A.P. Drama
Out of Class Essays
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Assignment
Two thesis-based essays, analyzing a play read on your own (independent, once a quarter) and a play read for class (monthly).
Purposes
To learn more about the play by taking a close look through the lens of your interpretation.
To develop analytical skills, useful in future literature courses, in other disciplines, and in life.
To
develop confidence in writing essays based on your own theses, so your
college professors won’t have to teach you. (It’s not their job, you
should know by then, and it's really embarrassing when they ask,
"Didn't you learn this in high school?" It happens, even in the
Ivy League.)
To
impress me with groundbreaking ideas, as well as the well-turned phrase.
To set a starting point for your writing in this course, from which future work will progress.
Independent Authors (suggested)
All of these are reputable playwrights and fit into one of three categories: 1. Won a Pulitzer for their work. 2. Show up on the AP exam in that open essay question, or are on some AP list I read somewhere. 3. I like them.
Edward Albee, Amiri Baraka, Samuel Beckett, Anton Chekhov, William Congreve, Margaret Edson (1998), Oliver Goldsmith, Lorraine Hansberry, Lillian Hellman, Beth Henley (1984?), David Henry Hwang (1980’s), Henrik Ibsen, Ben Jonson, Tony Kushner (1993), Arthur Miller, Moliere, Donald Margulies (2000), Sean O'Casey, Eugene O'Neill, Harold Pinter, Luigi Pirandello, William Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Sam Shepard, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Tom Stoppard, Luis Valdez, Paula Vogel (1999), Wendy Wasserstein (1980’s), Oscar Wilde, Tennessee Williams, August Wilson
Link to Dramatists Play Service (to help you find other plays, including Pulitzers)
General
This essay needs an introduction, a clearly developed thesis, several paragraphs in which you use proof from the text (i.e., quotations, correct MLA format please) to support your argument, and a conclusion in which you expand upon your thesis and explain why it is important in understanding the work. As with all of your out of class work, this assignment must be typed, and should be exactly as long as it needs to be, but not one word longer.
Content
Write a thesis-based essay, meaning that you will define and support a thesis.
If you do not know how to develop a thesis, see me soon to discuss a possible topic. Click here for additional help.
This is not a research paper. All ideas must be your own, and you may not use any sources outside of the text and the introduction to the text.
Remember, late essays will lose a grade per day of lateness. Late essays turned in after class will lose five points. Late essays may not be revised.
Questions? Please ask or come see me.
3rd period: Essays due at the beginning of 3rd period on the due dates, to me in the English office or in my mailbox in the Snyder faculty room. Please put it one of those two places yourself.
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