Research Project Rubric- Criteria
- Length
20%- the length of the project
should be 4- 5 paragraphs; paragraphs should consist of approximately five
sentences.
If
your project is too short, or in a few cases, too long, you must adjust the
amount of information you have included in the project.
- Bibliography
(work cited) 20%
Does
the project have a work cited page in the proper MLA format?
There
should be at least 3 sources. The sources should not all be from the
internet. Sources from the internet
should be .edu, .gov, or .org
The
source information should be in the proper order, alphabetically, by the
author’s last name.
If
there is no bibliography, construct one.
If it does not meet the specifications, correct it.
- Citation
(in “body” paragraphs- in text) 20%
Are
there citations in the body paragraphs of the project, either referring to your
sources (from the bibliography) by including the author or source title in the
sentence or in parentheses?
You
must cite and quote whatever is not in your own words. You must cite whatever is not your own idea. Dates and specific information must be cited.
If
there is no mentioning of sources in the body of the project, include it. If it is not in the proper form, correct it.
- Task
Achieved 20%
Does
the project use outside sources to add to your understanding of A Midsummer
Night’s Dream? Does the project answer
the question of how the history or the life of the author is present in A
Midsummer Night’s Dream ?
If
the project only has information on the life of a certain author, the project
will receive no points in this category.
If
the project does not connect the literary text to the research, the
project will receive no points in this category.
If
the project has information that has been copied from a source, it will receive
a zero for the project overall.
Other academic and disciplinary action will also be taken.
- Grammar/
Punctuation and Language Style 20%
Is
the project readable and easily understood due to the efficient use language,
sentencing, punctuation and organization of information?
Read
through your project. Are there clear
topic sentences in each paragraph? Is
the punctuation correct? Is there a
clear introduction, developed body paragraphs and an interesting conclusion?
Are
your points easy to understand? If they
are not, rewrite the phrases and even re-organize paragraphs.
Use this rubric as a checklist for your project. You might even be able to figure your own
grade, according to the fulfillment of these categories.
20 pts 16
pts 12 pts 8 pts
|
Length
|
4- 5 paragraphs; consisting
of approximately five sentences
100%
|
3
80%
|
2
60%
|
1
40%
|
|
Bibliography
|
3 sources, books and/ or
appropriate internet sources in proper form.
|
2 sources
If the sources are not in
proper form the score moves to 1 lesser score
|
1 source
|
Non acceptable sources- .com, etc.
|
|
Citation
|
Mentioning sources in the
text of the project, in the appropriate places
|
Some mentioning of the
sources, but not in all of the appropriate places
|
Sources mentioned once per
page
|
Minimal citation
|
|
Task
|
Direct and interesting connection
of research to the literary text discussed: explored in the introduction and
conclusion. Ideas developed in the
body paragraphs.
|
Adequate connection between
research and literary text discussed: explored in only the introduction or
the conclusion. Ideas minimally
developed in the body paragraphs.
|
Discussion of the literary text that somewhat connects to
the research: explored in the
conclusion or introduction but not developed in the body paragraphs.
|
Minimal connection to research:
minor exploration in either the introduction, conclusion or body paragraphs
|
|
Grammar/ Punctuation and Style
|
Points are easily
understood and organized. Language is
clear and punctuation is accurate
|
Clear introduction and
focus of project with effective language and punctuation
|
Some clearly communicated
paragraphs with focused topic sentences
|
Very few clear points and
difficulty in understanding language
|
EXAMPLE
The following excerpt’s format has been altered from its
original form. There has also been some
editing corrections. This is intended to
be studied for the MLA Format of work cited and in-text citation.
____________________________________________________________________________________
William Shakespeare, born in 1594, is one of the
greatest writers in literature. He dies in 1616 after completing many sonnets
and plays. One of which is A Midsummer
Night’s Dream. They say that this
play is the most purely romantic of
Shakespeare’s comedies. The themes of the play are dreams and reality, love and magic. This extraordinary play is a
play-with-in-a-play, which master writers
only write successfully. Shakespeare proves here to be a master writer. Critics find it a task to explain the
intricateness of the play, audiences find it very pleasing to read and watch. A
Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy combining elements of love, fairies,
magic, and dreams.
This
play is a comedy about five couples who suffer through love’s strange games and the evil behind the devious tricks. This
play begins as Theseus, the Duke, is
preparing to marry Hippolyta. He woos her with his sword. Hermia is in love with Lysander. Egeus, Hermia’s father, forbids the relationship
with Lysander and orders her to marry
Demetrius. Demetrius loves Hermia, but she does not love him. On the other hand, Helena is in love with Demetrius. To
settle the confusion, Theseus decides
that Hermia must marry Demetrius or become a nun. In retaliation to her father’s command, Hermia and
Lysander run away together. Amidst all the problems in the human world,
Titania and Oberon, the fairy queen and
king, continually argue about their various relationships that they have
taken part in. (Scott 336) Titania leaves Oberon
as a result of the arguments. Oberon is hurt and wants revenge on Titania.
