okay, im attempting to start my english coursework ¬_¬
its on romeo and juliet....and tbh, doodling in class wasnt the best thing i could have done, and now i have no clue.
my topic is
'how does the relationship between romeo & juliet prortray thier different character traits'
anyone have any idea, at all?
any help would REALLY be appreciated!
much loveeee
aliceeeeeeeeee
x
and say it for me, say it to me;
and i'll leave this life behind me say it if its worth saving me
it's years since I read Romeo and Juliet! So I'm not much help... but what would you say their character traits are? Is one careful and the other impulsive for example? If they were friends of yours how would you describe them?
Happy New Year, am very impressed that you're starting your coursework tonight!
I'm not giving answers - that would be cheating, and I wouldn't do that even if I could remember Romeo & Juliet from 20 years ago - I'm asking questions that will help alicejay think of her own answers... isn't that what the assignment is supposed to be about?
It's essay writing technique - take the question apart...
- what are their character traits
- how do you know (what do they say/do to show these traits)
- how does this show in their relationship
Jeez right i did that in school but it was like 5 years ago now so um yeh as suggested try looking at each character individually and writing your thoughts on their personality as a starting point..
Yeah but to be very honest, she should've listened IMHO.
well, yes, but... I learnt more about writing essays from books with titles like 'how to write essays in 10 easy steps' than I ever did in class! Does it matter where you learn how to think, as long as you do learn?
Sorry for talking about you instead of to you, alicejay!
You might find this site http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/romeojuliet/ useful, there is even a section on character analysis. I used this site a lot when I was at uni and did a module in Shakespearian Drama.
It's been years since I read Romeo and Juliet, and I don't remember enough that I'll have much idea if you're on the right track, but I think Tokoloshe's giving good advice.
Basically, you're trying to describe the characters of Romeo and Juliet using evidence from what you know about their relationship.
Can you start off with making an outline to organize your thoughts? The first outline doesn't have to be about how you'll organize your paper -- it can just be a way to organize your thoughts (although often there will turn out to be a lot of overlap in how you organize your thoughts for yourself and how you present them to others). My suggestion is to figure out what smaller questions you need to answer to address the essay topic, and make a section for each. Then either go through the book and look for quotes or passages that seem relevant to each question and list those under the section topics and then write down some thoughts about each quote or reference, or start by writing down your thoughts about each question and then go through the book and find quotes or passages that support (or refute) each of the points on your outline.
I think that the main points to look at are the traits of the two characters, and then how those traits play out in the relationship. Then from there you can work from that third section to show how the first two sections (the character descriptions) are shown in the relationship, which is the original question.
So I'd start with an outline like this...
I. Romeo's Character
II. Juliet's Character
III. Relationship
Then I'd go through the book and find everything I could that seemed relevant to understanding either of the characters, and list quotes and page numbers in the first two sections. Then I'd go through those two lists, and write down what I thought each quote or passage meant (I also do some of that when I'm going through the book if I have something to say at that point, so I won't forget it later), even if I was just paraphrasing what's in the quote some of the time. I recommend doing this on a computer so you can keep adding detail to your outline without rewriting everything!
Once you've got those two sections, it might help to summarize the characters with just single word traits (ex. Fred is gloomy, withdrawn, loyal, shy, stubborn, idealistic, and anxious) as a sort of quick-reference for what you're looking for in the next section. Then for the third section, I'd try to focus particularly on the aspects of the relationship that are relevant to the character traits of Romeo and Juliet. I'd do the same thing with looking through the book as the for the first two sections, but I'd also look through the first two sections for any quotes or references I'd listed for either character that were about the relationship.
Once I had the third section done, I'd go through that section and collect up everything from that section that showed anything about either character (you could make a new section to list just that information, or mark it in bold in your outline, or print out your outline and highlight it -- however you want to do it). You'd also do well at this point to summarize what you know about their relationship, and try to make connections between that and their character traits at the big-picture level. Then that can form the basis of your essay.
