For this essay, I have uploaded the prompt and details. There is an example of an outline and essay with feedback given as to why it would be graded as a B. For this essay, there needs to be a one-page outline and another page for the essay in mla format.
Overview:
First, generate a debatable thesis through an analysis of one of the text and theme pairings below. Second, construct a paper in outline format that would propose and argue for your interpretive thesis using textual evidence as support. Third, write out a fully drafted essay that develops precisely the outline you created: the outline and the paper should both convincingly argue for your thesis using textual evidence. Be sure to look at the model outline and paper at the end of this document before you begin your work. MLA format and citation are required (see the information provided under the Paper Writing Help module on Canvas).
The process:
Each student will select a primary text from the list below as the focus of their claim and assignment, and then perform a close reading on the work. Analyze textual details such as rhyme scheme and meter, diction, imagery, similes and metaphors, narrative voice, or others covered in our teaching materials. After some analysis, select a few precise and concrete features in the poem on which to focus your attention and perform additional close reading on those elements.
Based on careful close reading of the literary features of the text, you will propose a debatable thesis (aka, an original and focused interpretation) of the selected poem.
Using evidence from the text (short quotations and brief, strategic explanations of these quotations), the student will construct a paper in outline format that articulates their thesis and argues for why it is a logical and productive way to think about the meaning of the selected poem.
Organize your outline using your own claims and evidence following the structure of the provided model (see the end of this assignment prompt document). Be sure the order of your outline explicitly builds each paragraph one upon the other. In other words, there should be no other order of paragraphs that would make as much sense or make as convincing an argument to your reader. Each paragraph should elaborate a sub-claim; each sub-claim and each paragraph is a step that builds your thesis. Thus, only one order of the outline will be most effective, since an interpretive “step” out of order could disrupt your argument’s logic.
Close your outline with a concluding statement of 3-5 sentences that not only reviews the argument and its supporting evidence (briefly), but, most importantly, tells readers why this argument is interesting, important, surprising, or otherwise significant. Sometimes this type of conclusion is called answering the “so what” question: why does your interpretation matter? A good concluding statement makes clear which ideas or values are at stake in your original, debatable interpretation of the literary text.
Carefully reread and edit your outline. Ensure your sub-claims are clear, precise, and rely on thoroughly explained concrete textual evidence (with correct citations). Revise as needed.
Working directly from this outline, write out a fully drafted essay, stating your thesis and supporting it clearly and logically with the evidence and explanations you have already outlined. Use logical, strategic transition phrases to show how your ideas are developing and building on one another throughout the essay; explain all evidence fully. Develop your concluding statement into a full conclusion paragraph, emphasizing why your thesis is significant. Do not deviate from your outline. If you find your ideas evolving as you draft the essay, return to the outline and revise it to reflect these changing ideas. Then continue drafting the full essay. Your outline and your finished essay should match each other precisely in content and order.
Your final assignment should consist of (1) a thorough and well-organized outline of your argumentative essay, and (2) a fully drafted argumentative essay based on that outline. There will be (3) an MLA style Works Cited list at the end of your entire assignment. The outline, essay, and Works Cited should be included in that order in a single document that you will upload to Canvas. See the model assignment at the end of this assignment prompt for an example.
List of texts & themes to choose from:
(Please note: your outline and essay are not expected to address every “theme” that is listed for each poem.)
Option A. Charlotte Smith’s “Written at the Close of Spring” >>> Consider one of the following:
Mortality, “Nature,” and human feeling.
The power of the human imagination and its role in reality.
The sonnet form and its relationship to emotion.
How might Smith’s work fit, or not fit, or complicate, the Romantic zeitgeist and its dominant themes?
~ Follow steps 1-8, above.
Option B. William Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” >>> Consider one of the following:
How does poetic authority work in this text?
What is the role of external influences on poetic authority: “Nature,” other people, etc.?
The relationship of memory, reflection, inward feeling vs. outward expression.
~ Follow steps 1-8, above.
Option C. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias” >>> Consider one of the following:
The longevity of art relative to “Nature” and/or other kinds of human works.
The effect(s) of mediation: the poem is a report of a descriiption of a statue that represents a person in the past, etc. etc. (Feel free to select a couple “layers” to consider closely.)
The reflexivity of the poem (a “broken” or incomplete frame narrative that describes a broken statue).
How might the poetic elements above connect to questions of power, authority, or creation?
