ENG 112 College Composition II

Read the play Trifles . There are a number of resources you may find helpful in understanding and writing about this play. You are free to use them or not.

Task 1b. Listserv Assignment

You should have already written a brief introductory note to the listserv subscribers in this unit when you subscribed to the listserv. Now I'd like you to send a second note to the listserv.

In it please address one of the following questions:

Do you think that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters were justified in hiding the things they found from the men in the play? Why or why not? Explain your answer.

Do you think that Mrs. Wright was justified in killing her husband? Why or why not? Explain your answer.

Last year in California a woman tapped the fender of the car in front of her while driving. The driver of it leaped from his car and stormed back to yell at her. When her small dog jumped onto her lap, the man grabbed it and threw it into traffic, where it was killed instantly. The man was ultimately convicted of felony animal cruelty and may receive a sentence of up to 3 years in prison at most. Compare and contrast this situation with the one in Trifles.

Please respond to at least two of the listserv emails you receive in this unit.

This is your first essay in this class. I'd like you to write about the theme of Susan Glaspell's play, Trifles, and the words she wrote and the choices she made in creating her play to convey that theme.

Consider some of the choices the author made as she wrote the play, choices about setting, characters, plot, conflicts, and themes.

Consider how these and other changes would have altered your reading of the play. When you begin to see the author's choices, you can sometimes begin to understand the idea she's trying to communicate through her work.

The first step in developing your essay is to write and post your thesis statement on the Discussion Board for Trifles. Please make sure that it meets the criteria for thesis statement in the Checklist. Do not proceed to Task 1d. until I've approved your thesis statement.

Please note that I am not looking for a particular thesis or idea; I am checking to make sure that it contains the elements required for a good, argumentative thesis about the theme of a literary work. Without one, it's impossible to write a good essay.

The success of your essay is not judged on whether or not I agree with your thesis, but whether you have supported it well. Do not spend time trying to guess what I believe the theme to be because there is no one right answer.

Write the first draft of your essay on Trifles with a word-processing program.

Before posting your draft on the Discussion Board, review the checklist for essays and make sure that you have met the requirements as well as you can. If you have completed the tasks on the checklist, copy and paste it to post the first draft of your paper on the forum, Trifles as a reply to the thesis statement you posted earlier. (Label it "Draft.")

Read the drafts of other students. Then comment on two of them. (Please choose papers in such a way that each student receives at least two comments from their peers.)