English Writing: Research writing with Rough Draft.

· Identify the playwright and the work, establishing the world of the play: who are the characters? Why are they important? What dilemmas or conflicts are they facing?

Thesis:

· Establish an argumentative position statement on what the play is revealing about 19th century gender roles and expectations: is the play emphasizing the reinforcement or the reinvention of gender roles?

· Try to limit the scope to specifics: relationships, conflicts, dilemmas. Could use terms like “such as” to avoid a clunky grocery list of items.

· The point may not be so black and white. Use qualifiers to add complexity to your point, either acknowledging a positive but emphasizing a negative or vice versa: Although_________________________________, ultimately, ____________________________________________________________.

Body:

Aim for a diverse amount of body paragraphs that stretches beyond the standard 3, allowing you to create tight focal areas; avoid addressing one too many issues or play aspects in a given paragraph. Here are tips for mapping out an effective individual body paragraph:

· Topic sentence: Avoid beginning with a quote. Instead, create a position point on a specific theme or play aspect; perhaps take a subpoint from your outline and develop the breakdown of that into a body paragraph.

· Supports: Offer relevant supports from your sources and cite them properly; limit what you are saying to what you can concretely prove. Remember to cite properly (in-text parenthetical citation) and use signal phrases when incorporating the respective author.

· Analysis: What questions arise as a result of examining the above details? Analyze the implications. What is revealed? How do the details of the quote/paraphrase/summary reveal this? Make sure the relationship between the point, support, and analysis actually relate to each other; avoid randomness. Also, avoid simply summarizing what other scholars are noting. If possible, identify areas where you may agree or disagree with a writer’s interpretation.

· Connecting sources: If possible, draw a connection of similarity or difference between 2 or more secondary sources in the paragraph either showing a pattern of agreement or disagreement between the arguments or information presented by the sources. Remember to cite properly (in-text parenthetical citation) and use signal phrases when incorporating the respective author. Analyze the significance behind the similarity or difference regarding what it proves about 19th century gender roles.

· Opposing Viewpoints and Rebuttals: Address counterarguments to your main point and offer rebuttals to the counterarguments, minimizing the importance of the counterargument. If your thesis emphasizes progress, acknowledge areas where tradition is still being reinforced. If your thesis emphasizes the reinforcement of tradition, acknowledge areas where progress has been achieved.

· Concluding sentence: Typically, don’t end on a transitional point and certainly don’t end on a quote; instead, offer a parting point that builds on the paragraph’s commentary, reiterating how these prove whether or not the play’s characters and circumstances reflect progress or stasis.

Conclusion:

· Offer your overall judgment of the play’s treatment of gender roles and expectations, ultimately emphasizing how it either reflects the values of the time period or reacts against those values (or perhaps it does both?).

· In its attitude towards gender roles and expectations, does the play seem to oppose or support the idea of reinvention of tradition?

· Could reflect on whether or not 19th century audiences were truly aware of the issues being explored, reinforcing why awareness of these issues is important to society at large. Is the play perceived differently through modern eyes? How?