Deceit in Much Ado about Nothing by Shakespeare Students will complete an argumentative
(Persuasive) research essay of at 1,500-2,000 words, using one of the plays we read at the end of
the course (look at the assignment guidelines early in the term). All sources should be correctly
Documented in MLA style citation for both in-text citations and the works cited page. This is a
Signature Assignment.
Deceit in Much Ado about Nothing by Shakespeare Works Cited
Henze, Richard. “Deception in Much Ado about Nothing.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 11, no. 2, 1971, pp. 187–201. JSTOR, doi:10.2307/450059.
Martin, Clancy, and Alan Strudler. “Philosophy of Self Deception: Much Ado About Truth: On Seduction, Deception, and Self-Deception.” Humana.Mente Journal of Philosophical Studies, vol. 20, no. 5, ser. 8, Feb. 2012, pp. 256–263. Inetpub, www.thehumanmind.it/PDF/Issue20
Myhill, Nova. “Spectatorship in/of ‘Much Ado About Nothing.’.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 39, no. 2, 1999, p. 291+. General OneFile, doi:10.2307/1556167.
Scheff, Thomas. “Gender Wars: Emotions in Much Ado About Nothing.” Sociological Perspectives, vol. 36, no. 2, June 1993, pp. 149–166. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2307/1389427.
Varney, Andrea. “Deception and Dramatic Irony in Much Ado About Nothing.” The British Library, 15 Mar. 2016, EBSCOhost, doi:10.5040/9781474284400.
Note: This proposal is meant to get you thinking about your topic—you are not restricted to this choice, but you should inform your instructor if you make a change. It’s the nature of an eight-week course that we have to begin thinking about this assignment before we’ve had a chance to really dig into the material, so just do the best you can.
Students: Use this memo format to complete the topic proposal.
Date:?
To: [instructor’s name]?
From: [name]?
The subject of my paper: [The subject is the broad topic, for example, Setting and Much Ado About Nothing]
Why this topic appealed to me: If you are not vested in your topic (and that can mean you loved something or something really bothered you about it), chances are your incentive to write about the subject will be weak. If you are interested in the topic you will probably write a better paper
My working thesis statement: The thesis is generally a sentence or two, which is positioned at the end of the introduction and states the main point/s in your paper. For the purposes of this paper, it should be an argument. The thesis is never a question. The thesis may change as you conduct your research, and that’s all right—but writing it out before beginning will help you focus your search.
Approach to the subject of my paper: In what order will you present your material and why? (Least important to most important point is one typical organization). Will you be comparing and contrasting? Will you be categorizing information in another way? Perhaps you will be using a number of these approaches in your paper. Think about how you might best organize your essay. Again, this may change, but writing this out early will help you think about the essay in a logical way.
Now would be a great time to work with the Online Writing tutors—use the Writing Help link in class to set up an appointment.
