The Drama of Shakespeare's England: A Writing Guide for Students

By Todd Pettigrew

You have to write an essay on Shakespeare and you need some help. Fast. This short, easy-to-read guide covers all the ins and outs of writing about The Bard.

Here you'll learn how to approach the Shakespeare play, how to understand its language, how to build a strong argument and much more.

Included is an emergency late-night summary in case you don't even have time to read a short ebook!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Todd Pettigrew
• Release date: Mar 6, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301611737

Todd Pettigrew

Todd Pettigrew is Associate Professor of English at Cape Breton University.

Book preview

The Drama of Shakespeare’s England

A Short Writing Guide

for Students

by Todd Pettigrew

SMASHWORDS EDITION

PUBLISHED BY:

Todd Pettigrew on Smashwords

The Drama of Shakespeare’s England: A Short Writing Guide for Students

Copyright © 2013 by Todd Pettigrew

This ebook is licensed for your personal use only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Play is a Text

Chapter 2: The Play is a Story

Chapter 3: The Play is a Poem

Chapter 4: Making sense of Shakespeare’s language

Chapter 5: Reading Allusions and References

Chapter 6:Developing an Argument

Chapter 7: Using Evidence from the Play

Chapter 8: Using Secondary Sources

Chapter 9: Using Primary Documents

Conclusion

Appendix A: A Quick Guide to Citing Shakespeare Using MLA Parenthetical Style

Appendix B: Emergency Late-Night Summary

Credits

Introduction

So, here you are in a Shakespeare course. You always knew that reading and understanding Shakespeare was going to be a challenge, but you were not prepared for how demanding it can be to write about the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. You’ve listened to your instructor, but you still need more help. You need someone to spell it all out in black and white.

That’s what this book is for. Of course, no book can write your essay for you or even make it easy. But a book can show you how to avoid the most common errors, and it may guide you towards some of the ways you can make your essay stand out.

What this book doesn’t do is get into the basic mechanics of writing. Lots of books do that, and I encourage you to find one you like. Instead, this book looks at the bigger questions. What makes a good essay about Shakespeare? What are the tools and strategies you can use to build an essay that’s going to earn a top mark?

If you’re finding it difficult, don’t worry. Everyone finds it difficult. Even professional scholars struggle to make sense of the more difficult aspects of Shakespeare. And those same professionals frequently disagree about the significance of what they’re reading. In fact, the real danger comes