Sunday, November 25, 2012

How do I structure a paragraph reflecting shifting values & contextual focus (while definining King Lear's C. F. simultaneously?King Lear...

Your essay must be many paragraphs, so your question is a
bit incorrect and may be blocking you from thinking logically about how to approach your
assignment.  For a complex writing assignment, it's often helpful to begin with a
bulleted list.  I often use PowerPoint to begin with because it automatically bullets
the information, is easy to move items around, and lets me create subbullets or change a
subbullet to a main bullet, etc.  When the outline is done, you are organized and the
hardest part of your essay is done.  

One suggestion is to identify
all the character's values in King Lear in one bulleted list.  You don't say in your
question to us whether you are selecting one character or several but based on your
punctuation I am assuming it is just one character.  Copy that list to a new page,
identify which values shift, and review for yourself how many shifting values you'll
need to discuss in your essay.  This up front research is very important because you'll
want to zero in on the major shifting values for discussion in your essay, but also
reference the other values, both those that shift and those that don't, so your
instructor knows that you know what they are.  Also, it will help you avoid putting too
much emphasis in your essay on only one or two items, or on the wrong items, when you
should be discussing more items or something else.

Once you identify
where your major emphasis should be, you should have a clearer idea of how many major
shifting values you'll need to discuss.  This will help you figure out how long your
essay will be, what your opening paragraphs will be, and whether it will take one, two,
or even more paragraphs to discuss each of the major shifting values. 
 

Now you can begin writing.  Use your opening paragraph to identify
your character and your premise; that is, the values you identified and that certain
ones seem to shift throughout the play.  You'll use the remaining paragraphs to discuss
each of the major value shifts you found, with your closing paragraph to summarize.
 

Keep in mind that it is sometimes helpful to use other characters as
part of the "evidence" in your argument.  For example, if you identify a particular
value as shifting, is there another character with that same value that does not shift,
and is there a point where the two characters diverge because of the firstt one's
shift?

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