Assignments

Students complete the following assignments in this class:

• Written self-assessments at the beginning and end of the term
• Comparative short essay on a particular topic within two plays (5 pages)
• Analytic research paper (10 pages, with required revision)
• Performance, group, and scene work
• Five minute oral presentation, which may or may not match the topic of one's analytic research paper

See the calendar page for a weekly breakdown of these assignments and related coursework.

Research Resources

[OCW users: This list is retained in the hope that you may be able to access some of these resources at your local institution.]

Through the MIT Libraries' research databases, enrolled students can find several useful tools to help with research. Among them:

• the OED (Oxford English Dictionary), the standard for historical study of words;
• the MLA (Modern Language Association) bibliography, with links to scholarly articles and books owned by MIT as well as many more available through Interlibrary Loan;
• EEBO (Early English Books Online), a remarkable resource claiming to include scanned copies of all books printed in England before the Restoration.

Assignment Guidelines

Comparative short essay (PDF)

Analytic research paper (PDF)

Oral presentation (PDF)

Example Student Work

Student Work from the 2007 Class: A Complete Play Script

In the 2007 version of this class (which may be accessed through the "Archived Versions" link on the home page of this class), the students' final assignment was to write and perform a play based on the topics covered during the term.

"World Turned Upside Down," by the students of 21L.016 and 21M.616, Spring 2007 (PDF)