Essay #1: Material Analysis of a Poem

Description

For this essay, you must select a poem from Please Excuse This Poem and perform a detailed analysis of its materiality and form in support of a clearly stated interpretation of the poem. Your goal is to persuade your audience (your classmates and professor) of what you feel the poet was trying to communicate with the poem and his/her strategic use of auditory, visual, and multimodal information. You want to cover as many relevant aspects of the poem as possible in your analysis.

Guidelines

The final paper should be about 500-750 words long in MLA format (about 3-4 pages long, typed, double-spaced, with 1” margins, and a 12-point font). Any use of sources must be documented in impeccable MLA format—parenthetical citation (author’s last name & page number) and works cited page. There is no research component required for this essay beyond basic reference materials, though if you find an audio or video performance you might want to incorporate its information (gesture, tone, and other performance elements) into your analysis.

The essay is due on Tuesday, October 8.

Evaluation

Your essay will be evaluated in the following areas, with areas 1-3 carrying most of the weight of the grade:

  1. Assignment (fulfilling requirements, quality of thesis, and depth of analysis),
  2. Organization (clarity of thesis, thorough paragraphing, overall organization),
  3. Development (relevance of claims, adequacy of support, and textual evidence),
  4. Sentence Structure, Word Choice, and Grammar (weaknesses will be identified in these areas, but they will not affect grade significantly unless they get in the way of understanding the essay).

An essay that satisfies all the requirements of the assignment with a clear sense of organization and adequate development earns a “C” in this class. An essay that achieves the goals at an above average level of proficiency, with only minor problems in one or two areas earns a “B.”  The “A” is reserved for nearly flawless, elegant essays that excel in all the criteria described above. Essays that do not fulfill the minimum requirements for the assignment earn a “D.”  Essays that are not turned in or are plagiarized earn an “F” in this class, and may result in a failing grade in the course.

Published
Categorized as Assignments

By Leonardo Flores

Professor Leonardo Flores is Chair of the English Department at Appalachian State University. He taught at the English Department at University of Puerto Rico: Mayagüez Campus from 1994 to 2019. He is President of the Electronic Literature Organization. He was the 2012-2013 Fulbright Scholar in Digital Culture at the University of Bergen in Norway. His research areas are electronic literature and its preservation via criticism, documentation, and digital archives. He is the creator of a scholarly blogging project titled I ♥ E-Poetry, co-editor of the Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 3, and has a Spanish language e-lit column in 80 Grados. He is currently co-editing the first Anthology of Latin American Electronic Literature. For more information on his current work, visit leonardoflores.net.