Final Project _Proposal_Background_PPT_Essay.docx

Final Essay`s Poem.docx

EngL 1186: Final Essay Project

We have learned to examine a wide variety of poetic elements so far this semester—rhyme, meter, form, sound patterns, and the like.  The next step is to think about how these elements work together with what you know about the poet’s biography and historical context. 

For your final essay Poem“Night Feeding

Night Feeding

Night Feeding” By Muriel Rukeyser   1913–1980 Muriel Rukeyser. Analyzing it, using a combination of your ability to analyze a wide range of poetic elements with research about your selected poet and his/her historical and cultural context.  You may select any poem you want as long as that poem is in your book or available online, or you can provide me with a hard copy. 

This essay includes a number of steps: 

1.    A proposal; the Poem selection and final paper proposal (50 points)—due Wednesday,  November 19, 2014 by 11:59 pm

For this assignment, you should submit a brief outline that explains what poem you will be analyzing, describes what you tentatively think the poem is about, and highlights 3-4 elements of the poem itself that you think contribute to the poem’s meaning.  Please start with your tentative thesis, and then include a bullet point for each of the elements you will be analyzing.  Bullet points should be followed be a few sentences about what aspects of that element you think are significant. 

Example: “For my final essay, I will be analyzing Sylvia Plath’s “Tulips,” which I think is about:

a)       Imagery: The color white plays a key role in this poem.  Plath draws a connection between the white of snow and the white of sheets and uniforms in hospitals; she contrasts this to the exciting colors of tulips.  The tulips are also personified, and become increasingly more aggressive and dangerous over the course of the poem.

b)       Form: Etc.

c)       Sound Patterns: Etc…” 

Note: this will not be all the analysis you will do on these elements, but it will get you started and help me see if you are off on the right foot. 

2.   A biographical/contextual essay .Biography/context essay (75 points)—due December 3, 2014 by 11:59 pm

This essay is a short, 2-3 page report about the historical context of your poem and the biography of the author.  For this, you will need to do research on your poem—the Literature Resource Center database from academic libraries will be very helpful for this stage of the essay.  You can access this database by going to the library homepage, clicking on the “Articles” tab, and then selecting “Literature Resource Center” from the dropdown menu.  You can access this database from off-campus—the “Off-Campus Access” link on the right side of the page will walk you through how to do this. 

In the essay, you should describe two or three of the most important biographical/historical details you learned about your poem and author that shed light on how you can interpret it.  You can include this information either by summarizing the sources you researched or by quoting them directly—in either case, use MLA in-text citation, along with a Works Cited page at the end of the essay, to properly give credit to your sources.  You will fail this assignment if you do not cite your sources. 

This essay should be organized around a thesis that summarizes the two or three key points that you found in your research and that explains how this information might be useful when analyzing your poem. 

Example: “When analyzing Sylvia Plath’s poem ‘Tulips,’ knowing about her struggle with depression, her multiple suicide attempts, and her stay at McLean Hospital can help the reader understand where much of the imagery and darkness of the poem comes from.”  In this example, the essay could then go on to talk in more detail about Plath’s struggle with depression, her multiple suicide attempts, and the medical treatment she underwent for these mental health issues. 

At this point, you do not have to connect these issues to specific parts of the poem; this essay is simply a biographical/historical report, rather than an analysis that connects this context to the poem itself.   

Essays will be graded on the following criteria, with the most weight given to the first four.    A central argument or thesis that summarizes the key biographical/historical details you will cover  Clearly summarized biographical or historical details about your author or poem  Support for your summary from outside sources, which are clearly and correctly cited  An organizational structure  An engaging introduction and conclusion  Well-crafted sentences and paragraphs  Good grammar and spelling 

3.                        Final paper presentation (50 points)—due December 7, 2014 by 6 pm

For this presentation, you will present your poem and your interpretation to the class in one of two formats:

a)      A PowerPoint presentation, This presentation should have at least 5 slides that include the following elements: your poem, your overall interpretation of the poem (in other words, the thesis of your essay), and at least 3 elements of the poem or contextual/biographical details that support this reading.  If you choose this option, work to make sure your presentation is engaging and doesn’t overwhelm your readers with too much text on each slide.  Creativity in slide design (pictures, visually appealing formatting, etc.) is a plus.

b)      A short YouTube video in which you recite your poem, present your overall interpretation of the poem (in other words, the thesis of your essay), and explain at least 3 elements of the poem or contextual/biographical details that support this reading.  I don’t know how to create videos or upload them to YouTube—you should choose this option only if you are confident that you can do this on your own or if you have a tech-savvy friend or relative who is willing to help you out.  You must submit this option as a YouTube video, rather than as any other sort of file—not everyone has the same software to play videos with, and using YouTube will enable everyone to view your presentation. 

Regardless of which option you choose, you should conclude your presentation with a question or two for your audience.  You can ask questions that are merely designed to provoke discussion, or you can ask questions about your analysis or argument.  Presentations will be posted on D2L on December 8, 2014, and all of your discussion posts that week will be

comments on your classmates’ presentations.  You can use the feedback you get about your presentation to refine your argument for your final paper. 

4.                      Final essay (150 points)—due Monday, December 15, 2012 by 6 pm

For this final 6-8 page essay, you should bring together everything that you have learned this semester and all the work that you have done in steps 1-3 of this project.   

Your essay should present an interpretation of your selected poem, with specific, detailed analysis of the elements of the poem and its historical/biographical context that contribute to your interpretation.  Elements you could consider are:  Sound patterns  Imagery  Rhyme  Repetition  Meter  Form  Speaker’s voice  Subject  Style  Historical and biographical context

 

Please note: You do not need to cover all of these elements in your essay.  Rather, you should select the elements that are most important in the poem and that contribute most strongly to the overall interpretation of the poem that you want to put forward.  The strongest essays, however, will be the ones that take both the poem itself as well as its context into consideration. 

When writing your essay, use my comments on your proposal and your biographical/historical essay and your classmates’ comments on your presentation to revise and expand your thinking.  You should feel free to incorporate any of the writing you have done for any step of this project into this final paper, but keep in mind—it will most likely need to be revised before you do. 

Essays should be 6-8 pages each and organized around a central argument or thesis.  Essays MUST include outside research, and should include direct quotations from your selected poem.  These texts should be cited using MLA format.  If you want to cite information covered in the lecture notes you should cite it using the format for a speech or a lecture.  If you have questions about MLA format, there is a link to the Purdue Online Writing Lab under “Course Information” that is a great resource for MLA style-related questions. 

Essays will be graded on the following criteria, with the most weight given to the first four.    A central argument or thesis  Support for that argument, as seen in specific lines of poetry and incorporation of outside research  Analysis that connects the textual support to the overall argument of the essay  A clear organizational structure  An engaging introduction and conclusion  Well-crafted sentences and paragraphs  Good grammar, spelling, and citation 

NOTE: Essays that do not cite outside research will fail this assignment. 

Final essays should be 6-8 pages (2000-2500 words), typed, double-spaced, in a 12-point font such as Calibri or Times New Roman (nothing strange), and with 1” margins.   

* Please submit all parts of this project through the appropriate D2L dropbox.*

 

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