Evening folks,
The rewrite is progressing quite well so I won't bore you with that. Sales are slow but I haven't done any promo for weeks. On the plus side a chap at work is about to start reading a paperback copy of The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe.
In other news I came home tonight to a request from the wife. Her oldest niece has to do some sort of essay based test on Thursday which answers the question I've used as the title of this post. The texts in question are Macbeth and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Now this might seem odd, or not, but it was actually thoroughly interesting. I have the necessary qualifications to help with this sort of thing in terms of related exam results and degrees but it's not every day someone asks for my help writing an essay.
I do have a decent working knowledge of both books but obviously I don't read them regularly. Anyway, I had a quick flick through my copies of both, then a quick look on Google, made some notes and rang the girl. Apparently the class had never studied Jekyll and Hyde which doesn't bode well for the essay but I have to admit her knowledge of Shakespeare's text was pretty good and she had a good grasp of the relevant themes.
Anyway, I talked her through my ideas, kept it simple, suggested she compare and contrast, use the obvious character elements, the environment and then back up her points with relevant quotes. It seems I must have done something right as she posted a Twitter message later saying it made sense now and asked if she could make notes and then email it tomorrow for feedback. Needless to say the wife is delighted with my efforts.
For my part it was great to delve into the books again and I actually wrote four pages of notes on the topic and could happily have written the essay. Pity I spend my days dealing in numbers and figures rather than words. Ho hum.
Anyway, time for bed. Until next time...
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