Notes on

1
Notes on The Canterbury Tales in-class essay

• Mr. Cleon M. McLean
• A.P. English
• Ontario High School

2
FYI

• Examine this idea of thoughtful laughter
• Since we read to be entertained and enlightened,
  if follows that
• Entertainmentlaughtersensibilitiessubjective
  experience
• Enlightenmentthoughtsenseobjective analysis

3
FYI

• The Canterbury Tales is
• a framed, satiric poem
• Written in late Medieval Times (late 1400)
• What you read was the Prologue to the tales, NOT
  the tales (except the Pardoners Tale)
• Rather than say many characters, why not say 31
  English pilgrims?
• TCT
• shows the comic dissonance/incongruity between a
  characters social station and his/her true
  nature/disposition
• chronicles several examples of institutional
  corruptionparticularly the Churchin late
  Medieval times.

4
PROSCRIPTION, i.e., what NOT to do

• DO NOT KISS UP about the author or the work. You
  are reading canonical work, which means that the
  authors and pieces are already renown...we dont
  need you to discover that for us.
• DO NOT DO ROUGH DRAFT/OUTLINE on your essay
  paper! If you do, it will count as a part of your
  essay

5
The by-gone days of awkwardness

• Your favorite word by makes for either passive
  or awkward sentences.
• Mr. McLean writes on the board by using a pen.
• Mr. McLean uses a pen to write on the board.

6
What is the difference between the following

• The Pardoners tale
• The Pardoners tale
• In Geoffrey Chaucers TCT, Chaucer shows
• In TCT, Geoffrey Chaucer shows

7
Grammar

• Capitalize proper nouns!!
• English, England, Bible, Medieval Times
• Underline titles of novels
• Use quotation marks for poems, plays, and short
  stories
• Use transitional phrases (at least) at the
  beginning of your body and concluding paragraphs!
  
• After first spelling out The Canterbury Tales,
  you may then use abbreviations, such as TCT,
  but do not forget the quotation marks

8
Vocabulary to Know

• Baseness (lacking virtue)
• Perversity
• Hypocrisy
• Quid pro quo (a thing given as compensation)

9
Spelling

• Char-act-er
• Receive
• Believe
• Woman..women
• Senses.believe it or not, its the same as your
  other book, SOUND SENSE!!

10
FYI

• Sometimes it helps to use old-fashioned clichés
  and proverbs such as wolf in sheeps wool
• Make connections between your Sound and Sense
  readings and Chaucers poemor Shakespeares
  Macbeth