~ Follow steps 1-8, above.
Option D. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Christabel” >>> Consider one of the following:
How does the poem’s form (its rhyme and meter, its narrative “gaps”) as well as its content contribute to reading this poem as Gothic, or not?
Thematic elements of the Gothic, such as: the resurgence of the past, the gaps and absences (including what can be said and by whom, who is present or not, etc.), themes of dominance or tyranny, and the pattern of repetitions—both literal and figurative.
~ Follow steps 1-8, above.
Some thoughts on what to do and what not to do:
See the example at the end of this assignment prompt for what the form of this assignment should look like and for what it should do. Do not rely on broad generalizations about context or meaning, readings we have generated in class discussions, or any outside sources (people, texts, or Internet). Do be sure that your claim is debatable—in other words, a reasonable person should be able to disagree with your interpretation (hence the need to argue for and support your thinking). See the page in the Paper Writing Help module on Canvas about debatable claims for further explanation. Do be sure your claim is focused on a specific textual feature or features and works up to an original idea. Do be sure your textual support is not based solely on examples discussed in class. A strong thesis is both focused and complex, and it avoids clichés, overstatement, and generalizations. Do be sure to include logical transition and connecting phrases in your fully drafted essay; make your essay flows and offer additional explanation of evidence if needed. Do not introduce new ideas or new evidence in the essay that is not included in the outline.
If you wish to argue a thesis about one of these poems that does not fit within the suggested topics of this assignment (as given in Options A, B, C, and D), please consult with the appropriate professor for topic approval at least 72 hours before the deadline, and before you begin writing.
>>> SEE BELOW FOR MODEL ASSIGNMENT…KEEP SCROLLING. =)
ENG 236
Profs. Pennington and Sorge Way
B-range model for Assignment 1
__________________________{Beginning of model assignment}_______________________
Student Name
Prof. NAME(S) ENG 236
Due Date
Option X
OUTLINE
The Self Inside: Matthew Arnold’s “The Buried Life”
Thesis Statement: While it seems like the poetic speaker in Matthew Arnold’s “The Buried Life” thinks the self is unknowable, the poem’s imagery of inwardness actually suggests that identity can be found within. As the poem declares, “with inward striving” we seek our “hidden self” (68, 66).
I. The poetic speaker seems to be troubled by the unknowability of the self.
Even “lovers” are “powerless” to “reveal” their true feelings to each other (14-15) and this makes the speaker sad with “tears” (2) in his eyes, and he asks distraught questions in lines 24-25.
Further, the “mass of men” are “alien to themselves” and don’t know who they really are (16, 22)
The speaker claims that “Fate” keeps our identities hidden and secret so we cannot change our “genuine self” through our “capricious play” (36, 35)
II. The poem uses lots of words and imagery that evoke inwardness, which imply that by looking into one’s “buried life” a person can learn something about herself.
The title is “The Buried Life,” and the self is compared to an inward river: “unregarded river of our life” (39).
The speaker uses many words about things unseen, specifically with reference to one’s inner life and identity: “deep recesses” (38), “indiscernible” (40), “the mystery of this heart” (52), and “the soul’s subterranean depth” (73).
Thus the “knowledge of our buried life” (48) can only be acquired by looking inward to track our “true, original course” (50)—which is another way of saying our true identity.
III. The poetic speaker claims, at the end, that through inner reflection and communion with one’s beloved, a person can get a sense of their true identity.
Though we try often “in vain to speak and act / Our hidden self” (64-65), sometimes we can hear “airs, and echoes” from our “subterranean” “soul” (75, 73). Even if this is not direct knowledge of our true selves, these “echoes”—if we listen closely—could be a way to know our inner self.
But the best way to know one’s self is by communion with a beloved. In those moments of emotional reciprocity as described in lines 78-85, “the eye sinks inward, and the heart lies plain” (85). Only then do “we know” (86) and “A man becomes aware of his life’s flow” (87).
Concluding Statement: While at first it may seem like the poetic speaker of “The Buried Life” gives up on achieving self-knowledge, the poem goes on to show how one’s inner identity can be accessed. Through inward reflection and careful attention to indirect signs—like the “echoes” of the soul—one can become more in tune with one’s true self. Most significantly, Arnold’s speaker proposes that the best way to find the inner self is by reciprocal exchanges of feeling between sympathetic people, like the speaker and the beloved in the poem. In this way, “The Buried Life” shows how—contrary to our usual expectations about personal identity as something private and autonomous—other people are essential to any authentic experience of the individual self.
