Paper 2

Read every word below carefully, more than once, before starting your essay.

Address the topic below in an analytical essay of 800-1250 words. Your introduction must culminate in a literal central question that the rest of the paper strives to answer.

Format the essay—margins, headers, spacing, titles, etc—following simple stuff. For guidelines on documenting quotations, see the quotations page, especially Q4. A works cited page is mandatory.

I cannot respond to whole drafts through email, but I will be happy to review your paper from start to finish with you in person before you submit it for grading. When we have completed drafts ready for peer response, I will provide a sign-up sheet to meet with each of you individually outside of class.         

Present only your OWN ideas: Avoid consulting any sources on the world-wide-web at any point in the writing process. Every scrap of each sentence in the paper--start to finish--must present your own ideas, your own interpretation or your own thoughts on the topic and/or story. Under no circumstances should you use generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in composing, editing, or "polishing" the essay (including Grammarly and other such online "writing aids").

Paper proposals: before you begin writing the essay, construct a topic sentence outline, just as we did for the first paper and the in-class essay: begin the outline with the literal question your paper addresses, then give full topic sentences answering the question directly for each primary point in your paper (i.e. setting up each body paragraph), just as they will appear in the essay itself. Conclude the outline with the paper's overall thesis, answering the central question directly and combining your essential points from the various topic sentences.

See the sample topic sentence outlines on my writing tips page and on the paper proposal assignment page.

The topic:
Marianne Moore's poem, "Poetry," suggests that life itself is "the raw material of poetry" and that poetry presents life in "all its rawness" (26, 27).  Explain how any three poems we've read convey different fundamental aspects or elements of life in vivid and powerful fashion, including at least three quotations from each poem to illustrate your claims.

To address this topic squarely (see WT1), the central question you raise should repeat or reiterate the key words from the prompt just above, focusing on fundamental aspects (or elements) of life and vivid or powerful fashion. The assignment calls not just for identification of the fundamental aspect of life each poem conveys, but more specifically how the poem works in portraying that element or aspect of life analytically. This means you are to explain different poetic elements, devices, or techniques that help the poem deliver the element of life in question so effectively and powerfully.

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Reminders:

Make every topic sentence answer the central question directly.
Introduce all quotes: see nugget 3.
Sweat the details: use the Golden Rules, Nuggets, Simple Stuff, and Quotations pages and proofread carefully.
Offer concrete evidence (quotes) in support of each of your major assertions.
See me in the office or email if you have questions or problems. 

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Use the Writing Center! I encourage you to see tutors for help with your papers in the Writing Center (TEB 226). We have well-trained, qualified tutors who can give you plenty of one-on-one attention with any aspect of the writing process. Be sure to take a copy of this assignment with you to any tutoring session, or show your tutor this assignment page on the web. Set up an appointment at https://www.mga.edu/student-success-center/writing-centers.php.