Homework: Poetry Essay
You should, at this point, be starting a draft of essay.
Analyzing poetry may be a brand-new endeavor. Continue to read and re-read the assigned poems; use your additional resources in this unit, and help each other out in the discussions. If a poem is worthwhile, it should open up on subsequent readings, not shut down. Read more poems, too, beyond the homework. If you hit upon an author whose work resonates with you, see what else is available. The more you read, the more versed you become.
While reading the poems and figuring out their moves and strategies, don't lose sight of the fact that this is, fundamentally, a composition course, and that your three major essays comprise the largest component of the final grade: 70%. In that sense, ENGL 1102 truly builds on ENGL 1101; I'm looking for well-composed, organized essays that assert a main point which needs illustration and backup--that is, something debatable.
In your essays, the least interesting thing you can do is simply restate or paraphrase a poem back to me. (In Unit 2, I'll call this plot summary.) Little is gained from having a poem simply re-told to me. This usually leads to surface-level, "drive-by" writing that doesn't analyze anything in depth and says nothing debatable which needs proof; it's like a checklist.
Don't settle for answering the question "What is this poem about?" Aim higher. Ask instead, "What is this poem doing, and how does it do what it does?" This leads you toward consideration of technique, of specific tools a writer uses. (These elements, again, can be found on the Web site The Close Reading of Poetry, which is linked in the poetry reading homeworks folder.) It also leads you toward the more relevant, higher-order question of "Why?" Why might a poem spend 10 lines describing an old black-and-white photo? Why might a poem repeat a specific phrase at the beginning of every other line? Why might a poem use an image of a coffin to contrast with an image of a young soldier?
Asking such higher-order questions should also get you to think about what a poem can do that a newspaper article (for example) can't: how it employs language, how it compresses, how it aims at a particular kind of truth.
See the pointers I offer in the essay 1 homework document, as well as in the document "Writing about literature" in Start Here. Next, read the student essay "New Life, New Day," located in this week's folder (also specified in the homework calendar). This is a good, helpful example of how to construct poetry analysis. It was written for this same homework by a former student of mine. As you read, note its well-organized and well-illustrated analysis and how it builds its case surely and steadily.
Remember, the pace is accelerated in a short summer semester. Your final draft of essay 1 is due at the conclusion, and before then you must post your working draft of essay 1 and offer feedback on others' drafts. Manage your time well and don't fall behind. Feel free to email me with questions or post them to the Q & A forum as you move through this process.
Before you upload your final draft, take a look at these baseline items.
A. Does the essay have a definite and consistent structure?
a. Does the essay contain a definite introduction, body, and conclusion?
b. Does the introduction lead gracefully and logically into a clear thesis statement?
c. Does each paragraph contain a minimum of five to seven sentences?
d. Does each body paragraph develop one main point each? Is there any wandering, repetition, or drifting?
e. Is there a clear, consistent, easy-to-follow path throughout the writing?
B. Does the essay contain sufficient development of the main topic?
a. Does each body paragraph contain specific, appropriate, and relevant supporting details? Is there any wandering, repetition, or drifting?
b. Is the essay at least three full typed and double-spaced pages (not counting header and title)?
C. Has the essay been edited and proofread for mechanical and grammatical errors?
Format your homework according to the give formatting requirements:
a. The answer must be double spaced, typed, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
b. The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the homework, the course title, the student's name, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
c. Also include a reference page. The references and Citations should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.