Writing Assignment 3

Goals

• To explore a problem about Athenian New Comedy and how it operates, using literary evidence
• To build a persuasive argument about your conclusions
• To practice skills of analysis and exposition in essay form

To submit to peer review in class on Friday, 28 March: have in hand, in our room, at the start of class period:

• Recommended strategy - general considerations - just like Writing Assigment 1:
  1. Form a hypothesis based on the text; think it through, test its implications, double-check against the text, refine your hypothesis, and test again. Be sure you have taken everything into account.
  2. Build your argument so that it sets forth your hypothesis and its proof in the most persuasive way. Refer to specific passages of the text as concrete, specific pieces of relevant evidence, and explain clearly how your evidence supports your conclusion.
  3. Write, realizing your plans.
  4. Reread and "test" your essay as a written argument. Does it make the case well? Can you improve it? Revise appropriately.
  5. Reread and "test" your improved essay against Strunk and White's rules and reminders for clear and effective writing. Do you avoid the errors they identify? Can you incorporate more of their positive suggestions? Revise appropriately.
  6. Think of the suggestions you got in feedback from your peers and your instructor on Writing Assignments 1 and 2: how can you help your readers to understand your judgments and agree with them? Revise appropriately.
  7. Proofread and correct your improved essay.
• For more suggestions about formulating an argument, see this Guide to Writing Papers. Use the BACK button on your browser to return to this page.
• Specific considerations for this problem:
  • What facts are crucial for the characters' relationships? Why? What has kept them from being known by all, before the action of "The Mother-in-Law"? What keeps on keeping them from being known, as the play's action proceeds? What consequences result from characters' ignorance of these facts?
  • What facts does the audience know, when? How does the audience's knowledge relate to characters' knowledge? How does the audience's knowldge relate to humor in the play?
  • What factors besides knowledge are important to humor? Why?
  • Keep your focus on "The Mother-in-Law"; use "Double Bind" to illustrate contrasts that help make your points.

This file last updated 24 March 2003 by jlong1@orion.it.luc.edu.
http://www.luc.edu/depts/classics/