• As this is a senior-level English majors course, I will be operating under the assumption that students recognize the difference between a personal response paper and a critical literary analysis and know what should be expected in such a paper. Students should be fully aware of what type of language is appropriate and inappropriate for such a discussion.
  
• But just to be clear:
• Refrain from using "I" and "We" or "You."
• Do not refer to or address "the reader."
• Avoid speculation, including such phrases as "Shakespeare is trying to ..." or "If Hamlet were smarter, he would have ..."
  
• Other general considerations:
• Avoid making comparisons to present day society.
• Avoid plot summary.  Use quotes from only those sections of the text immediately relevant to your discussion.
• Use past tense to discuss historical or biographical events, but present tense when discussing literature.
• When citing verse, use slashes to show line breaks and cite by line (or act.scene.line for plays).
• Avoid plagiarism !!  See Policy 
• Remember that research in an English should begin with the MLA Bibliography database. Only sources published in legitimate academic contexts should be used.
• In other words, don't Google your topics.
  

• Do not use a cover page!
  
• Use only one edition of your primary source.  If you wish to refer to an editor's introduction to another edition, cite by the editor's name.
• Be sure to use quotation marks for titles of shorter works, such as poems and short stories, and italics for titles of longer works, such as plays, epic poems and novels.
• Do not rely too heavily on secondary sources.  The number of citations to your primary source should be roughly equivalent to the total number of references to all of your secondary sources combined.
• Do not use secondary source material to summarize plot or quote from the primary source.
• Make sure it is clear whose ideas you are presenting. If Critic A is quoting Critic B, and you use the quote, your citation should say (qtd. in Critic A #). The #, of course, refers to the page number in Critic A's text.
• Avoid unnecessary changes to quotes.  Instead of saying, "Wollstonecraft describes, '[She] felt hopeless' (24)," say, "Wollstonecraft describes that she 'felt hopeless' (24)."
• Avoid using direct quotes in either your introduction or conclusion.  Discussion in these two paragraphs should be more general.
• Do not use quotes as the subjects of sentences:  The quote "---------" (29) shows that. . .   or  "-----------" (87) means that . . .
• Don't use "in which" when you mean "that."
• Avoid using "how" (Shakespeare talks about how ..."): Say "Shakespeare says that ..."
  
• Don't confuse "where" and "when". One is used to refer to place and one refers to time, but I shouldn't need to tell you that.
  
• Use present tense to discuss literature!
  

As you think about your topic, a logical starting point would be the "Things to Consider" lists presented for each of the assigned plays.

General topics could also include

• the analysis of a character from one of the plays we've read
  • particularly interesting would be the investigation of the contributions of a lesser character
• a comparison of two different characters within a play (i.e. foils)
• a comparison of characters of similar status in different plays
• a critical evaluation of a specific production, evaluating directorial choices (such as changing the historical or geographical setting) or individual character performances (note: please refrain from making such a discussion into a simple review of the production).
• the role of gender and/or class in a particular play

Here is a very partial list of some more specific potential topics to give you an idea:

• Comparison of scapegoats: Shylock and Malvolio
• Comparison of Antonios in The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night
• The New Comic Plot and Differences between Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet
• Portrayal of Madness (Pick no more than two):
  • Malvolio
  • Hamlet
  • Lady Macbeth
  • King Lear
  • Edgar/Poor Tom
• Magic and Witchcraft (Perhaps a comparison of two specific characters between plays could be acceptable):
  • Richard III 
  • Midsummer Night's Dream
  • Macbeth
  • The Tempest