Dr. Michael Delahoyde
Washington State University

On the due date noted, you will be pleased and alleviated to turn in the most significant single piece of work you will have produced for the semester in this class, something that ought to have a respectable afterlife -- at least as a potential portfolio paper or project, but possibly as the central production of your own particular expertise in Shakespeare studies, or the kernel of a larger future masterpiece. Eventually you're going to die; aim for step one of immortality now. Here's your outrageous fortune: the options.

1) THE SECOND PROJECT: a minimum eight-page paper or equivalent
(a minimum five pages analysis, three pages annotated bibliography).

If you submitted a completed five-page paper for your first assignment, this more substantial manuscript will fulfill project requirements for the semester.

1) Select a work and then a specific subject within it. Be conscientious, ruthless, nay merciless! in focusing your scope and in exploring implications of one specific moment, one subtle motif, or a character issue. Find a specific facet of the one selected work, a subtlety in language, or a peculiarity in need of explanation. Why is this one observation or insight of yours significant in the larger framework of the play or poem or madrigal? Select only a work from those covered in class since after the first project, or check topics with me if you had hoped to examine a new facet of one of those early plays.

2) Research your subject. You are required this time to include several secondary sources (I am not setting an arbitrary number), and it is certain that the internet is not your salvation. Go to the WSU Libraries web page http://www.systems.wsu.edu/griffin/wsugate.htm and instead of hitting Griffin automatically, look to the left and click Article Indexes. Navigate by subject to the MLA International Bibliography. Then conduct a search with some logical keywords. The ideal sources are scholarly journal articles. Encyclopedia-type resources (especially Wikipedia) are embarrassing and worthless at the stage of sophistication you should be operating at now. These articles do not need to address your subject directly -- in fact, best when they don't. They should, however, relate to your subject and supply at least some pithy quotations about the trends and influences and other relevant matters concerning your own specific play or topic. Part of the grade on this project will reflect the quality and pertinence of the resources.

3) Original insight and analysis should still dominate the entire discussion. Out of the total eight pages, your final revised essay must be a minimum of five full, typed, double-spaced pages containing an intriguing (not underlined) title, an original unified thesis, vigorous analytical work, no extra spaces between paragraphs, all in a clean, effective, illuminating, properly documented presentation (correctly punctuated in-text parenthetical citations of author and page). The remaining minimum of three pages should consist of an annotated bibliography: a correctly formatted MLA-style Works Cited list with summaries of, quotations from, and commentaries upon each resource. Annotations should make clear the use to which you are putting the article, and not simply function as sterile summaries.

4) For further instruction regarding documentation, refer to the hand-out given with the previous assignment, or to the web page, or ask me ahead of time. Proofread well so that minor surface matters do not distract readers from your ideas, since "that would set my teeth ... on edge" (III.i.131).

2) BRILLIANT UNANTICIPATED ALTERNATIVE: you tell me.

I welcome other kinds of projects that demonstrate the same objectives that the paper does: ability to carry out sophisticated research, to discover an original purpose and focus, to write with clarity and influence your audience's perspective. You may find a way to construct a bibliographical, filmic, pedagogical, or popular culture related project appropriate to Shakespeare studies which will inspire enthusiasm and break new ground impressively. You may work on a collaborative endeavor with a colleague. There are many possibilities. Think about it. But no cheesy junior-high crap like mobiles.

3) CYBERSCHOLARSHIP: a web page, site, or other media presentation.

You may work alone or with someone else creating a useful resource for current and future students of Shakespeare studies. Realize that this is a scholarly project, not an advertisement or fan page. Pick an appropriately manageable scope for the project and include all the key ingredients that you would provide for a paper: research, analysis, commentary, and whatever else would make this creation impressive and valuable. And then package this in ways appropriate for a web site (research gets registered in an annotated Work Cited that may include hyperlinks, for example, but still will need to feature library resources in the form of journal articles) and for an audience consisting of future students of this class. Do not just create a recycling dumpsite; that is, don't replicate what's already available. Instead, be sure to offer the one thing most lacking on the web: critical analysis -- not necessarily presented as a sustained paper, since that just invites plagiarism, but presented somehow in sophisticated components of commentary perhaps. Sophisticated research must take place and be clearly, logically, and professionally incorporated into the project. As with option #1 above, you need to find several scholarly journal articles and not just rely solipsistically on other media resources.

If you choose this project because it seems easy and you think you can submit any old crap with a jpg of that bald Stratford dolt, you are doomed and will fail most miserably. If you take up this challenge heroically and meaningfully, it will show. And we can discuss afterwards how to display, link, or incorporate the work most appropriately and helpfully.

Turn in to me a print-out of the textual portions of the site, along with the URL. (It must be a page or site actually posted on the web.) No need for expensive color copies or even images, since I will be looking at the site online, but I need to be marking up details on a hardcopy of the text.

Sample papers, good to excellent, are available on this web site, as are instructions and examples for the required MLA-style documentation.

I am glad to provide advice and help at any stage, from pre-writing and researching to the drafting, of this project. Ultimately, though, it must be completed and turned in when due; the compressed schedule of late mini-semester does not allow for screwing around and lame excuses. The project is worth roughly 20% of your final grade for the course.

Here's more ranting from me, carefully crafted from twenty years full of unpleasant experiences.

[That's the latest moment of submission; you are welcome and encouraged to turn in the project earlier.]