Because we are coming to the middle of the term, it's time to start thinking about the first major writing assignment. In general, you are going to annotate and summarize a piece of research/scholarship (minimum of 10 pages in length) regarding either the sonnets, in whole or part (meaning a single sonnet, one of the groupings, or all of them, or maybe something else, but talk to me about it) or The Merchant of Venice. Following the annotation and summary, you are going to write about 500 words describing how the summarized material has informed, enlightened or confused your understanding of the essay's topic. We'll go over this in class.

Act Four is all about the trial in which Shylock argues for his "bond" to be honored. We are not lawyers, but we are going to pretend. The question I'd like you to consider if whether Portia's prosecution (that's a neutral term, meaning she just puts the case forward) of the case is amounts to mercy or entrapment. Provide what evidence you can from the trial transcript (meaning, the words Shakespeare puts in the mouth of each character) to support your view. Once you've posted your journal, be sure to respond to at least two other journals and to at least one of the responses to your journal. Come to class ready to act out the trial, in whole or part.