Well, that's one approach anyway, and while it's probably closest to what my 9th grade history teach had us do, it's not exactly the fastest way to go about it. I'd usually do something like that if I were completely stuck for ideas and didn't even know where to start.
The shorter version is to leave out the third section of the outline entirely, and for the first two sections, use only evidence from the relationship. Then once you finish those two sections, you're at basically the same place you'd be at the end of the longer process I already described. But that approach won't leave you with the same understand of the characters that you'd get from doing it the long way, and unless you already understand the characters really well, and really do just need to work out how to show that from their relationship, that's going to be reflected in your essay. Also, although the majority of your evidence should come from the relationship between Romeo and Juliet, you can supplement that with evidence from other areas (interactions with other characters, etc.) as long as you tie it back to what you've learned from the relationship (ex. the loyalty Sally shows Fred is also seen in her relationship with her friends, or the inhibited manner Fred displays in his interactions with his friends and family seems to disappear when he is with Sally). But of course you lose that if you constrain your analysis to the relationship from the start. So I wouldn't recommend the shorter approach unless you're really pressed for time and need a short cut, as you'll likely end up with a better essay if you start off with a more comprehensive outline of each of their character traits.
Emily
(\__/)
(O.o )
(> < ) This Is Bunny. Copy Bunny into your signature to help him on his way to world domination.
And Olivia, it's not cheating to ask for help on an essay provided that you're getting help with how to write an essay in general rather than specific responses to the essay topic. Also, whether she'd have been better off listening to the teacher depends on if her teacher is any good. I've encountered plenty of teachers who are crap, and sometimes students are better off with someone else helping them learn something. And even if if her teacher is good, it still doesn't mean she can't learn just as much (or more) from people other than her teacher.
I tutor kids at the clinic I work at. Most of the time that basically means I help them with their homework. I don't give them the answers though -- I help them figure it out on their own. I also explain things they didn't understand from class and such. The public (i.e. government-funded) schools where I live are crap, and a lot of times it's obvious from the homework they're getting that the material is being presented horribly (even with a good teacher, the curriculums are largely standardized, so there's nothing the individual teachers can do about it) and I can explain it better. And even with a good teacher, it's unlikely their teacher would have time to work with them one-on-one, so I'm also just giving them a chance to get individual help with the material that ideally they should get at school but generally can't. But I am still helping them with their homework. So is that cheating then? Should they be left to figure it out on their own?
Emily
(\__/)
(O.o )
(> < ) This Is Bunny. Copy Bunny into your signature to help him on his way to world domination.
You might find this site http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/romeojuliet/ useful, there is even a section on character analysis. I used this site a lot when I was at uni and did a module in Shakespearian Drama.
Did you actually pass the courses you used it for? Sparknotes definitely isn't at a university level...
Using secondary sources is fine as long as you cite your sources, although it's not usually necessary for English coursework (except for some upper-level university courses). But if you do use any secondary sources, hopefully you can do better than Sparknotes.
Emily
(\__/)
(O.o )
(> < ) This Is Bunny. Copy Bunny into your signature to help him on his way to world domination.
Alice. Ask me when I'm sober. Right now I've been at the Scotch, but so far as I can remember I aced the Romeo and Juliet shiz. Just pester me when I'm next about. I'll give you a hand if I can. Remind me that I said I would.
Tom
x
And he brought me into a vast farmlands of our own midwest. And as we descended, cries of impending doom rose from the soil. One thousand, nay a million voices full of fear. And terror possesed me then. And I begged, "Angel of the Lord, what are these tortured screams?" And the angel said unto me, "These are the cries of the carrots, the cries of the carrots! -- Not a vegetarian
I, too, used it at my college/university and speaking from my own experiences with spark notes/cliffnotes, I generally used them more as a hint as to what to look for. There were a LOT of times I disagreed with them, and a lot of times the teacher disagreed. And mine always read the cliffnotes to make sure we were doing our work and not just cheating.
Sometimes those books can give you a jumping point to look at other reference books, but I generally used it as a very rough guide.
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