So he tells Puck, Oberon’s servant, to
put a magic flower juice on her eyelids while she is sleeping. This potion causes the victim to desperately in love with
the first creature that they see.
Oberon’s plan is carried out, but the potion is also placed on Lysander’s eyes. Lysander awakes to see Helena, who is
aimlessly walking through the woods, and
instantly falls in love with her. She thinks that he is making fun of her being in love with Demetrius, so she
leaves and Lysander follows. This leaves
Hermia to wake up alone. Puck now has journeyed to the area where several
actors are rehearsing. He uses his magic to turn one of them into a donkey, in
hopes that Titania will awake to see it. Just as planned, she awakes and falls in love with the donkey. Oberon and
Puck overhear Demetrius and Hermia
arguing about their relationships and realize that they had made a mistake. In hopes of solving the problem, Puck places
magic juice on Demetrius while he is
sleeping. He awakes to Helena, who now has two men in love with her. Hermia is devastated because Lysander does not
love her anymore. Helena and Hermia argue
because Helena thinks that Hermia is in on the men’s “joke.” All four argue
and leave. Puck persuades them to sleep all together and more of the antidote is placed on the eyes of Lysander.
Titania also receives another dose of the
potion, and awakes to her husband Oberon. A triple wedding is planned and everyone is happy. (thinkquest.com 1-3)
Throughout
the play there are many references to the gender
and sex roles of the characters. As described in the critical essay by Shirley
Nelson Garner, the dominating male power and strange sex roles of the
characters is fluent throughout the play. The ordering of the fairy, human, and natural worlds is a movement toward
satisfying men’s psychological needs; but
it also disrupts women’s bonds with each other. The argument between Titania and Oberon arises from
Titania’s focus of attention toward a
stolen Indian boy. Oberon uses his authority to force Titania to give up the boy, and he is shocked when she disobeys him
and leaves. Her attachment to the boy is
erotic, because she treats him similar to Bottom after she falls in love with him by a spell. The underlying reason for
Oberon’s complaint of Titania and the
boy’s relationship is that he secretly wants the boy for himself. Oberon takes action because his power is
threatened by Titania’s love for the boy.
He needs her too, so he wins the boy for himself to make her feel inferior. In other words, Titania gave up something
that she loved to make her husband happy.
This is seen in everyday life, women give up their wants to make their men happy. Titania’s sacrifice for Oberon cost
her to lose both her Indian boy and his
mother, her women lover. When men don’t make women happy, they turn to their
friends for what they need, whatever it may be. (Scott 370-373)
Male
domination not only exists between husband and wife, but also between father and daughter. Theseus will not allow Hermia to marry
Lysander. Theseus wants her to marry Demetrius. Egeus, a
ruler, will force Hermia to become a nun
unless she marries Demetrius. In retaliation to his demands, Lysander and
Hermia run away together. Hermia is scolded by Egeus for being in love with the man she chooses. This suggests that men
cause women to feel forced and obligated
to do as they say. (Scott 373) Another example of male domination is the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. Theseus’ first wife was frail and yielding, and he divorced her. Hippolyta has been a
warrior, and Theseus’ victory over her
makes her unable to resist. By conquering the female warrior and marrying her, he fulfills his need for the
exclusive love of a woman while satisfying
his homoerotic desires. Close bonding fulfills this homoerotic desire with a male companion, such as Demetrius and Egeus.
(Scott 373-373)
Male jealousy and need for dominance ruins women’s relationships with friends
and
also turns to brutality. Hermia and Helena were
once intimate friends, but Helena is
suspicious of Hermia’s involvement in the men’s “joke.” Bonds between women are just as important as men’s bonds
with each other, but jealousy leads to
the end of women’s happiness. When Helena pursues Demetrius, his male brutality is revealed when he rejects her for
another woman, insults her, and threatens
to rape her. Also, when the men fall in love with her, she feels like the “butt of a joke.” This stirs female
insecurity and pain, again caused by previous abuse from men. The
submissive nature of women enables Hermia
and Helena to bear their lover’s abuse. (Scott 374-376) The reconciliation between Titania and Oberon, at the end
of the play, brings blessing to the human
world. This suggests that the happiness of the world depend on the amount of love between couples. The
problems caused suggest the heterosexual
bonding is best. Just as women have insecurities, men feel that if women joined together there will be no need for men,
possibly excluding them or preferring the
friendship and love between women to a man-woman relationship. This fear is
partially based on reality, but also by projection. Since
men have stronger bonds with each other,
they exclude women from participation in tings in which they care about; they assume that woman, if granted the
opportunity would do the same. Men’s main
belief is that separating and conquering women is the only way to keep their power. (Scott 376)
The
essay written by George A. Bernard shows the fantasy and reality
issues in the play. The fantasy world and real
world exist apart from each other, never meeting at any point. The inhabitants of the fairy world are unreal in the sense
that they lack feelings and intelligence.
