| Due Dates: | Requirements: |
| Working Draft—September 25, 2001 Final Draft—October 2, 2001 |
|
To analyze a poem and to make a persuasive case for your interpretation of its meaning and significance.
The poems we have studied are difficult to understand at first, but they definitely reward close consideration. Read through the chosen poem several times. Look up any words that (a) you do not know and/or (b) that might have complex alternative meanings that will expand interpretive possibilities.
Though you will have endless ideas in your notes about the meaning of the poem, narrow them down to a few that are particularly interesting and persuasive. Ground your conclusions about the poem's meaning in specific details from the poem. Use quotations from the poem to support your points, as well as individual words. Discuss structure as well as content.
Edgar Bowers' "An Afternoon at the Beach"—"The place I leave is beautiful: the sea / Repeats the winds' far swell in its long sound" (199). Explain the significance of the beach in the context of this poem.
Allen Ginsberg, from "Howl"—analyze the image of "the visible madman doom of the wards of the madtowns of the East" and compare to one or two other images in the poem (241).
Sylvia Plath, "The Colossus"—examine the central image of this poem (the Colossus of Rhodes) (381-382).
Elizabeth Bishop, "In the Waiting Room"—how do the waiting room and the objects within it contribute to the character's realization in this poem? (36-38)
Identify the important ideas, structural qualities, images, etc. that make this poem what it is. Brainstorm possible meanings and details.
After deciding which details from the passage are the most distinctive and interesting to you, formulate a thesis statement about what the passage means. This thesis may change as you write your paper, and that is fine.
Write a draft of your argument about the passage. Refer directly to specific words and phrases in the chosen poem in supporting your argument.
Bring a word-processed, properly formatted draft to class on September 25 for peer editing.
Revise your draft after that class. Consider the feedback you have received from your classmate as well as your ideas as you rework your argument.
Having completed your revisions, proofread your paper. Watch out for typos, incorrect punctuation and other problems. Do not hesitate to consult a style manual if you have questions (Keys for Writers is one style manual that is easy to find on the UMD campus, but there are numerous others that will work just as well.)
If you wish, sign up to consult with me about this draft in a student conference.
Turn in the completed final draft and peer-edited working draft on October 2 in class.
I have based the following writing tips on common difficulties that students encounter when writing papers for this class.
Develop an arguable and interesting thesis statement that applies directly to poem (i. e., that you could not write about any other poem).
Example:
ARGUABLE THESIS (for a different assignment): Gjertrud Schnackenberg's poem "Signs" uses images of airplanes to argue that omens of terrible events are as important and as unavoidable now as they were in the past when people turned to palms and the flight patterns of birds to foretell calamity.
NOT AN ARGUABLE THESIS: Gjertrud Schnackenberg's poem "Signs" explains how omens work.
Organize your argument around this thesis statement. Think of between two and four sub-points and structure your argument around them.
Sample Outline (for the above thesis):
Some grammatical tips:
Avoid using the passive voice whenever it is possible to do so. When writing in the passive voice, you remove the subject from the sentence or at least de-emphasize it. This makes writing less engaging to most readers.
Example:
ACTIVE VOICE: Ginger eats spaghetti. (Note structure: subject/verb/object)
PASSIVE VOICE: Spaghetti is eaten. (Structure: object/"to be" verb/past participle)
ACTIVE VOICE: Ginger ate spaghetti.
} Passive voice can exist in any verb tense.
PASSIVE VOICE: Spaghetti was eaten.
AVOID CONTRACTIONS when writing college papers. Replace "they're" with "they are" and replace "don't" with "do not" (these are just a few examples of the numerous possible contractions out there.
Italicization is the best way to signal that you are referring to a word itself and not to the thing that the word represents. You should also italicize titles of books (even in parenthetical references and lists of works cited) and foreign-language words like je ne sais quoi.
The word it's (with an apostrophe) is a contraction of it is. The word its (without an apostrophe) is the possessive of it. Its and whose both deviate from the above rule about possessives.
A grammatically complete sentence has at least one subject and one verb. If it is missing a subject or a verb, it is a sentence fragment. Sentence fragments are sometimes acceptable, but only if you mean to use them.
Commas. These are tricky little bits of punctuation, and your best bet is to look them up in a style manual. All the same, there are two things I should mention.
First, a comma is a very fragile, spindly, little thing, and it is not strong enough to string two grammatically complete sentences together all by itself. When you use a comma for this purpose, it is called a comma splice.
Example:
WRONG: I hope it starts snowing soon, snow would make Duluth so much prettier.
See that poor little comma? It is just dying under the strain.
CORRECT: I hope it starts snowing soon, because snow would make Duluth so much prettier.
ALSO CORRECT: I hope it starts snowing soon. Snow would make Duluth so much prettier.
Second, if the first word of your sentence is not the subject of the sentence, then it is a good idea to use a comma to separate the subject from whatever precedes it. If it only one word precedes the subject, then this rule is optional, but a whole phrase really does need a comma after it before you get on with the rest of the sentence.
Example:
WRONG: In the last days of May I fell into a well.
CORRECT: In the last days of May, I fell into a well.
OPTIONAL: Certainly you can understand where I am coming from.
OR: Certainly, you can understand where I am coming from.
In grading this assignment, I will use the following criteria. Papers under three pages will lose points as well:
| A | Confident, persuasive written expression An original approach to the poem A strong thesis statement that is arguable and interesting Exemplary in the clarity and organization of its argument Engaging to its audience in a manner that commands attention Consistently good use of evidence in support of your contentions and in accordance with MLA format Nearly flawless mechanically (format, spelling, grammar) |
| B | Clear written expression with a few minor breakdowns in sentence clarity Somewhat original approach to the poem A strong thesis statement that is arguable and interesting Well-organized argument that signals its structure to readers by way of effective transitional sentences Good use of evidence to support your contentions and in accordance with MLA format Only a few mechanical flaws |
| C | Satisfies the basic demands of the assignment Generally clear though with some confusing sentences Makes a clear argument about the meaning of the poem A thesis statement that is arguable and interesting A well-organized argument Use of evidence in support of your contentions and in accordance with MLA format, though not consistently Several mechanical flaws, but not so many that they confuse the meaning of your paper. |
| D | Almost satisfies the basic demands of the assignment Numerous breakdowns impairing the clarity of your argument Thesis statement is either not arguable or is uninteresting Argument has minimal organization Use of evidence to support contentions is wildly inconsistent and/or not in accordance with the MLA format Numerous mechanical flaws interfering with paper clarity |
| F | Does not satisfy the basic demands of the assignment Unclear writing style Lacks a thesis statement No clear argument-a seemingly random arrangement of ideas Mechanical flaws throughout the paper No use of evidence to support the argument Plagiarized work |