As we discussed in class today, resubmits MUST be in by Wednesday morning if they are to be included in this progress report. To wit, here are the notes I gave in class today regarding common errors found in the Hamlet focus papers--some dismayed me, but others were inadvertently amusing.
Common Errors: Hamlet Focus Paper 2008
1. Integrated quotes/Quotes in space/Long quotes and proper usage
2. Elevate diction
“Claudius is a bad, bad man.”
“Hamlet done gone crazy.”
“mommy”
“Not bloody likely.”
3. Present tense needed
4. Divide into paragraphs
5. Comma splices: we need to relearn ; vs. , and how to use however and therefore
6. Format is all over the place—underline thesis statement, name on the back, title centered, double-spaced, in a readable font that is more than four points and less than sixteen
7. Wordiness—some people were writing poetry in their focus papers
8. Who v. that
9. Syntax—fragments and run-ons
10. Novel vs. play
11. thrown vs. throne; manor vs. manner
12. Address the prompt
13. Apostrophes—Hamlets’, Hamlet’s, Hamlets
14. Stay out of your essay—“I think” “The way I see it” “According to the way I read”
15. Exclamation points (not in quotes, but in your paper—“Hamlet was a dirty dog!”)
16. “Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s many plays” is not a thesis statement.
17. “to say the least”—please don’t
18. So, but, and at the beginning of sentences
19. Rhetorical question abuse—very occasionally, one might be appropriate, but an entire opening paragraph is just. . .nah.
20. Second person. “When you read Hamlet you wonder where all of the spies would go after