ESSAY
The Self Inside: Matthew Arnold’s “The Buried Life”
Matthew Arnold’s poem “The Buried Life” is a meditation on the nature of personal identity. While it seems like the poetic speaker in Matthew Arnold’s “The Buried Life” thinks the self is unknowable, the poem’s imagery of inwardness actually suggests that identity can be found within. As the poem declares, “with inward striving” we seek our “hidden self” (68, 66). In the following paragraphs I will examine concrete evidence that will show how this poem is really about how to find the “self,” and where, through close attention to Arnold’s word choice.
From the very beginning of the poem, the poetic speaker seems to be troubled by the unknowability of the self. The speaker claims that even “lovers” are “powerless” to “reveal” their true feelings to each other (14-15) and this makes the speaker sad with “tears” (2) in his eyes, and he asks distraught questions in lines 24-25. Further, the “mass of men” are “alien to themselves” and don’t know who they really are (16, 22). The speaker claims that “Fate” keeps our identities hidden and secret so we cannot change our “genuine self” through our “capricious play” (36, 35). As is clear from these lines in the poem, the poetic speaker wants to know more about his true “self” but fears it is not accessible.
However, the poem does begin to signal that knowing the self may be possible if one only knows how and where to search for such self-knowledge. The poem uses lots of words and imagery that evoke inwardness, which imply that by looking into one’s “buried life” a person can learn something about herself. Indeed, the title of the poem is “The Buried Life,” which suggests that “life” or “self” is in there somewhere. The speaker compares the self to an inward river: “the unregarded river of our life” (39). The speaker uses many other words about things unseen, too, specifically with reference to one’s inner life and identity: “deep recesses” (38), “indiscernible” (40), “the mystery of this heart” (52), and “the soul’s subterranean depth” (73). Thus the “knowledge of our buried life” (48) can only be acquired by looking inward to track our “true, original course” (50)—which is another way of saying our true identity.
Even though the beginning of the poem seems to despair about finding the self, as we saw in the middle lines of the poem there are suggestions that the self can be found within. The final lines of the poem give even clearer evidence that this is the true message of the poem: seek the self inside. The poetic speaker claims, at the end, that through inner reflection and communion with one’s beloved, a person can get a sense of their true identity. This may be surprising since we tend to think about “self” as something that only belongs to, or has anything to do with, the individual alone. But, Arnold’s speaker suggests, we at least need other people to help find that self. Though we try often “in vain to speak and act / Our hidden self” (64-65), sometimes we can hear “airs, and echoes” from our “subterranean” “soul” (75, 73). Even if this is not direct knowledge of our true selves, these “echoes”—if we listen closely—could be a way to know our inner self. But the best way to know one’s self is by communion with a beloved. In those moments of emotional reciprocity as described in lines 78-85, “the eye sinks inward, and the heart lies plain” (85). Only then do “we know” (86) and “A man becomes aware of his life’s flow” (87). Therefore we begin to learn, at the end of the poem, how to engage other people in our search for self.
While at first it may seem like the poetic speaker of “The Buried Life” gives up on achieving self-knowledge, the poem goes on to show how one’s inner identity can be accessed. Through inward reflection and careful attention to indirect signs—like the “echoes” of the soul—one can become more in tune with one’s true self. Most significantly, Arnold’s speaker proposes that the best way to find the inner self is by reciprocal exchanges of feeling between sympathetic people, like the speaker and the beloved in the poem. In this way, “The Buried Life” shows how—contrary to our usual expectations about personal identity as something private and autonomous—other people are essential to any authentic experience of the individual self.
WORKS CITED
Arnold, Matthew. “The Buried Life.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. 2A: The Romantic Period. Editors M.H. Abrams and Stephen Greenblatt. W.W. Norton & Co., 2000. p. 1480-1482.
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This example assignment would earn a low B-range grade. See the comments below for strengths and weaknesses in this model.
