10th Grade Periods 1 and 4Mr. Chao

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Essay

Overall Structure Support Statements Understanding of the Book Thesis Statements

And…

You FINISHED your firstProcess Paper this year!

Things You Did Well

MLA Outlining Supports Being Specific Being Clear Using Examples to PROVE Quotes

Things To Improve

Please review MLA on the Purdue OWL website. VERY FEW had their heading correct.

Schmoe 1

Joe Schmoe

Mr. Chao

English 10

4, December 2012

SNAZZY TITLE (No Underline)

Times New Roman font, Size 12, Double-spaced, 1-inch margins all the way around, NO EXTRA SPACES AFTER LINE BREAKS.

You DO NOT repeat the heading on pages after the first (just put the last name and page number in the upper right)

MLA

Some creative themes and excellent points made

NONE of you mixed up themes with subjects (hooray!)

Structure

Most of you stated your themes clearly in your THESIS and a few of you even included a MAIN THEME or MAIN IDEA.

Intro Paragraph◦ Hook◦ Connection to the Book◦ Thesis (3 TS outlines)

Body Paragraphs 1-3◦ TS (3 Supports outlined)◦ Support 1 (2 examples)◦ Support 2 (2 examples)◦ Support 3 (2 examples)

Conclusion ◦ Restate Thesis ◦ Transition ◦ Inference (Things to Do in a Concluding Paragraph)

5-Paragraph Essay Structure

- Without structure it all falls apart!

Most people who had errors in structure didn’t have completed outlines or didn’t get their outline signed off by me.

Structure

What’s more frustrating are the people who had COMPLETED outlines and ignored them!

If I sign off your outline, it means that YOU ARE DOING IT RIGHT! It is in your best interests not to turn around and “wing it” on the actual paper!

The outline format is not OPTIONAL. It is MANDATORY to include 3 supports and 2 examples per support. Paragraphs missing these things are considered incomplete due to inadequate evidence. Please make sure you FINISH your paper.

Finishing Your Paper

- The last thing you want is to lose points due to poor effort.

The Good: ◦ Most papers had a hook◦ Most papers had a thesis

The Bad:◦ Most didn’t connect hook to the book◦ Most didn’t elaborate

Introductory Paragraphs

Everyone in the world wants candy. The rich, luscious smell it gives off makes most people’s mouths water. There is an unlimited diversity; everyone has a favorite. It has its way of making people happy but it can be evil by giving you a mind blowing stomachache or sweet tooth. Yet, it is a universal desire having great and wicked qualities. The same is true of love in William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This play brings out the amazing and horrific qualities of love. Shakespeare specifically shows us that love can overtake you, it has many forms and it can send you to the moon but also break you heart. In the end, everyone desires to be loved.

Awesome Introductory Paragraph

A young boy filled with love for the girl of his dreams contemplates leaving his home to go see her. He is in his bed as his parents in the other room are fast asleep. AS he stealthily creeps to the back door, he opens it as quietly as humanly possible and nervously walks to the corner of the street and embraces the love of his life. He believes that the consequences his parents will give him for finding out what he has done will be well worth seeing the one that he adores. Just as this boy filled with love does a foolish thing for love, so too do the characters in the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare. This play displays themes like love is blind, love causes disagreements and rejection, and love can make a person fall into a world of imagination. The themes displayed by characters in this play show that love can cause one to do foolish things.

Awesome Introductory Paragraph

Your THESIS is your paper’s ROADMAP. It should OUTLINE each of your main ideas (themes).

The goal is to have THREE Topic Sentences that each state RELATED themes/ideas. Your MAIN IDEA should be the glue that connects everything together.

◦ A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a play by William Shakespeare, shows various lessons on love, especially how love can change you; it makes you “blind”, it makes you make decisions you wouldn’t normally make, and it makes you say things you don’t mean.

◦ Main Idea: Love can change you Theme 1: Love makes you blind Theme 2: Love makes you make decisions you wouldn’t normally make Theme 3: Love makes you say things you don’t mean

Thesis

Topic sentences that outlined supports are much more clear and detailed.

◦ Love, like most powers, is difficult to control (theme) because true love will always prevail against its opponents (support 1), will never stop trying (support 2), and if it can’t succeed, will destroy itself before it gives up (support 3).

◦ Love can also make you act differently (theme); it can make you betray people (support 1), become jealous (support 2), and blind to a person’s imperfections (support 3).

◦ Love works in mysterious ways (theme).

Topic Sentences

Most of you came up with themes that were original and oftentimes, insightful.◦ Tip of the Cap:

Love works in mysterious ways which can make a person fall in love with someone truly unexpected.

Jealousy is a part of love that is almost inevitable, but it is merely a stumbling block to love, not a destroyer of love.

Love brings out the true colors because of the many different personalities a person can have.

There is never a guarantee that our feelings will be returned regardless of how strong our feelings are for the person we love. Love is not always returned and people are sometimes left heartbroken

Excellent Themes

Support statements are ARGUMENTS that YOU make and can prove. They support your main ideas.

◦ Be careful not to confuse supports with examples.

