ENG 112 Summer 2021
Poetry Essay Assignment
Basic Requirements
Use MLA format
Oodles of specifics from the texts you choose required to support your claims
Obsessive citation
A 5-paragraph analysis is required for every option (sometimes it’s the entire focus of the assignment, sometimes it’s part of the assignment)
DO NOT CONSULT OUTSIDE SOURCES FOR THIS ESSAY—I want to see your insights, based on the course text and your own noggin.
Check the essay grading rubric and the tips I shared in the Fiction Module to help give you some direction—that information will apply to this essay, too!
Topic Options:
Creative Option A: Take any one of the stories that were CP options in the Fiction module of our course and convert it into a sonnet, using those from the course text as models. Then: write a 5-paragraph reflection of the 3-step process you used while writing it, OR reflect on what difference genre makes: based on your experience, what can a story do that a sonnet doesn’t? What can a sonnet do that a story doesn’t? (1200-1500 words, including your sonnet.)
Creative Option B: Take any one of the poems that were in CP options in this module and write three responses to, reflections of, or parodies of it in 3 separate poems, each with a different structure/poetic form (from the original and from each other). Then write a 5-paragraph analysis discussing the different opportunities the different forms provide and showing how each is an appropriate response to the original. (1200-1500 words, including your poems but not the original on which they are based!)
Academic-y Option A: Theme: Write a 5-paragraph compare/contrast analysis of a theme that you identify in three of the poems that were options for CPs. How do different poems address and present the same theme? Base this on your own observations/careful reading—no sources! (1000-1500 words–about 4-6 pages in double-spaced Times New Roman 12)
Academic-y Option B: In-Depth Look at One Poet’s Work: Choose one of the poets from the CP list who has at least three poems published in our course text. Based ONLY on your analysis of the poems themselves (do NOT consult outside sources for this!), come up with a theory about what theme preoccupies the poet (this will be your thesis), and show in a 5-paragraph essay how that theme expresses itself in three separate poems from our anthology. (1000-1500 words–about 4-6 pages in double-spaced Times New Roman 12)
I encourage you to email me to share your ideas; I might be able to help you shape the focus of your essay. Even better, share them in the ungraded poetry discussion—your ideas might inspire someone else!
The post ENG 112 Summer 2021 Poetry Essay Assignment Basic Requirements Use MLA format appeared first on PapersSpot.
