?
3. Do you use enough details, quotes, and examples to back up your ideas and claims?
4. When you refer to or quote from a text, is your interpretation of the text clear? Do you back up or justify your interpretation if necessary?
5. Does the introduction catch the reader's attention and indicate what the paper will be about?
6. Does the conclusion leave the reader with a coherent sense of the author's overall point and its significance?
7. Is the paper clearly and logically organized?
8. Do you use good transitions between paragraphs and between ideas within paragraphs?
9. Are grammar, punctuation, and spelling problems minimal?
10. Is the writing style free of confusion and awkwardness?