1. The Tempest Essay Prep The Tempest Essay Prep Choose your topic Begin to Outline Choose your Quotations

2. Why Outline? You wouldn’t want to walk into a building that had been put together without a blueprint; there might be missing support beams, an uneven floor or a warped ceiling. Your outline is the blueprint for your essay: it indicates your arguments, and where the supports ought to go to make it strong.

3. How to Outline? Some people like the outline in the Literacy Handbook. For many students, that is the way that they have outlined since junior high school. Some people like the outline in the Literacy Handbook. For many students, that is the way that they have outlined since junior high school. Others like a block approach, as seen on the back of your outline. Others like a block approach, as seen on the back of your outline.

4. How to Outline? Some people take a graphic approach; they put all their ideas and quotations on paper and use highlighters and bubbles to link the ideas in a way that makes sense to them. Some people take a graphic approach; they put all their ideas and quotations on paper and use highlighters and bubbles to link the ideas in a way that makes sense to them. Some people take a “journal” approach. That means that they free write paragraphs, and then go back and organize their ideas. (Most people who say they “don’t outline” benefit from this approach.) Some people take a “journal” approach. That means that they free write paragraphs, and then go back and organize their ideas. (Most people who say they “don’t outline” benefit from this approach.) For Monday, outline your essay in the style that works for you. For Monday, outline your essay in the style that works for you.

5. Outlining – Main Ideas and Quotes 1. Twelve years before the opening scenes of the play, Gonzalo showed his decency by ensuring that Prospero and his infant daughter would survive their trip into exile. “A noble Neopolitan, Gonzalo, out of his charity, who being appointed master of this design, did give us, with rich garments, linens, stuffs and necessaries.” (I, i, 161-163)

6. More support… 2. Gonzalo is pleased to have made it ashore alive, and tries to convince the other castaways of their great luck in survival. “Beseech you sir, be merry. You have cause (so have we all) of joy; for our escape is much beyond our loss.” (II, i, 1-3)

7. More support 3. Gonzalo thinks about how he would rule a kingdom. He would embrace simplicity, and would rid his nation of the hierarchy of dukes and earls. He would provide for his people, and encourage them to provide for themselves: “All things in common nature should produce, without sweat or endeavor. Treason, felony, sword, pike, knife or need of any engine would I not have; but nature should bring forth, of its own kind, all foison, all abundance, to feed my innocent people.” (II, i, 164-169)

8. More Support 4. Gonzalo realizes that Antonio and Sebastian are planning to harm Alonso. “All three of them are desperate; their great guilt, like poison given to work a great time after, now begins to bite the spirits. I do beseech you, that are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly, and hinder them from what this ecstasy may now provoke them to.” (III, iii, 104-109)

9. More Support 5. Gonzalo sums up the action of the play in a nutshell, clarifying for all present what has happened between Miranda and Ferdinand. “Was Milan thrust from Milan that his issue should become kings of Naples?” (V, i, 205-206)

10. In the end… Using those paragraph topics and those quotes, you could create a 7 paragraph essay proving that Gonzalo was the voice of reason in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Using those paragraph topics and those quotes, you could create a 7 paragraph essay proving that Gonzalo was the voice of reason in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Organizing your points and your quotations in advance makes the writing of your essay much clearer and more efficient. Organizing your points and your quotations in advance makes the writing of your essay much clearer and more efficient.

11. For Monday’s Class: Write an outline, in the style that makes sense to you (you will be submitting it) Find quotations that would support your thesis (keep track of Act, Scene and Line)