The dream world, beyond mortal’s comprehension, strongly influences the entire realm of ordinary life. By
nature of their humanity, Oberon’s power
causes vulnerability in the human world. This fairy kingdom is essentially a dream, which appears whenever reason
goes to sleep, and during this time Oberon
controls all things. Such illusions and dreams, created by Oberon, can be dangerous if they block out human’s
perception of reality. As the play
proves, these dreams perform an important function in life. (Scott 381) Fairies, part
of the fantasy world, live in the kingdom in the vague, dream-like East. In this area, legends, myths, and impossible
stories originate. This place is more
commonly called “the dream world.” The East exists both during and after sleep. The fairies bring the stories
to you from the East. The fairies never
think and love, which explains all of the deceit and odd events that go on during the play. This is acceptable in
their world, because all the laws that
govern the world of reality have no existence in the dream world. The lovers
fall between these two worlds and are affected by both. The fairies make fools of the lovers, because humans are no accustomed to the
fairy’s realm. In the real world, Hermia
is sensible and Lysander is reasonable. They want to be together even against Egeus’ commands, which is reasonable
thinking. As soon as the two are alone,
imagination takes control of them and they
are blinded as to the misfortunes that are bound to cross the course of true love. This causes them to run away. (Scott
382-385)
Mark van
Doren explains the language and poetry in A
Midsummer Night’s Dream as an immense expanse
of Shakespeare’s extraordinary poetic imagination. This imagination is vast
enough to house fairy realms and the world of reality, including all the
peculiar manifestations of either place. Also, the ability to describe the separate and often quite dissimilar regions of the
play’s universe by drawing on the rich
resources of poetry. The words moon and water dominate the poetry of the play.
(McIntosh 3) “...four happy days bring in another moon: but, O, methinks, how
slow. This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires” (McIntosh 1-3). As a result of
their enormous allusive potential, these images engender an entire network of interlocking symbols that greatly
enrich the text. The moon, water, and wet
flowers conspire to extend the world of the play until it is as large as all imaginable life. The moon and water also
explain the play’s mystery and
naturality. The lovers fall in and out of love like dolls, and like dolls they will go to sleep as soon as they are
laid down. (McIntosh 3-4) Since the world is very large, there is plenty of room
for mortals and fairies. Both are at home and sometimes seem to have exchanged
functions with one another. Also, both
mortals and fairies move freely in their own “worlds.” In this world,
the moon governs. (McIntosh 4) The choice of ballad emphasizes the enormous difference between the intellectual and
cultural assumptions of Bottom, the
author and the audience.
Meanwhile
the definite movement from spiritual transformation to dream
is referred to as art. This mirrors the informing structure design of the play
as a whole. The art form now becomes away containing and triumphing over
unbearable reality. “Consider, then, we come
but in despite. We do not come, as minding to content you, Our true intent
is all for your delight, we are not here.”
(McIntosh 5) A Midsummer Night’s
Dream is a play concerned with
dreaming. Shakespeare reverses the categories
of reality and illusion, sleeping and waking, art and nature, to touch upon the
central theme of dreams. Dreams are truer than reality because it has a
transforming power. Dreams are a part if the fertile, unbounded world of imagination.
The Athenian lover’s flee to the wood and fall asleep, entering a charmed of dream. After their eyes were anointed, the
world of supernatural at once takes over
the stage, controlling their lives in a way they cannot guess at. The dreams
come true, but are made to appear “fruitless.” Without knowing the dimension of dream in our lives, there can
be no real
self-knowledge. (Garber 59-62) Delusion is the
prelude to illusion. Lysander should
produce this speech at a point when his actions are completely supernaturally or subconsciously controlled without
the slightest hint of either reason or
will. Reason has no place in the dream state, and when characters
attempt to employ it, they frustrate their own
ends. (Garber 62-63) The memory of the
dream itself is vague, because as the mind tries to rationalize what has
been dreamed it only distorts the image. The
instinct of the mind sets boundaries,
while the process of dream blurs and obliterates those boundaries.
