CLST 273-WI / WSGS 297-WI: Classical Tragedy with a focus on Women's Studies and Gender Writing Intensive Fall Semester 2010 Dr. Jacqueline Long

Writing Exercise 2

Goals

• To identify and assemble relevant passages from a literary text: practice skills of analysis in reading
• To summarize your information clearly and concisely: practice skills of exposition in writing
• To prepare for in-class work collaboratively developing analysis, thesis, and argument

The approach:

1. Complete reading Euripides, Electra (Morwood, Medea & Other Plays, 81-118 in all), and focus for purposes of this exercise especially on the agon, 109-112. As you study the confrontation, consider two questions (the first with two halves):
   • What justifications does each speaker advance for her own side of the dispute? Distinguish between considerations relating to the actions at the center of the dispute, and considerations relating to the speakers' relationship with one another, peripheral to the central actions.
   • Apart from the fact Euripides stages this confrontation at all in his play, what elements of the agon represent changes he is making from the way Aeschylus handled the ideas debated in Euripides' agon? (That is, Aeschylus didn't use this dramatic structure to air the sides of this conflict between two characters, but some of the ideas Euripides' characters are talking about also were addressed in Aeschylus's Oresteia: what is Euripides doing differently from Aeschylus --not in dramatic structure, because it's a given-- but in interpretation of the myth?)
2. Sort the information you have gathered and, for the written part of this exercise, make three lists each concisely summarizing the information you have found: first speaker's justification, second speaker's justification, and Euripides' changes from Aeschylus. Do not, for the time being, add any interpretation to the data of the passages. Do not worry about connecting your separate pieces of information except by the formal device of your list. Do not make an argument. This exercise should focus on the skills of information-gathering and concise, concrete summary in sentences formed according to all applicable rules of correct and clear verbal expression. We don't want any argumentative objectives filtering your observation. Analysis of all the relevant evidence, thesis-construction, and argument come later.
3. Present each item of your list as a separate paragraph. Aim for no less than 1/2 and no more than 1 full page for each list: conveying a maximum of information in a few clear, direct words is an important skill! Include the source-reference with each item of information, as a parenthetical note. (Line-numbers are the most effective references for a play. If you are using a translation other than Morwood's, give its bibliographical information in the heading of your paper: full transparency is useful.) For ease of legibility, word-process the lists in double-spaced, 12-point Times Roman.
4. Doublecheck Dr. Makowski's checklist and the discussion of Strunk and White, and make sure you are writing clearly and correctly.
5. Proofread.
6. Come to class Monday 27 September with your summaries in hand, ready to contribute to collaborative discussion. The summaries will be collected in class.

Revised 23 September 2010 by jlong1@luc.edu
http://www.luc.edu/classicalstudies/