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April
22,
2008 - Vol. I, Issue 3 |
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The
Buzzzz
Words
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Thoughts
from P$ |
Sitting in my office this morning, staring out at
the bright sun and spring warmth on the eve of
another Scot’s Day (and only two days away from
Shakespeare’s Birthday!), I am almost able to forget
. . . the challenges we faced earlier this winter in
the MLC Writing Center: the January ice, the first
round of the flu, the February snow, the second
round of the flu, the March cold, and the third,
fourth, and fifth rounds of the flu . . . .
No
doubt, winter felt like a long season this year in
western Illinois, but through it all, the campus has
continued visiting the writing center, and we remain
ahead of our total number of visits from last year
at this time. Thank you for braving the elements,
and the flu, and visiting us on the third floor of
the MLC!
You
have more writing to do, no doubt, before classes
end on May 7, and the writing center tutors are
ready to help. Fine-tuning your research paper in
Global Perspectives? Come by the writing center
with questions about citing sources or
organization. Have a quick question about the
details in your Reflections paper? The writing
center is here for you, afternoons and evenings.
Whether you are writing in ENGL 110, Sociology,
Biology, or Business, the writing center tutors are
prepared to work with you. Stop by today, and meet
Phinnaeus Phred the Phoenix and grab some Skittles
while you’re here!
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Spring 2008 WC Hours:
Sunday: 7-10 PM
Monday: 3-5 PM & 7-10 PM
Tuesday: 3-5 PM &
7-10 PM
Wednesday: 9-11 AM, 3-5 PM & 7-10 PM
Thursday: 3-5 PM & 7-10 PM
Mark Your Calendars!
Scots Day
Tuesday, April 22
No Classes
Honors Convocation
Tuesday, April 22
11:00 AM
Dahl Chapel
Shakespeare's Birthday Celebration!
Wednesday, April 23
12:00 PM
Dunlap Terrace
Final Exams
May 9th-14th
Other
MLC Tutoring Available
Foreign Language
Latin & Greek
Math & Stats
Political Science
Zoology
Psychology
Chemistry
For
More Details:
See the MLC website!
OR
See
the WC Website!
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Emily & Crystal's 2¢ |
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Hear ye,
hear ye! Come hither to the Writing Center!
Work for all course subjects offered at Monmouth College
is welcome! Please do not hesitate to seek
assistance from our awe-inspiring peer tutors.
This edition of The Writing Scots is based around
Shakespeare, his works, and how to succeed while reading
and/or writing about his works. However, these
techniques given can be applied to ALL subject areas.
For example, when examining an historical event, one
must read between the lines and behind the actual event
(just as one would do with a Shakespearean text) to
discover the true motivations as to why people do what
they do, etc. Also, in subjects such as science,
one must look past the facts to form hypotheses and
conclusions about certain experiments. So, in
short, please take our advice and DIG DEEP! |
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Faculty Feature - Marlo
Belschner |
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Write Your Way Into
Heaven
"My words
fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts
never to heaven go"
(Hamlet 3.3.100-3).
Although I have taken
Claudius’ words out of context, they work well to make
my most important point regarding writing on Shakespeare
or, frankly, writing for any purpose: Say something.
All of the editing and
proofreading in the world isn’t going to create an
excellent essay if you don’t have something interesting
and valuable to say. Create topics in which you are
intellectually invested and realize that
writing is a way of exploring your ideas concretely.
What does this translates to in practice? Writers
should spend most of their time working with ideas.
After all, that’s the fun part. Most of my suggestions
below relate to the earlier drafting stages rather than
final editing.
Early
Drafting
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Find a topic that is interesting to you and worth
exploring.
- At
first, worry more about having something interesting
and thoughtful to say than about the quality of the
writing itself.
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Don’t avoid ambiguity or contradiction: like the
monster under the bed—or like Hotspur on the
battlefield—direct confrontation is always the best
approach. Learning how to write about ambiguity and
to negotiate what appears to be a contradiction are
the extraordinary skills of the advanced English
major.
- If
there is any time, reread the play once you
have a solid draft. The average Shakespeare play
will take about two hours to reread. It is time
well-spent.
-
Use textual support and quotations to support
your ideas; although it is fine to structure an
essay around quotations in an early draft,
ultimately this is a very weak strategy for a final
draft.
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Keep asking yourself: so what? Why does this
matter? How does it connect to other/another
important theme or idea in the play? Does genre
matter?
Later
Drafting
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Think about how the pieces fit together: is there a
change from the beginning to the end that is
significant?
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Are there contradictory actions or evidence that you
should address or that complicate your conclusions?
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Draw
conclusions: what do all of your detailed analyses
add up to?
Final
Editing
- Is
your thesis clear and specific? Does it explain
exactly what your final, overarching conclusion will
be? Do you have topic statements for paragraphs that
are explaining your conclusion/s for each paragraph?
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Always proofread; don’t simply rely on spell check
and autocorrect.
-
Double check your direct quotations.
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MC! True
Monmouth Story: Meet the Editors! |
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Crystal Chalkey and Emily Demerath
Crystal Marie Chalkey a.k.a. The Grammar Gal
Hometown: Streator, Illinois
Major: English with Secondary Certification in
Teaching
Activities:
Resident Assistant, Alpha Lambda Delta, National Society
of Collegiate Scholars, Sigma Tau Delta, and Kappa Delta
Pi!
Favorite Shakespearean Play: Thus far in my
strenuous study of the brilliant bard, my favorite play
is Twelfth Night, but Taming of the Shrew
comes in a close second!