(Dutton 51)
The
pattern of the play is controlled and ordered by a series of vital contrasts: the conflict of the sleeping and waking states, the
interchange of reality and illusion,
reason and imagination, and the disparate spheres of the influence of Theseus and Oberon. All is related to
the portrayal of the
dream state. (Garber 65-72) In this dramatic
world where dreams are a reliable source
of vision and insight, consistently truer than reality, they seek to interpret and transform. (thinkquest.com 1) The
imagery establishes the dream world in “A
Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The night creates a mysterious mood. At night, the fairy realm takes control. These fairies
are brainless and deceitful, which leads
to controversy between the mortals. The two worlds, united by moonlight, are active during their respectable
times of the day. In the play, the fairy
world is dominant, because there is only one scene
containing daylight. The sounding of the horns
while the sun rises announces the return
of mortal sanity. The setting is imagery itself. The forest, with flowers, water, and the rest of nature seems to be
away from the human world. This is a necessary setting for the dream world.
(Draper 3173) The main theme in the play
is dreams. As discussed before, dreams are truer than reality because
they are part of the unbounded world
imagination. (Magill 26) The fairies control
the dreams; therefore they control your state of mind. Also a love-madness theme weaves together unrelated portions
of the play. Shakespeare creates unity by flooding the play with moonlight.
(Kenneth 29)
Irony is
a large element in the play. Many of the situations are
ironic. Instead of attracting and falling
in love with a gentlewoman, Theseus won Hippolyta with his sword. Also, Helena’s
affection for Demetrius seems to make him hate her, but the hatred eventually turns to love. Helena constantly
pursues Demetrius, just as deer chase
tigers in the dream forest. Demetrius’ cruel treatment ironically
compels her to love him more. The fairy world
has greater impact than the real world.
This is ironic because the fairies have no intelligence or emotions like
mortals. (Dutton 32-34) “A Midsummer Night’s
Dream” is said to be the most romantic of
Shakespeare’s comedies. The fantasy world and erotic nature of the play draws interest to the play. This interest leads
to the making of several different
movies, and countless number of theater performances. The viewing of the play adds to its dramatic nature, allowing first
hand contrast between how we felt and how
someone else felt about the text. (Dutton 147-150)
Shakespeare’s masterpiece, “A Midsummer Night’s
Dream,” parallels with “Romeo and
Juliet.” The similarity in characters and the plot suggest that “Romeo and Juliet” was written before “A Midsummer
Night’s Dream.” This play is a natural
reaction of Shakespeare’s mind to Romeo because of his
attitude toward love and life. (Draper 3152)
The
similarities between the beginning of the Dream and the main situation of Romeo
and Juliet are obvious. The forbidden love, deceit, and pain are all elements
in the comparison. This suggests that Shakespeare borrowed
and condensed material from “Romeo and Juliet.”
The two fathers, Capulet and Egeus, give the same orders to their daughters.
Capulet: “An you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend. An you benot, hang, beg,
starve, die in the streets.” Egeus: “As she is mine, I many dispose her: Which
shall be either to this gentleman or to her death.” (Magill 72-75) Egeus is
less brutal, but just as threatening as Capulet. Lysander and Hermia’s artificial complaint of love is the first in a series of
hindrances in the course of true love.
This is evidently a recollection of “Romeo and Juliet.” Mercutio’s description of Queen Mab seems to have clearly been
borrowed from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” It
has exquisite delicacy and daintiness of
the Dream, but is not an integral part of “Romeo and Juliet.” One element
shared between the two plays directly is the moon. In “Romeo and Juliet,” the moon brings the two star-crossed lovers
together at night. The Moon unites the
mortal and spiritual worlds in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The two catastrophes are almost identical,
making it strange that he wrote a serious
play directly after the comedy. (Magill 74-76)
Many
people, due
to its “magical” plot, read “A Midsummer Night’s
Dream.” Shakespeare wonderfully combines
mystery, love, disaster, and comedy into one play. This play is the most romantic and intricate plays written
by Shakespeare. Many people, past and
present, find it to be popular due the interesting elements and storylines in the play.
Bibliography
Draper, James P. “Critical Essays
on Major Shakespeare Plays.” World Literature Criticism. 1992.
Dutton, Richard. A Midsummer
Night’s Dream. New York:
St. Martin’s Press, 1996.
Garber, Marjorie B. Dream in
Shakespeare: From Metaphor
to Metamorphosis. London: Yale University
Press, 1974.
Kenneth, Muir.
Shakespeare the Comedies: A Collection of
Critical Essays. New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall,
Inc., 1965.
Magill, Frank N. “A Midsummer
Night’s Dream.” Masters of World Literature. 1989.
Scott, Mark W. and Joseph C.
Tardiff. Shakespeare for Students. Detroit:
Gale
Research, Inc., 1992.