TS: Love is unstable Support: Lysander can’t decide on who he loves.

TS: Sometimes love needs a miracle for it to happen Support: In the book, there are fairies.

TS: Obstacles vary, though in AMND many people and unexpected love potions serve as some of the things to be overcome Support: In the beginning of the book we see Egeus does not approve of

his daughter.

Supports

Rate the following Supports from 1-5

Love is uncontrollable. The fact of the matter is you can’t choose who you love.

Love can be changed. Literally, the whole plot was about lovers mixing and matching pairing with one partner like Hermia then switching to Helena.

Love is changing all the time. During the story, it changes hands like a hot potato.

Supports

While most everyone pulled from the same traits, there were some very detailed and well-written supports

◦ Theme: Jealousy is one of the Seven Deadly Sins and it surely comes out when you are in love

Support 1: When others try to show affections towards their lover, people get defensive because they want to be the only person to show and be shown love.

Support 2: Love makes people do anything to be with the one person they care most for.

Support 3: When people are in love, they are always looking for answers to explain suspicious behavior.

Supports

“Vanilla” arguments◦ Love can cause more pain than gain◦ Love is powerful◦ Love can be good or bad◦ Love leads to fights

Spice it up?

Supports

Make sure that your examples do 3 things:1. PROVE your support (argument)2. PROVE your main idea

Like Supports, examples are best when they are SPECIFIC and DETAILED.

Examples

When using quotes, you should need to do the following IN ORDER:

1. Introduce the quote with SPEAKER and CONTEXT A note about context: Your reader should be able to find where in the

book the quote occurs BEFORE reading the quote.2. Provide the quote.3. Properly CITE the quote.4. Summarize the quote

This means you need to translate or paraphrase what the character is saying. This is especially true with Shakespeare since it can be difficult to understand what the characters are actually saying

5. Explain how the quote proves your point.

Quotes

Argument: Love can cause hatred for people who don’t deserve it.

◦ Quote: Demetrius tries desperately to convince Hermia that he

is better for her than Lysander when he says, “Relent, Sweet

Hermia; and Lysander, yield / Thy crazed title to my certain

right” (Shakespeare I.I.93-94). By saying this, Demetrius shows

that he hates Lysander because he has Hermia’s heart even

though he doesn’t deserve it.

Quote Examples

Argument: Love is a game played in the mind based off of one’s thoughts

◦ Quote: Puck administers the love juice to Lysander, and he falls

in love with Helena. “Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,

that though they blossom makes me see thy heart.”

(Shakespeare II.II.105-106).

Quote Examples

Argument: Throughout the book many characters are put on spells.

◦ Quote: For instance, Demetrius falls in love with Helena

because he is put on a spell. “O Helena, goddess, nymph,

perfect, divine!” (III.II.140).

Quote Examples

Argument: Even though it is hard to be constantly giving love and receive nothing in return, we continue to give love because it is simply the nature of love to carry forward and express our infatuation.

◦ Quote: One of the main characters, Lysander, teaches us that love is

patient and has to overcome obstacles in order to work. “The course

of true love never did run smooth” (1.1.136). Lysander recognizes

the necessary conflicts that come with relationships. He also

acknowledges how deserving love is of countless trials and strife.

Quote Examples

Plot is important. You use plot to prove your arguments. But without arguments and analysis, plot doesn’t do anything.

In the play, when Hermia, on eo fhte four main characters in love, is betrayed by the love potion

that made her love, Lysander, not lover her any more, she feels that all is lost in her world without

him. When Hermia says, “I am amazed by your passionate words. / I scorn you not. It seems that

you scorn me.” (III.II.223-224) she is hurt finds out that Lysander truly believes that he doesn’t love

her any more, and love Helena, another key lover in the play, whose heart belongs to Demetrius.

Hermia starts to blame Helena for making Lysander love her when it really was the fairy Puck who

applied the magical potion, “O me! You juggler! You canker blossom! / You thief of love! What,

have you come by night / and stol’n my loves heart from him?” (III.II.292-294)

Plot vs. Analysis

Hermia is self-conscious of her height which reveals that love is blind. (Telling)

Hermia reveals that she’s self-conscious when she admits how she is “so dwarfish and low” (III.II.306). (Showing)

You need BOTH in order to effectively prove your argument.

Hermia mistakenly thinks that Lysander has fallen for Helena because she is taller while Hermia is “so dwarfish and low” (III.II.306) which shows how love can cause people to be irrational and not see the truth. (Telling AND Showing)

Telling vs. Showing

Telling: Love makes the lovers do desperate things.◦ SHOW ME:

Telling: In love, everything works out in the end.◦ SHOW ME:

Telling: Love causes misunderstandings. “Oh spite! Oh hell! I see you are bent / To set against me for your merriment” (III.II.148-149).◦ SHOW ME:

Telling vs. Showing

Did you Restate Thesis? Did you use one of the strategies from “Things to Do in a

Concluding Paragraph?”

Use a Quote Ask a Question Connect to Today Universalize Suggest a Practical Application Provide a Warning Call to Action Paint a Vivid Picture

Did you leave your reader with something to think about?

Concluding Paragraph