Reviewing the Research Paper

PunctuationIn-text Citations

Blending literary criticismAnalysis of quotes

Punctuation – The Basics

The title of a play is in italics such as Hamlet or Death of a Salesman.The title of an article from Gale or JSTOR is in quotation marks such as “Ophelia’s Love for Hamlet” but the database is in italics.A piece of literary criticism from one of the books is in quotation marks but the title of the book is in italics such as “The Death of Ophelia” from the book Understanding Hamlet.

Hot tip!

• Commas and periods are placed inside the closing quotation marks.

“Hamlet is Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy,” said Leon Golden.Semicolons and colons are placed outside the quotation marks.My grandmother said, “You should keep up with your chores”: then she reminded me that it was my turn to wash the dishes.

In Text Citations or What do you put in the parenthesis?

• For Hamlet – (1.2.34-35).• For Death of a Salesman – (Miller 29).• For a book – The Problem by James Edgar

would be (Edgar 237).• What happens if you put the author’s name

inside of the sentence? James Edgar states, “Hamlet has a disturbed mind”(237).

More on In Text Citations

• What happens if you have two or three authors? (Burns, Edgar, White 97).

• What happens if you have MORE THAN THREE authors? (Burns, et. al. 94).

• What happens if you have no author? Use the title of the article. (“Hamlet’s Journey Into His Subconscious” 102).

• **Note: If the title of the article is REALLY long, you can shorten it in the ( ).

• For example: “Hamlet: An Overview of the Characters, Themes, Motifs, Settings”

• (“Hamlet: An Overview…94).

In Text Citations – even more• What happens if you have a chapter for an article from one of the

anthologies like Harold Bloom?• Use the author of the article or chapter NOT the editor.• Note: You have to be careful here. Some of the books downstairs are

written by only one person and some of them are anthologies.• What happens if you have a quotation within a quotation? For

example, what if Leon Golden quotes Aristotle in his article on Hamlet?

• Aristotle stated, “Tragedy is an imitation of an action…”(qtd. in Edgar 94).

• What if I use the author’s name in the sentence?• For example, Leon Golden states, “Hamlet has a disturbed mind” (27).

In Text Citation for website

• What if you have quotation from a website?• Use the author of the article.• If no author, use the title of the article.• If no title or author – STOP! Is this source

credible?

To blend or not to blend – Are you kidding? You’ve got to have a lead in.

• Simple lead: Who said it?• Better: Who said it? When?• Really nice: Who said it? When? Why? Or How?• Example: Hamlet craftily reveals his feigned madness to

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern when he states, “I am but mad north-north-west. When the/ wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw”(2.2.402-403).

• ***Note: When blending a piece of poetry inside the sentence, use a / to indicate the end of a line of poetry.

Blending literary criticism

• Thesis: Oedipus is a classical tragic hero as defined by Aristotle because he is well-intentioned, meets defeat and brings feelings of pity and fear to the audience.

Blending literary criticism• When his people come to him for help, Oedipus quickly starts

looking for a solution. When is told that Thebes will be saved once Laius’ murderer is found and banned from the city, he immediately lets his people know that no matter what happens, he will find the murderer and make him leave Thebes. As the play goes on, Oedipus shows himself again as an extraordinary man that “…is to be admired for many reasons, especially for demonstrating, as a responsible leader, his desire to solve…the problem of the plague…(Lewis 215). In the Prologue, after the priest asks Oedipus for help, Oedipus replies, “You do not waken me from a sleep,/for I have wept bitterly,/and long, tried many paths in the wanderings of thought/…”(Sophocles 65-68).

The Relentless Ms. Galluzzi!Analysis of quotations

• How does a senior honors student effectively analyze a quotation and give that “something extra” that a brainiac kid gives?

• ANSWER: ASK QUESTIONS!For example, Hamlet is a tragic hero because he meets defeat.“O, I die, Horatio”(5.2.354).The obvious way he meets defeat is that he is killed.Now ask questions!!!!

Possible questions

• Was Hamlet only defeated by dying? In what other ways was he defeated? (I’m thinking the family lineage is gone.)

• Was he really defeated at all? (He killed Claudius and restored order in Denmark.)

• Was his death ironic? • Was it his hubris that killed him and not really

Claudius?