Your Title Goes Here: Make It Interesting. Make It Reflect Your Thesis!

Your Last Name 1

Your full name goes here

Mrs. Curley

English 10H

6 January 2014 (The date you enter would be the due date).

Your title goes here: make it interesting. Make it reflect your thesis!

Your paper starts here. And you (no use of 2nd person pronouns in your actual paper!) would start by introducing the lens, not using it as the first sentence. Notice the font: it is size 12 font, Times New Roman. Notice the spacing. This is double spaced. Also, notice the margins: they are set to one inch. William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth is how you would

TAG. Introduce your topic in a meaningful and interesting way. Your introduction is one of the most important parts of your paper because it gives me an idea of how the rest of your paper will read. A bad introduction guarantees a not so great paper. Think of the points you will discuss in your body paragraphs. These three points can then be your topic sentences. Remember: your thesis statement should reflect the topic sentences of each of your body paragraphs. The thesis statement is the last sentence of the first paragraph and there are no exceptions; you need not highlight it your thesis statement in your final draft.

When you begin your first body paragraph, begin explaining your topic. Your first sentence of your paragraph is known as a topic sentence. This sentence should preview the entire rest of your paragraph. Remember to keep it focused. At some point, you must introduce a direct quote. Each body paragraph must have a direct quote from Macbeth. Do not begin a sentence with a direct quote. Instead, introduce it. Here is an example on how to use a direct quote from the play and how to introduce it. Lady Macbeth states, “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,/ and fill me from the crown to the toe, top full/ of Direst Your Last Name 2 cruelly” (1.1.42-44). 1 is the act the quote came from, which in this case is one, or the first act, 1 refers to the first scene from the first Act One, and 42-44 refer to the number of the lines. I just gave you an example of an in-text citation that would be placed at the end of a sentence with a direct quote from the play. An in-text citation gives credit to your source, which in this case is

Shakespeare writing about Lady Macbeth. Quotes are simple to incorporate and are necessary in order to receive an A. The quote should support your ideas, provide what is known as “textual evidence.” Notice that Lady Macbeth states; when you write about characters, use present tense- always! All commas and quotations marks are contained within periods. You may refer to a scene in the text with the act and scene numbers—in Arabic numerals—separated by a period. In

3.1, Hamlet delivers his most famous soliloquy. Do not write, “In Act III, scene i, Hamlet delivers his most famous soliloquy.” Also, ease into your next paragraph. Here is when you should try to make a nice shift, ease into your next body paragraph.

Sometimes a quote can run long. For this paper, there should not be any long quotes, these are referred to as block quotes; consider them dead for now. However, there are sometimes reasons for incorporating block quotes. I only like block quotes in very long papers. They are superfluous and clunky in shorter essays. A block quote is usually considered anything more than three lines. In cases of a block quote, the student should indent the quote and single space it.

Like this:

Quotes indicate that you did your homework. Let’s face it, all your school papers are tools of assessment, and one of the thing that professors look for is whether or not you did the reading, and whether or not you are prepared for class. The first thing that comes to my mind when I read a paper that has no quotes in it is that the author has not read the texts, and that the lack of references is an indication of a lack of preparation. When a paper contains an adequate number of quotes, and these quotes represent numerous different sections of the reading, I am more inclined to assume that you are well prepared for your work. (Weinstein 1) Your Last Name 3

Basic In-Text Citation Rules for Your Direct Quotes MLA style is just a fancy name for a set of rules on how to format a paper and give credit to outside sources. MLA is an acronym for Modern Language Association. In MLA style, referring to the works of others in your text is done by using what is known as parenthetical citation. Immediately following a quotation from a source or a paraphrase of a source's ideas, you place the author's name followed by a space and the relevant page number(s). Here is another example of how to introduce and provide in-text citation for a direct quotation from Macbeth: Lady Macbeth grimly declares, “My hands are of your colour; but I shame/ To wear a heart so white” (2.2.79-80).

Notice how the period comes after the (parenthesis). 2 refers to Act 2, 2 refers to scene 2, 79-80 refers to the lines.

Place a parenthetical reference after each quotation containing its act, scene, and line numbers separated by periods. Do not use page numbers.

Here’s where it gets tricky: Cite line-number ranges under 100 like this: 34–37. Above 100, repeat only the last two digits of the second number: 211–12 (but of course, 397–405 and 96–102).

*How to Quote Shakespeare- Dr. Womack

o Italicize the titles of plays.

o Place a parenthetical reference after each quotation containing its act, scene, and line numbers separated by periods. Do not use page numbers. Cite line-number ranges under 100 like this: 34–37. Above 100, repeat only the last two digits of the second number: 211–12 (but of course, 397–405 and 96–102). Place an en dash [ – ], not a hyphen [ – ], between the range numbers. Example: Twelfth Night (1.5.268–76).

o Use arabic numerals for all reference numbers. (Some older texts used roman numerals for act and scene references — like this: III.viii.7–34 — but modern scholars use Arabic numerals.) You may refer to a scene in the text with the act and scene numbers — in Arabic numerals — separated by a period. Example: In 3.1, Hamlet delivers his most famous soliloquy.

Do not write: “In Act III, scene i, Hamlet delivers his most famous soliloquy.”

o “Periods and commas,” says Dr. Womack, “always go inside quotation marks.”

*Another example: (1.1.10-15). (Act, Scene #, line/s #/s) 1 refers to Act One of the play, 1 refers to the first scene of Act One, and 10-15 refers to the lines in this first scene of Act One.