Pre Essay Preparation

[ziaxadon]

Hey Guys,
I've just finished reading Medea and have gathered some quotes and themes (it took me a long time to do the first ten pages). To speed things up, what I should I do to best increase my familiarity with the text and hopefully begin essay writing soon?

Thanks in advance!!!!

[LifeisaConstantStruggle]

Wow that's fairly quick (I actually procrastinated until mid march before I annotated anything ahhaaha) but it's still a good start.
Before actually memorising and gathering quotes I would suggest that you think about these aspects of the book (this can be applied to any text):
1) themes (think about the holistic themes, and also themes that are raised at certain sections of Medea)
2) views, values and authorial intent (the Ancient Greek male perspective is very important here)
3) audience (what sort of emotions are evoked when a character says something, etc)
4) language (Medea is FILLED with language patterns and literary techniques, and if you can identify these techniques you can easily enhance quality of your essays)
5) characters (this is fairly obvious I guess, also try to identify the gap between male and female perceptions on society based on Medea's characters)
From that you can perhaps try to plan a few essays, or write some if you want to (open book), and by doing that constantly you'll realise that there are a lot of quotes that can be used frequently on almost every essay you write (these will be the important ones you memorise). This will save you heaps of time to do any deeper study on Medea.

More things to add:
Also think about the social, cultural, ethical, and historical implications of every decision made within the text itself, that'll help. If you have any questions just send me a message I'll be more than happy to help.

[Katlii]

awesome job on the headstart! a couple of things i did when i studied medea last year, adding to what has already been wonderfully said:
1) i liked to view the text in blocks rather than having to meticulously go through each page. so that's by episodes or broadly the character transitions, e.g. aegeus and medea as opposed to the agon between jason and medea. so that way, there would be a couple important quotations that highlighted the core themes of each part, and i could move through it fairly fast. that's as much as saying in this episode, the most important quote is that aegeus "swears by all the gods" or here, jason calls medea some insult like "wicked mother" or something
2) read up on euripides' intent and such. this starts to establish an interpretive lens through which to view the text, and helps frame how you plan on using all your quotations and annotated material to support your view of the play.
you seem to already be correlating quotes and themes which is great even just reading more about this, e.g. through literary criticisms and academic essays online, will let you develop a deeper understanding quickly and hopefully begin essay writing soon. you could also think about formulating some stances on important issues of the play (e.g. whether it is a feminist/misogynist play, whether euripides supports/condemns the gods, whether the end brings justice/injustice)
best of luck with your writing!

[sophomania]

Hey, good job on getting a head start! I wish I was as motivated as you during the summer holidays of year 12. There's some really good advice here so I apologise if I'm repeating what others have said.
It seems that you have started gathering quotes and themes, which is really good. Like others have said, you can do a bit more reading and brainstorming to deepen your understanding of the novel. I strongly recommend reading literary reviews and academic essays (as Katlii has said). They have really good ideas that you can draw from. Also, they also have really good vocabulary and expression which can help with your own essay writing. Don't forget to read about the context of the book as well to find out what messages and views the author might be advocating.
Before actually writing essays, I would actually recommend planning essays. Its rather difficult to write a good essay without a good plan. By writing essays, you are practicing finding quotes and examples for certain themes, and you are also generating your own interpretations and ideas of the text. You might also find that you have gaps in knowledge, for example you might find that you don't know many examples about a specific theme. So you can go back to the book and try to find more.
Good luck! 

[TSEtuition]

Hey Guys,
I've just finished reading Medea and have gathered some quotes and themes (it took me a long time to do the first ten pages). To speed things up, what I should I do to best increase my familiarity with the text and hopefully begin essay writing soon?

Thanks in advance!!!!

Hi ziaxadon,

In terms of familiarity with texts, I would suggest drawing up a good character studies map (which I talk about in this video: https://youtu.be/n4Ve42EvmIo) as well as gathering and organising as many quotes as you can. With these quotes, you can write down questions and dot points about what issues they raise and what they reveal about the character.

Hope that help!

~TSEtuition