Macbeth Summative Essay
Full (Typed) Rough Draft Due: ______
Full Final Draft Due: ______
Assignment: Your final summative assessment for Macbeth will be a (below the
surface) close-read/literary analysis of a short excerpt from the play. Remember,
summative essay makes up a larger portion of your overall grade—so it’s time to
focus. Success will greatly increase your grade; however, little (or no) success will
undoubtedly lower your grade. You will be given a few figuratively-rich excerpts
to choose from and a model essay (both process and product) will be constructed
and reviewed in class.
Basic Requirements:
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______ 350-450 words (1 paragraph)
______ MLA format (including original title, double spaced, 1” margin, etc.)
______ Hard copy and digital copy submitted to turnitin.com
Focused Learning Targets: I can…
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______ ... effectively read and deconstruct a close-read prompt and determine its essential question (EQ)
______ … create a claim statement (thesis) that answers the EQ as well as states which literary devices are used
______... annotate a select passage from a complex text (break it into parts, identify the literary devices, tone)
______ …organize a clear and structured response paragraph to the EQ
______ …effectively cite (and embed) specific concrete details (textual support) from the core text
______ …follow the “Golden Rules of Responding to Literature”
______ …effectively use a variety of “bridge” words to signal implicit and/or implied meaning
______ …effectively use a wide variety of Quote Integration Strategies
______ …effectively use a wide variety of sentence types and beginnings
______ …effectively use transitional words and/or phrases to create continuity
______ …effectively use academic diction (avoiding clichés, idiomatic language, colloquial language, etc.)
______ …effectively use active, strong verbs that describe and/or support my claim
______ … effectively use correct grammatical structures and proper punctuation
Important dates:
o _____________: Essay Prompt Review (Assignments Requirements, Leaning Targets, etc.)
o _____________: Golden Rules of Responding to Literature Review
o _____________: In-Class Shakespearean Response Exemplar (prompt and passage annotation, full response, etc.)
o _____________: In-Class Drafting
o _____________: Hand-Written Full Rough Draft (10 points summative)
o _____________: Typed and Printed Rough Draft Due (10 points summative)
o _____________: Elements of Style Workshops (Direct Quotes/Clichés/Syntax/Golden Rules/Mechanic Checklist)
o _____________: Full Final Draft Due (Hard copy brought to class and digital submitted to turnitin.com by midnight) *
*late essays (hard copy and digital) will receive an automatic 5-point deduction for each day late. Essays not submitted to
turnitin.com by specified deadline will receive no credit.
Point Value:
_________ Rough Draft
_________ Final Draft
_________ Workshop documents (peer reviews, workshops, etc.)
Excerpt 3
Act 3, 2
Excerpt 1
Act 1, scene 6
O, never
Shall sun that morrow see!
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under't. He that's coming
Must be provided for: and you shall put
This night's great business into my dispatch;
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
Excerpt 2
Act 1, scene 7
Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off;
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on the other.
We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it:
She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice
Remains in danger of her former tooth.
But let the frame of things disjoint, both the
worlds suffer,
Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible dreams
That shake us nightly: better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave;
After life's fitful fever he sleeps well;
Treason has done his worst: nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further.
Excerpt 4
Act 3, scene 3
Then comes my fit again: I had else been perfect,
Whole as the marble, founded as the rock,
As broad and general as the casing air:
But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears.
Excerpt 5
Act 5, scene 4
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.