Trifles,” “POOF!,” “Antigone,” or “A Raisin in the Sun.”

Assignment #3 - Essay 3: Drama - preparation
(including ONE outside source)
Here’s a brief summary of important steps to follow in writing Essay 3,
which involves the use of an outside critical source [for more complete
information, see ‘Complete guidelines for writing Essay 3 below]:
1) Decide which play you would like to write about.
2) Think about what aspect of the play you’d like to investigate as the topic
of your essay.
3) Search the scholarly databases for a critical article dealing with that topic.
[NOTE: As you begin to read scholarly articles, you may find one that is
so interesting that you decide to change your topic just so you can use it.
That’s a legitimate part of the research process, so keep an open mind!]
4) Read the article several times so that you’re familiar with it; then read the
play again so that you can see how they connect.
5) Begin writing your rough draft.
6) Be sure to review the correct methods for using MLA documentation, both
within the body of your essay and on your ‘Works Cited’ page.
Complete guidelines for writing Essay 3
Choose any of the plays that we have read so far: “Trifles,” “POOF!,” “Antigone,” or “A
Raisin in the Sun.” Then, do some research on that work. Look for articles in which
other writers or critics discuss some aspect of the play that you have chosen. Then,
write an essay based on that idea, integrating the material from the outside source with
your own ideas about the topic. Be sure to tie your discussion directly to the
text, using quotes to support your argument.
To give your essay a focus and clear structure, write a good thesis statement…..a
sentence that shares some idea you have found from your research. Do not choose
some generalized assessment such as “Sophocles was a great playwright.” Instead,
you might say “Sophocles’ plays confronted controversial issues in society, such as the
conflict between moral law and human law.” Your paper, with support from a critical
outside source, could then show how this idea is played out in “Antigone.”
An example of some ideas on which you might find critical articles are the following:
(you are NOT limited to these topics; let your research be your guide!)
“POOF!”
1) The use of humor to deal with a serious subject
2) Using characters and action to further the understanding of domestic violence
3) Stretching the limits of theatrical convention through language, structure,
hyperbole, symbolism, and dialect
“Trifles”
1) Emotional domination in marriage
2) The difficulty of female expression in a male-dominated society
3) The necessity for support and understanding among females
“Antigone”
1) Civil disobedience: non-violent dissent
2) Moral law vs human law
3) Women fighting unjust rule
4) Antigone’s fatal tragic flaw
5) Antigone as a fighter for human rights
“A Raisin in the Sun”
1) The ‘dream deferred’ of the Younger family
2) The concepts of manhood and womanhood in the play
3) The universal and timeless truths of “A Raisin in the Sun”
4) The play as a portrayal of Langston Hughes’ vision in “Harlem”
If there is a critical article in your textbook that deals with the topic you choose, you
may certainly use it; however, you must also still find one other outside article to
support your thesis.
Choose your secondary source from Literary Reference Center, a Gale online resource,
EbscoHost, or another of the NWACC library's database resources, a book from the
library, or an electronic book from the library's ebook resources. Use no open web
sites for your sources (Sorry….Schmoop is NOT a literary database!) Now is
the time to learn to use scholarly databases, which are more reliable and actually easier
and faster to use.
A major goal of this paper is to properly integrate the ideas of an outside
source with your own ideas, without plagiarizing. Both quotations and ANY
ideas or text paraphrased from a source must be given clear credit as you
write. Even if you only paraphrase a source, you must give the source credit.
In other words, give clear credit to all ideas or words not your own. When
you paraphrase, be sure to avoid using the same sentence structure or just
changing a few words to synonyms. Instead, you must write the idea in your
own words.
Do not write stand-alone quotations. Any quotation must be integrated with your own
words. See the instructions below for ways to avoid creating comma splices, fused
sentences, and sentence fragments when writing quotations. As we go along in the
course, repeated sentence errors such as those (CS, FUS, or FRAG) will bring lowered
grades. Now is the time to conquer these problems if you still have them.