English 207Q: Studies in Poetry , Freshman Inquiry Section
Dr. Morillo
Paper 5 assignment
Length: 3- 5 double-spaced pages
Due as a draft Monday, November 6 at the start of class
Due revised at the end of the term. Then the grade will count 10% of your final grade.
For this paper you will combine interpretation and
evaluation, the levels of thinking Bloom and others consider most
challenging. Choose any one poem in the Seagull Reader
that you think is the very best one. Write a 3-5 page essay in which
you explain as precisely and concretely as you can whatever it is you
think makes the poem excellent. Draw upon whatever aspects of
poetry you find most relevant to making a persuasive case for why your
chosen poem is so good. You now have a considerably expanded
range of possibilities compared to what you had in your first essay for
this class, because you now know the terminology of poetry and how to
use it to both criticize and write verse. Consider the poems form as a
significant part of its content. Draw on your own experience as a poet.
Picking the best of anything is an inherently comparative task, so be
sure to spend some time reading a good selection of poems before
settling on your choice. Although persuasion about which poem is best
requires argument, when writing about poetry interpretation of meaning
is not the be all and end all of what is important about art, so I
encourage including how to address the aesthetic qualities of art,
beauty, and the pleasure all good poetry provides.
Do not neglect the guidelines for clear expository writing: quality of
thesis; placement of points; match of claims to evidence, etc.
Because this is a tough assignment, you will turn in a draft to me,
I'll comment on it, and you'll revise the same paper to turn in for the
grade at the end of the semester
Return to 207Q Syllabus