Length: 4-6 pages, typed, in MLA format, properly formatted annotated bibliography required (4 pages means four full pages and the annotated bibliography does not count toward the 4 pages)
Primary and Secondary source Requirement: Students must use both primary and secondary in-text citations (parenthetical) that are properly formatted according to MLA guidelines (all students have access to OwlPurdue 24 hours a day for their MLA needs). The primary source is one of the core texts studied during the Senior Year. Three secondary sources are required. Two secondary sources must be authentic essays of literary criticism which must be authorized by the instructor. The other secondary source can be taken from a credible source. Failure to include secondary sources will result in a significant point deduction and earning a mark of A & B is off the table because you have not met the basics requirements of the Senior Paper or literary research and analysis. Teachers will begin grading at a C (Sparknotes, Cliff’s Notes, Lit Charts, Enotes, wikipedia, and the dictionary are NOT acceptable secondary sources. Students who use these types of sources as their other secondary source will lose 5 points).
Originality Report: Turnitin.com provides an “Originality Report” which may not be an indication of plagiarism, but could be an indication of using too much unoriginal and properly cited material from the primary and secondary sources. That means that the student did not write a significant portion of the paper and just relied on quoted material. If a student’s paper is flagged as exceeding 20% originality, the paper will incur at minimum a deduction of 15 points off the final score.
Sample Thesis
Scenes of violence often serve a greater purpose other than to present the conflict and engage the audience. Shakespeare’s use of blood imagery throughout Macbeth, specifically Duncan’s murder, Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene, and Macbeth’s words in Act IV, serves to characterize Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as true villains solely responsible for their own tragic deaths.
Sample Body Paragraph Format
T: topic sentence
B: background information/transition to evidence
E1: primary source evidence
A1: analysis of primary source & connection to topic sentence/thesis statement
E2: secondary source evidence
A2: analysis of secondary source & connection to topic sentence/thesis statement
R: Return to Thesis
T: Act II is dedicated to the malicious murder of Duncan and the aftermath of the crime. The scene itself is quite bloody and serves to reflect not only the seriousness of the crime, but Macbeth’s evil nature.
B: When Macbeth returns from the crime scene, he acknowledges his blood-drenched hands,
E1: “What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes!
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No;…” (3.2.73-75).
A1: Analysis of E1 & how it PROVES your topic sentence and your thesis statement
As Macbeth stares at his hands, he cannot help but allude to King Oedipus, who plucks out his eyes after realizing his fate. The sight of his own bloodied hands will plague Macbeth, much like a sin plagues the sinner. Just like the scene in Oedipus The King, this scene is also bloody and rife with sin and guilt. Macbeth recognizes that he alone must bear the guilt of his crime, for it is truly a wretched crime, a crime so foul that the waters of the entire ocean cannot make him clean. He literally has blood on his hands. When he utters a declarative “No”, my hands will never be clean, Macbeth accepts his actions for what they are, evil and sinful and beyond redemption and there is no turning back from this point. His fate is sealed.
E2: Josh Turner, author of “Is Macbeth Solely Responsible?”, confirms Macbeth’s treachery by stating, “…for it seems to me that Macbeth is driven…by the fascinating spell cast by what he knows to be wrong” (72).
A2: A1: Analysis of E2 & how it PROVES your topic sentence and your thesis statement
Turner suggests that Macbeth knows all along that his plans and his actions are both criminal and wrong, but he cannot resist the desire to capture the throne. Before he commits the murder he enumerates the reasons for not killing Duncan. However, his greed compels him to commit treason and murder, both offenses that lead direclty to more sinful and heinous acts as well as his downfall in Act V.
R: Macbeth now has blood on his hands and there is no turning back. He will continue his malicious rise to power, executing all who block his path.
