Description
For this essay, you must trace a tradition, style, technique, movement, influences, responses, refutation, theme, preoccupation, or conversation that delves deeply into a single poet's work or cuts across at least 2 poets through Modern American poetry and write a research paper about it. You should have something to prove about your chosen topic, and your argument should incorporate research and the analysis of at least 2 poems.Guidelines
The final paper should be about 2500-3000 words long in MLA format (about 10-12 pages long, typed, double-spaced, with 1” margins, and a 12-point font). You must incorporate 3-5 secondary sources (including at least 2 peer reviewed sources) in your essay. All sources must be documented in impeccable MLA format—parenthetical citation (author’s last name & page number) and a works cited page for the primary works and any research you cite.A 1-page proposal is due on Tuesday, November 5. In this proposal, identify the topic, poet, and poems you wish to write about and offer a sense of your focus.
The essay is due on Tuesday, December 3.
Assessment
As stated in the syllabus:This course will practice labor-based grading (aka ungrading), which means that the focus will be detracted from grades and refocused on doing high quality work in a timely manner and receiving substantive feedback. Each assignment will have clearly stated criteria for earning a grade at the A level and I will assess that this criteria has been met, offer feedback for improvement, and a grade within that range.
The A-level criteria for this essay are the following:
- Fulfilling all the assignment parameters as described above, including meeting the deadline and length requirements.
- Formulating a thesis statement that is based on your own thinking about the poet(s), their work, and an organizing idea.
- Engaging with the ideas of Modernism, in one poet or across several poets' work.
- Referencing at least two poems with substantive engagement.
- Referencing secondary sources.
- The essay is well organized, edited, and documented.
Policy on AI
For this assignment, the goal is to get you to think deeply about the poem in the context of the poet's own approach to Modernism and to express it in writing. Before you consider using AI for this assignment, I want you to read the MLA Student Guide to AI Literacy and think carefully about how AI can assist you in ways that don't impede your learning.The specific learning outcomes for this assignment are to:
- Formulating a thesis statement that is based on your own thinking about the poet(s), their work, and an organizing idea.
- Engaging with the ideas of Modernism, in one poet or across several poets' work.
- Thinking deeply about the chosen poems, performing analysis that yields insight on the poems and their significance to the thesis.
- Develop your writing skills by expressing these ideas in an organized essay that supports its claims with examples from the poem and detailed analysis, and cites relevant secondary sources.