Commentary for Britton and Lauren R

Britton: I know we talked earlier today but I thought it would be good for me to write down my thoughts on your paper in case you wanted to refer back to them.

My initial reaction to the first few paragraphs was "wow, this kid is a good writer".  You did a great job at articulating your argument and because of that it was easy for me to become engaged in your topic. Throughout the paper it was easy for me, even as an uniformed reader, to follow your ideas. The places where your paper was lacking was its use of the primary text and secondary sources. Now I fully realize that I read a rough draft and that you potentially have source material waiting in the wings so maybe this critique is nothing more than an after thought. In short, your paper is good, your ideas are great and really interesting, but they would benefit through more rigorous analysis of the primary text, and more thorough application of more scholarship.

Lauren: Your paper was a lot of fun to read.  Iago is such an interesting and unique character the fact that paper deals specifically in the dynamics of that character made it really engaging for me. I know we have talked in class we have talked a lot about how to really hone in on the argument for the topic of you have chosen. I have to say that after reading your rough draft I thought your ideas on the complexity of identity and character were really articulated well and made sense. I know at the end of your post you talked about incorporating more scholarship, and I do think that it needs that, but I think your ideas are salient enough that it would not be too difficult to find more research on your topic. One place where I found you paper lacking was the incorporation of the primary text. The paragraph where you do break down Iago's lines was, to me, definitely your strongest. If you had more analysis like that it would really strengthen the "backbone" of your paper. Overall, I think you are heading in the right direction and I'm exited to see the finished product.