Macbeth Essay
It’s not that scary . . .
Working on the Outline
Find your support
• Use your question sheet to locate passages that talk
about your topic.
• Use your Macbeth handout to find particular scenes or
to look up quotes you had previously written down.
The Guidelines
Essay Format (by paragraph)
Introduction and Thesis statement
• Reason 1 and quote support (quotes and explanations)
• Reason 2 and quote support (quotes and explanations)
• Reason 3 and quote support (quotes and explanations)
Restatement and concluding thought (what lesson can the
reader take away from this paper?)
Reminder
This is NOT an observation paper. You are not telling
the reader what you SEE.
Take what you see and analyze it.
Ask yourself, “Why is this important? What is it
doing?”
Working on the Thesis
1. Your thesis must provide context.
• Include the author’s name and the work’s title in a phrase
2. Your thesis must focus on an element within the
work (in this case, the theme)
3. Your thesis must use the active voice
4. Your thesis must make a positive statement about
something that you must prove
Example Thesis
Context: author and title
Within Dumas’s novel The Count of Monte
Cristo, plot development showcases the
theme of human justice.
Element of focus (theme)
Positive statement
(using active voice)
that you must prove
Working on the Outline
Thesis statement
I. Reason 1
II. Reason 2
III. Reason 3
Restatement
I.
Reason 1
A.
First support
1.
2.
B.
Quote
Explanation
Second support
1.
2.
Quote
Explanation
Honors class must add a third
“Support” to each “Reason”
Example Outline
Thesis statement: Within Dumas’s novel The Count of Monte
Cristo, plot development showcases the theme of human justice.
I. Edmond is falsely accused and imprisoned.
II. Edmond uses his time in prison to plan his revenge.
III. Edmond finds and punishes those who had ruined his
life.
Restatement: Human justice intertwines itself as a major theme
within the plot of Dumas’s Count of Monte Cristo.
Quoting Text from a Play
• Use line numbers instead of page numbers.
• Example: “quoted text” (1.3.5-7).
• Use / and capital letters to signal line breaks in verse forms.
• …Macbeth’s nature as “too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness/ To catch
the nearest way” (1.5.15-16).
• (Use regular quoting methods for prose {text in paragraph form})
• What’s the difference between verse and prose?
• http://classes.midlandstech.edu/derrickc/verse_and_prose_in_shakespear
e.htm
• See http://drmarkwomack.com/mla-style/how-to-quote/quoteshakespeare/ for details
Reference Entry Format
Picture taken from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/06/
The Guidelines
Looks
• 12 point font
• Times New Roman
• Double spaced
• Title
• Work cited entry at the end of last page
• Line numbers used within in-text citations
• Example: “quoted text” (1.3.5-7).
Turn-It-In
Outline due Tuesday night (11/24) at 9:59pm.
Rubric
Writing the Intro and
Conclusion
The Introduction
• Funnel format
• Opening sentence grabs reader’s attention and identifies
your topic (which is not your author or work but the element in your
work that you are analyzing).
• You continue to get more specifically focused on your
paper’s thesis with each sentence, using each sentence to
add one more level of specificity.
• Your last sentence will be your thesis statement.
The Introduction
• Example
•
•
•
•
First sentence – something thoughtful about the topic of guilt
2nd – guilt can affect people in many ways
3rd – literature often shows guilt’s detrimental affects
4th - thesis about Shakespeare’s Macbeth (specific literary work)
showing effects of guilt.
*I add one new aspect (underlined) in each sentence while
building on what I previously said.
*Intro paragraph should be 3-5 well-controlled sentences.
The Conclusion
• Inverse (flipped) Funnel format
• 1st sentence = restated thesis (different words but same
idea)
• 2nd – 4th sentences = considering your paper topic on a
broader level that can apply to anyone
• If you were on the topic of guilt, you could focus on its harmful affects
and lasting nature. Therefore, people should be careful of their words
and actions to avoid becoming guilty in the first place.
Turn-It-In
Final paper due Friday night (12/11) by 9:59pm.
• 5-paragraph structure
• Intro and conclusion added
• Changes made in argument and in grammar/punctuation
• Reference entry in correct format at the bottom of
your last essay page