Essay assignment will be a research paper that will
require both a primary source and at least one secondary source. You will
choose the primary resource from the list of poems provided in Week 5, and you
will then research that poem or poet to find a secondary source to quote that
will support your thesis statement.
Read these requirements for the research paper.
SPOILER! – Search for scholarly articles, or criticism on
the poem using Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/
This is a great way to get ideas for your essay. If
you find an article that discusses an aspect of the poem that you can see or
agree with, write about that idea and use the article as your secondary source.
This is fine as long as the writing is yours and anything used from the article
is quoted properly.
1. You must follow the MLA guidelines for both in-text
citations and for the works cited page.
2. You must use multiple quotes from both the primary source
(poem) and the secondary sources you find (from searching for scholarly
articles or criticism of the poem).
3. All quotes in your essay must have in-text
citations.
3. You must make a valid connection between the secondary
source and the poem/poet. If you chose one of the poems about war, for
instance, don’t give us history of the war. Relevance is key; the focus
must be on the poem.
4. This essay must be between 3-5 complete pages of writing,
which does not include the works cited page.
5. Much of this assignment is about following directions, so
please be sure that you do.
6. Don’t use Wikipedia, Smoosh, Poetry Foundation,
Gliss, PoemAnalysis (and please don’t make me continue to add to this
list…unless it’s an article found using the search engine I’ve provided you,
don’t use it), or anything else besides scholarly articles or literary
criticism. Those websites may list their original sources. If
they do, you may be able to follow those links and use the original
sources. Your secondary sources should be from scholarly articles
or literary criticism. If there is no identifiable author for an
article, don’t use it as a source.
The best approach to this assignment is to read
through the poems and choose several options. Do a quick search of the
available criticism, scholarly articles or critical reviews of
the poem and see which poem provides you with enough material to write a 3-5
paper. If you choose to take a biographical approach and focus on the
poet’s life, it is crucial that you make valid connections between the poet’s
life and the poem.