An Interesting Fact: I have a younger brother who
is 10 years my junior and my dad is a twin!
Emily Elizabeth Demerath a.k.a. The Puppetmaster
Hometown: Montgomery (near Oswego), Illinois
Major:
Elementary Education
Activities:
IEA, MC Bands, Alpha Lambda Delta, Kappa Delta Pi, Blue
Key, and Puppeteering!
Favorite Shakespearean Play: Of the three plays
I've actually read (Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, and
Macbeth), I'd have to say Macbeth is my
favorite.
An Interesting Fact: Both my parents are
named Pat AND my name is Emily Elizabeth (like from
Clifford...hehe).
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Great
Guidance from our Guest Guru Laura Miller |
For this month's
newsletter, Laura Miller shows us an example of how
to explicate Shakespeare's Sonnet 73.
Sonnet 73
William Shakespeare
That time of year thou mayst
in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds
sang.
In me thou seest the twilight
of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing
of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceivest,
which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere
long.
Sonnet 73 by Shakespeare is a
traditional Shakespearean sonnet comprised of
three quatrains and a couplet. The subject
presented in the poem is aging. The speaker is
speaking to a lover. The speaker uses many
metaphors to compare his aging.
In the first quatrain the
speaker is telling his lover that his age is
like late autumn when the leaves are yellow,
when it is getting cold, and when the birds
leave. When we think of late autumn we think of
things dying off. The speaker is painting a
depressing picture for the lover. The leaves on
the trees are falling and the trees look brown
and lifeless. The birds leave and their songs
are no longer heard when they used to be heard
every day. The lifelines of the things that
were seen and heard everyday are now gone. The
speaker is comparing himself to the trees, and
the leaves represent his youth. As the speaker
ages he loses youth, which is symbolized by the
leaves of a tree.
In the second quatrain the
speaker is comparing his age to twilight when
the sun is setting but has left us with just a
tiny bit of light, but once night comes that
tiny bit of light is taken away. The speaker is
comparing that tiny bit of light to the tiny bit
of life that he feels he still has. The second
quatrain ended with the speaker referring to a
tomb “Death’s second self, that seals up all the
rest” (line 8). The tomb is a way to solidify
death.
In the third quatrain the
speaker is comparing his age to a fire burning
out. The lover sees this glowing fire in the
speaker. The ashes that are left over from this
fire represent the speaker’s youth. The
speakers youth has been burned away and now only
the ashes remain. As the speaker continues to
die he will settle on his death bed while his
continues to burn away. The small fire that is
seen in the speaker will be consumed by the
ashes.
The speaker is
telling his lover in the couplet that the idea
of him dying will only make their love
stronger. They have loved each other this long
and the type of love that they have can only
live on for a long time; they cannot be
separated by anything including death.
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English Tips
& Tidbits |
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To assist you when reading
Shakespeare, we've compiled a list of random
Shakespearean terms you may come across. Feel free
to reference at your whim!
 agood, adv. - in good earnest; thoroughly;
heartily
askance, v. or adv. - to turn
aside; sidewise, obliquely, with a side glance; with a
side or indirect meaning
dewberry, sub. - a species of blackberry
or bramble-berry, the name being applied both to the
fruit and the shrub
englut, v. - to swallow, swallow up, to
gulp down
exsufflicate, v. - to be inflated, angry,
"puffed up"
methinks, v. - in the present tense:
"it seems to me"
sacring-bell, n. - a small bell rung to
summon parishioners to morning prayers, or to mark the
point in the Communion Service at which the people
should go up to communicate
scotch, n. - an incision, cut, score, or
gash
withal, adv. - along with the rest; in
addition; besides; moreover
yarely, adv. - quickly, promptly, nimbly,
briskly, diligently
Terms compiled from
www.oed.com |
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Support from
Shakespearean Scribbles |
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Please
send us your comments on the writing center! Tell us
about your experiences with a tutor or with the WC in
general.
Shakespeare's Home in
Stratford Upon
Avon
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks." - Hamlet,
3.2
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women
merely players. They have their exits and their
entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts." -
As You Like It, 2.7
"Fair is foul, and foul is fair." - Macbeth, 1.1
"Men of few words are the best men." - King Henry the
Fifth, 3.2
E-mail
your comments to
CChalkey@monm.edu with the subject line as: Support
for the WC. |
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Survey |
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Phineaus Phred, the Newly Named WC Mascot!
What is your favorite Shakespearean play, sonnet,
etc. and why?
Please send
your e-mailed answers to
EDemerath@monm.edu
with the subject line as: WC Survey. |
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Queries,
Questions, & Concerns |
What do I
need to bring to my Writing Center session?
Bring your assignment sheet and any notes related to
the writing assignment - this will help you and the peer
tutors to make more effective revisions. If you
have not begun writing, bring your ideas.
My writing is not for an English class. Can a
tutor still help?
Yes. Tutors can help students with writing for
any kind of class. Bringing the assignment sheet
and any supporting materials will help familiarize the
tutor with the conventions of your particular
discipline.
Does the Writing Center
help with grammar?
Yes. We are not a proofreading service,
though, so you will not be dropping off a paper and
picking up a corrected version an hour later.
Rather, the tutors will help you to both identify
grammar concerns in your writing and make effective
corrections.
Did William Shakespeare get help from a writing
tutor?
Well, we don't have any hard evidence; however,
there have been rumors that he went to see Sir Francis
Bacon quite a bit...even literary geniuses need help
sometimes! You make the decision... |
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