Is MacBeth a psychopath? British Lit will soon find out...

British Lit students know that they'll have 3 essays assigned to them this semester, but we've only done one up to this point. The assignment that they'll have over Thanksgiving break will be to work on their second one, going over what we've covered in MacBeth. But the question, though, is what exactly should we do the essay over?

In reading this play this semester, it's become more and more apparent that there's something... strange going on in MacBeth's mind, and that we would be smart to explore exactly what is happening. As a hint, the assignment will focus on analyzing if the titular character is a psychopath. Question, though—do you know what a psychopath is? I've got 3 things for you to do:

1. Watch these 3 videos:
   
   
   
   
   
2. Read these articles:
   Wikipedia's entry on Psychopathy
   
   The Psychopath: The Mask of Sanity
   What "Psychopath" Means (Scientific American)
   The List of Psychopathy Symptoms: Hervey Cleckley and Robert Hare
   ‘The Psychopath Test,’ by Jon Ronson - Review - NYTimes.com
   
   
3. Take these tests:
   Self-Assessment on Psychopathy / Narcissistic Personality Disorder
   A psychopathy test on my shared Evernote

Once you've gone over all this, you should be more prepared for when I give you the specifics of the assignment later this/next week. Thanks!

Before you turn in the any essay...

It's been a little while since I've posted on this blog, mostly because:

1. I've been crazy busy with making assignments, working on my Masters, and grading all you work.
2. I've been posing a lot more to the shared Evernote Notebook. (Subscribe here!)
3. We've been hammering away at "standard" reading, assignments, and other homework that doesn't require too much extra explanation.
4. I've been so slammed with things that I haven't been able to "play" with tech stuff and show you how to use it.

Hopefully, I'll get back onto posting on here again soon. However, until then, I've got a resource that all students, especially essay-writing British Literature kids, ought to take a look at. Before turning in a paper to any teacher (notably, myself), I'd take a peek at the following list (available for you to download here) and make sure you check everything off the list.

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1. Find and destroy the following:
• intensifiers / de-intensifiers (e.g really, pretty, maybe, mostly, nearly, barely)
• blah words (e.g good, bad) 
2. Check all your verbs:

• Are they all present? All past? 
• Are there any be verbs (i.e. am, is, are, was, were, be, been, being)? Kill as many as you can. 
• Did you write active sentences? Were passive sentences written by you? 
3. Recheck for sloppy errors:

• Are there any "red squiggly" errors? (e.g. teh, Mr. Web, alot) 
• Is the formatting up to the teacher's standards? (e.g. margins, font size/type, tabs, title, bibliography) 
• Did you reread your essay OUT LOUD? 
4. Take the "Ahhhhh" test:

• Is your reader going to be smarter/better-informed after reading this? 
• How long is your teacher going to say "Ahhhhh" after reading it? 

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I can't guarantee that going through every question will automatically earn you an A, but I can guarantee you that it'll help quite a bit. Take note!

蜘蛛巣城 = MacBeth (?) You're about to find out.

Pretty cool film, huh? Now comes the bad part. (You had to know there was a bad part.)

1. 

   The Criterion Essay

   First off, read the following essay that looks deeply into the differences between MacBeth and Throne of Blood. Stephen Prince, the author of the essay, does a heck of a job of not just saying "THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT ONE IS IN JAPAN AND THE OTHER IS IN WHEREVER MACBETH IS, TEACH-AH!" If Prince writes this essay for me, I'm giving him an A. If a students uses the comparison above... well... you'll have the chance to make this paper better, next Fall, when you take this class again. [READ: You will fail.]
   
2. Secondly, please post a comment on that article following the rules of commenting from earlier in the semester:
   
   
   1. compliment the writer in a SPECIFIC way.
   2. ask a question related to the post.
   3. add new information, opinions, or perspectives.
      
      

   I will give you points for doing this (or give you a 0% for not doing it) by NEXT CLASS, so please do this as soon as possible!
   
3. Finally, the hard part: by NEXT CLASS, I want a first draft of a 5¶^(minimum) essay. To make this really easy on you, I have graciously provided you with the perfect thesis sentence:

   The key difference between William Shakespeare's MacBeth and Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood is [WHATEVER YOU THINK], easily seen through [EVIDENCE A], [EVIDENCE B], and [EVIDENCE C].

   This sentence must be in your essay for get points for the thesis. You are not required to use that sentence in your essay, but if you use your own thesis, it must be better than mine. And it won't be. Good luck.
   
   You MUST bring me your first draft TYPED UP AND PRINTED OUT by NEXT CLASS. Failure to do so will result in an automatic 10% markdown of your final essay score. We will be doing 7i together in class, so not getting it to me means you didn't do it. Make sure it happens.

If we have time in class, we'll read the article together; if not, it is your responsibility to do on your own. Same with commenting. No excuses on getting the first draft done, either. The semester is not over! MANY of you have been complaining about your grades being low—this is your chance to pull them up. Unfortunately, it's also the chance for you to ruin them, so work hard!