analyze several poems from one poet’s body of poetry to determine patterns of expression, technique, subject matter, ideology, theme, or any other component of his or her work that you want to explore.

 

As this is your second essay assignment in this class, you should have viewed the PowerPoint “Writing about Literature” on our Moodle page. If you have not, please do so now.

 

Your assignment is to write a research paper in which you analyze several poems from one poet’s body of poetry to determine patterns of expression, technique, subject matter, ideology, theme, or any other component of his or her work that you want to explore. Your paper should primarily be a literary analysis. However, small doses of biographical data may be appropriate to your discussion depending on whose poetry you investigate and the circumstances of the poet’s life or the prevailing interpretation of his or her poetry. (See Perrine’s, page 6, “2. Analysis” for further information on how to analyze a text.)

 

The list of poets on our Moodle page have ample critical material written about their work. They also each have a Twayne Author Series biography written about them. However, it is possible, with the exception of Edgar Allan Poe, that I will approve a poet who is not in the list above. Though be warned: some poets, though popular, have very little critical work written about them. For example, Maya Angelou is an exceptional poet. However, journal and book length peer reviewed treatments of her poetry are hard to find. I also do not approve poets whose works are typically epic in length, i.e. Milton, Homer, etc. Even if you choose a poet from the list, I might suggest someone else. The primary reason I might do this is that several people might have already chosen the poet and source material will be scarce. (Even e-books from the library have limited circulation.)

 

Advice: If I were doing this assignment, and I did not know much about poetry or a particular poet, I would choose a poet for which there is a Twayne biography and analysis. You can check to see if there is a Twayne biography for your poet on the Alabama Virtual Library (AVL) website. Check under the “View All Resources” tab and click on “Twayne Author Series.” Enter your poet’s name in the search bar and see if there is a book for him or her. If you cannot access the AVL website from home, call the NWSCC library at 256-331-5285.  The librarian can give you an access code, maybe without you having to come to campus. DO THIS NOW. Do not wait until you need access. I cannot give you a code. I do not grant extensions because you are unable to log in to the virtual library unless a librarian tells me the site is down for a significant period of time.

 

If you are unsure about which poet you would like to write about, please send me a Moodle message and I can suggest someone based on your interests. You can also visit me in my Northwest Shoals Muscle Shoals office if you would prefer.

 

 

Important: When working with an author who has written poetry and other genres, make sure that your paper focuses on the author’s poetry, not other writing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Suggested Steps:

 

1. Choose a poet for your research paper.

 

2. Have your poet approved by the date listed on the “Due Dates” document on our Moodle page. If you do not get your poet approved at all, you will lose ten or more points off your essay grade.

 

3. Read several poems by the poet you have chosen.

 

4. Develop a research question. The research question guides your research. Here is an example of a research question for a student choosing to investigate Robert Frost’s poetry: How does Frost often return to the issue of people’s responsibilities to each other, even in his poetry set in nature? Using this particular research question, a researcher would then look for passages in the poems where Frost’s speaker notes or refers to responsibility as it relates to the social fabric people form in communities.

Continue looking for passages in Frost’s poems that are about how people interact, or should interact, with each other.  Then answer the question in a manner similar to this: Frost’s poetry is often set in a rural location or outdoors, but those poems frequently speak to the unwritten rules of human relationships that allow large or small social groups to live together in relative harmony.  —Whatever you determine to be the answer to your particular research question, that answer is your thesis statement.

 

5. Develop a statement about the poems you have chosen that can be argued with support from the text of the poems. This is your thesis statement.

 

6. Write a 1400 to 1600 word research paper. Your works cited list does not count toward the minimum 1400 words.

 

7. Use at least four peer reviewed critical print sources (if you are doing a literary analysis, the text itself is a primary source—not a critical source). Your sources should be peer-reviewed. (See file on our Moodle page for an explanation of this term.) There are two exceptions to the peer-reviewed requirement for articles. I allow you to use either one article form The New Yorker or one article from the Atlantic. You may also use a book review of a scholarly book. (Book reviews are not peer-reviewed.) Use no more than seven critical print sources. You must actually cite the sources in your paper and on your works cited page. Special note: a print source does not have to be accessed in print. You can read it on line. But a print source has page numbers. You must include those page numbers in your citations and you must give the range of the article’s page numbers on your works cited list. (Do not list an article’s page numbers as “65+” or something similar.)

 

8. Do not overwhelm your paper with citations. (Leave room for your original thoughts and contributions to the discussion.)

 

9. Follow MLA 8^th edition guidelines for writers of research papers in formatting and citing sources. Use Times New Roman, 12 point font. (See “Formatting Your Essay” and other helps on our Moodle page.) Unfortunately, our textbook shows examples in MLA 7^th

 

10. Turn in your research paper on the date listed on the “Due Dates” document on our Moodle page. The paper must be turned in to the Turnitin location in Moodle AS A WORD FILE. If you turn in your paper as a pdf, I cannot make comments on it. You will get a grade, but no explanation of how I came to that grade. If you want an explanation of how I came to that grade after having turned in a pdf, you will have to visit me in my office during a scheduled office hour.