Thesis statement and Intro paragraph: This is a debatable thesis, but just barely, and it is not as complex as it could be. The thesis sets up an incomplete contrast without developing those complexities—for instance, perhaps it is because the self is an inward essence that it remains so hard to know in any definite way. If the claim were written in more focused, specific language, it would be a stronger claim and more clearly debatable. After all, “found within” is very vague, and though “inward striving” is how one “seeks” (or looks for) the “hidden self,” even this first quotation of textual evidence doesn’t actually support the central claim that one’s identity “can be found”—it only says one can look for it “within.” In the fully drafted form, this paragraph ends too abruptly, also without fully developing the central contrast mentioned above. See, too, the concluding statement and the comments on it below for how the student could have continued to work towards an even more nuanced and debatable claim—a claim that realizes more of the complexities about how the poem proposes we come to know our true identities.
Paragraph I: Section I spends too much time on the surface reading of the poem. This is not the debatable part of the claim, therefore it would be better to cover this only briefly and instead focus on proving the debatable claim.
Point 1 is a bit diffuse, and the writer should quote the parts of ll. 24-25 that seem “distraught.” The evidence in point 2 connects to the “unknowability of self” the writer claims, but it is not clearly connected to what troubles the poetic speaker about this unknowable self (which is part of the sub-claim here). There are better examples of this in later stanzas of the poem. Point 3 introduces the interesting concept of the “genuine self” actually being changeable at will. The paper would be stronger if it explored that more challenging and unusual angle, rather than sticking with the more clichéd reading that identity is “inward.” Overall, the first paragraph spends too much time on the not-debatable part of the claim, and its evidence is a bit limited. It is not always clearly connected to the actual debatable claims the writer is making.
In the essay portion, the writer does not take the time to develop most of the claims. For instance, the writer would have strengthened the paragraph substantially if they had developed the claim that the speaker “asks distraught questions in lines 24-25”—what questions does the speaker ask, and how might those questions lead to a more precise sub-claim than simply saying the speaker is “sad” (as is claimed, a bit too generally, in point I.1.).
Paragraph II: Points 1-3 support the claim that the poem employs imagery and language of inwardness and that identity is mixed up in this equation somehow. However, the idea that these inner depths are where selfhood is located could be better explained by this writer, particularly in point 2 (the latter two quotations of textual evidence seem much more effective for proving this point than the first two pieces of evidence, but they have been clumped together without distinction). In the fully drafted essay, the transition sentence beginning the paragraph begins to clarify the connection between “the buried life” and the “self,” but this connection still stops short. Furthermore, the rest of the paragraph also lacks full development; for instance, how can this writer legitimately claim that the poetic speaker is talking about “the self” at all when discussing “the unregarded river of our life” in line 39? At least 1-2 more explanatory sentences are needed there, and possibly elsewhere in this paragraph. Lacking full enough explanations to develop the logical links among the three points, this paragraph does not cohere as much as it needs to do to build the argument. This paragraph does not earn the validity of the “thus” claim that ends the paragraph.
Paragraph III: The sub-claim of section III receives decent support from the textual evidence and writer’s explanations in points 1 and 2. The evidence in point 1, however, is a little sparse and could be more thorough. The evidence in point 2 would also be more effective if more direct citations of the encounter with the “beloved” were included. In the fully drafted essay, the writer really needed to develop this evidence from point 2: summarizing seven lines of poetry in a single short sentence just is not an effective explanation of evidence.
However, the biggest surprise here is the introduction of “communion with one’s beloved” as an additional way to “know” the “hidden self.” This idea has not appeared before as part of the main debatable claim. If the writer had discovered this additional nuance through the process of close reading, the writer should have gone back and integrated this complexity into the thesis statement itself. It would have made the paper more focused and the claim itself more debatable from the very beginning.
While some of the transition and connecting phrases in the fully drafted essay begin to signal how this writer has made sense of this new development by referencing the chronology of the poem (beginning, middle, and end), to have this additional structural evidence tossed in to the essay only – and totally omitted from the outline – suggests that this idea, while possibly a very productive one, was only partially developed when this writer submitted their assignment.
Concluding statement: The concluding statement is clearly written and develops the findings of the earlier paragraphs by referring to the evidence and drawing conclusions from it. This conclusion then takes an interesting interpretive leap beyond the paper’s thesis—this is not always a bad thing, but in this case it shows that the writer did not fully develop their thoughts before writing this draft. The last two lines of the conclusion, which propose the importance of other people to our sense of true identity, is in fact a better and more debatable claim than the thesis this currently puts forward at the beginning. This writer would have produced an even better assignment if they had taken this interesting interpretive breakthrough and used it as the focus of the entire piece—restructuring paragraphs and evidence accordingly.
