Hamlet Critical-Research
you will revise and submit a ready-for-prime-time version of the essay; the culmination of the entire course! Parameters: The essay should have a minimum of five sources; at least two should be print books,UPDATE: Due to the Coronavirus crisis, you can now use all digital resources. You do not need a print book. However, before using any open-Internet resources (something not find as an ebook in the library catalog or an article in a database through the library website), you should email me the link for approval. and the others should be scholarly articles found in the HCCS Library databases. There are TWO exceptions: you can use film reviews, which are often available on the open Internet; and, if you find an open-Internet source that you feel is of scholarly quality, you can send me the link and ask permission to use it. Although there are many wonderful things on the Internet, this project is mainly to train you in the use of traditional academic materials. So, I will look skeptically on much that you might find useful in simply Googling Hamlet. Wikipedia is a wonderful source, and I recommend using it for grounding yourself, but it is not an acceptable scholarly resource (though it might point your toward them). Also, eNotes, SparkNotes, and the innumerable other such sites are generally too inconsistent in quality to be acceptable for a formal academic project. The finished essay must be at least 1600 words long, not counting the Works Cited. It must be formatted using MLA guidelines accurately and consistently. You should construct an argument about some aspect of the play. I will provide written lectures and other forms of guidance along the way, but essentially, you should not try to explain the whole play; instead, you might focus on one character, one scene, or one clearly-defined and narrowed theme of the play. You will argue in some manner about how one should properly understand or interpret the play; or about how some aspect of the play works or functions. We will study critical discourse about the play; you will be essentially imitating the patterns, gestures, and language of literary critics in this essay. You must cite all research, using MLA guidelines. You must clearly distinguish between paraphrase and quotation. You must write clear prose, and construct unified, cohesive paragraphs.