 

Note: The more specific your discussion is, the better the grade you will receive. This is not a general summary paper. The paper will be evaluated on adherence to the assignment, correctness of grammar and mechanics (including MLA style), and overall content, including choice and use of source material. Essays lose 10 points for each missing peer-reviewed source.

Notes on the messy, messy research process:

 

1. Research is rarely quick and easy. With that in mind, and knowing that you will be spending many hours with the topic you choose, try to pick a topic that interests you.

 

1. Realize research is an activity of excess. Like making a dress or building a house, the research process requires more material than will be used. The better we get at the activity in question, the less extra materials we might have left over, but we will always have some scrap. The same is true of the research process.

 

1. A mindset that determines to do as little as possible and just enough to get by usually produces a paper that earns a below average grade.

 

1. Check the box next to the words “Peer reviewed” when using a search engine to find sources.

 

1. When looking over possible support for your argument, don’t take notes on the source unless you copy the citation information. Without the source information, you can’t use the material in your paper.

 

1. Be careful of quotations when taking notes, paraphrasing, and summarizing. If you do not know the difference between paraphrasing and summary, find out. Our text addresses paraphrasing poetry on pp. 728-729. Paraphrasing a critic requires that you understand what the critic is trying to communicate and then putting that message in your own words. Paraphrasing can be harder than quoting. It is NOT changing some of the words in a sentence and claiming the sentence as your own work. When the time comes to quote material, you will need to know which are your words and which are the author’s or critic’s words because the quoted words have to be in quotation marks. But even in your own words, you have to give the source credit for the thoughts. If your source has page numbers, you must use them for the quotes. Make sure you note the page number of each source you use.

 

1. Don’t discount the possibility of using actual books as sources. Librarians love to help people find sources and our library has books on many of the major poets. At least one area library is open for curb side service. Call your nearest library to see if you can get a book about your poet.

 

1. Don’t return your sources to the library or throw away/delete copies of articles until after you have turned in your paper, whenever possible.

 

1. Do not use Wikipedia or student generated sources. These are not peer reviewed. Check the “Forbidden Sources” list on our Moodle page.

 

How to use primary sources in your paper (a primary source is the literature your paper is about):

1. Assume your reader has read the poem. (If I haven’t already read the poem, I will read it.)
2. Quote only as much of the poem as necessary to make your point. See Perrine’s, page 15, “Introducing Quotations.”
3. Always include an in-text citation that gives the line numbers you have quoted. You do not give the poet’s name in the parentheses unless you are quoting lines without having identified the poet. You do not give the page number where you found the poem. You give the line numbers. See “MLA Guidelines for Quoting Poetry” on our Moodle page.
4. You put the primary sources that you use on your works cited list, listed under the poet’s last then first name, title of the poem, and where you found it. Each poem you use has to be on your works cited page in its own entry. Because these poems have the same author, use the rules for multiple works by the same author to list them. After the poet’s name, the poems are listed alphabetically by title.

How to use critical (secondary) sources in a research paper:

1. To back up your own opinions. Find critics who agree with your viewpoint and refer to them, adding their arguments to your own (while giving them credit properly in your paper). Naturally, you need critics whose opinions matter for some reason — are you quoting a scholar who is well known or a specialist on this author or topic?
2. To refute or challenge opinions other than your own. If a prominent critic disagrees with your analysis, defend your viewpoint.
3. To add new observations about your subject. Find commentary that extends or adds to your discussion with ideas that you honestly had not thought of before. Again, give credit where credit is due. These critics might disagree with you, and that is fine. Tell why you are right and they are mistaken.

 

There are 3 instances in which you must cite a source for an idea:

1. when you quote word for word (a direct quotation)
2. when you restate a source’s words into other phrasings and word order (a paraphrase)
3. when you condense a source’s ideas into a few words or sentences (summary)

 

All of these instances require you to follow the borrowed idea with a parenthetical citation unless you indicate the material is borrowed from the source in some other way. If you do not want to put a parenthetical citation after every line of paraphrased or summarized material (especially if you are summarizing a large argument or critic’s position on an issue), indicate that you are summarizing or paraphrasing by introducing the material with the critic’s name. For example, write something like this: Jane Smith sees the controversy over Frost’s poem as overblown. ßThis sentence summarizes the critic’s position on a particular poem, a position that might not appear in sentence form in the article, but is a summary of her argument you are making.

 

DO NOT write an entire paragraph full of borrowed or researched material and stick one parenthetical citation at the end of it. Indicate at the beginning of the paragraph that you are summarizing or borrowing information. You can do this by starting the paragraph in a way like this:

Critic Jane Smith writes extensively about Robert Frost in her analysis of what many people call his nature poetry. Smith explains that Frost uses nature as an excuse to discuss human relationships (23).

 

As long as Jane Smith has only one source listed under her name on your works cited list, you do not have to put her last name before the page number in the parentheses.

 

The most common problems with a completed research paper:

• does not meet word-length requirement
• does not use four critical, peer reviewed sources
• does not have a thesis that warrants an argument, or, does not have a thesis
• abandons the argument for a general biographical discussion
• is missing citations in the text (no page numbers or no source given for quoted or summarized material)
• has incorrect citations on the works cited page (make sure you give the page range of articles, not just the page on which the articles start)

 

 

Additionally, using a dictionary definition as a quote to start the paper, or at any point in the paper, is a bad idea. Don’t do it.