Assignment Question
Poetry Analysis Research Paper 2: Choose a song or poem. Research it. Synthesize the research. Then, infuse your own analysis. Use MLA. Objectives: Locate primary and secondary research materials, including journal articles and essays, books, scholarly and professionally maintained databases or archives Evaluate sources for organization, credibility, sufficiency, accuracy, timeliness, and bias Research events, topics, ideas, or concepts through multiple media formats. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. Print your poem or song and bring it to class for group annotations. If you choose a contemporary song, prepare to have a hard time finding quality sources and having to change. Make your selection tasteful. If you don’t have one in mind go to poets.org where you can filter by theme and occasion or consider one of these: Poems Songs “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost “Adam’s Curse” by W. B. Yeats “Eve Remembering” by Toni Morrison “I Carry Your Heart with Me” E. E. Cummings “No Man Is an Island” by John Donne “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou “Across the Universe” by The Beatles “Angel” by Sarah McLachlan “Infinity” by Mariah Carey “Born in the USA” by Bruce Springstein “Imagine” by John Lennon “Zombie” by The Cranberries “Letter to Me” by Brad Paisley Find sources. Go to library.citadel.edu/az.php for access to The Citadel’s free databases. You are looking for sources about the poem or song. Reading scholars’ ideas will help your own ideas flourish. “There are too many databases to choose from!” Consider starting with Bloom’s Literature, Literature and Poetry Criticism, and Gale Literature and Criticism. Set up your paper. Use MLA. If you have a question, go to owl.purdue.edu, the Writing Lab, or ask Ms. Rink. Annotated Bibliography will include at least five credible sources: Four sources will be from databases, journals, or government documents. They will analyze the meaning of the song/poem. If none of the four sources include the poem in its entirety, a fifth source may be a website that does. Also, consider an interview with the artist or their YouTube channel. You must parenthetically cite all sources within the paper. The paper is 1,500 words minimum (excluding poem/song and Annotated Bibliography) double spaced, 12 point font in Times New Roman. Format will be MLA 8th Edition, but the poem/song lyrics will be on page one. Remember to give an in-text citation to your poem/song immediately after it is inserted. You may take a screenshot of the poem/lyrics or cut and paste them to the page (maybe in columns). The lyrics can be single spaced. Simply write the word “Chorus” in place of quoting it repeatedly. The paper will begin on page two. Paper will be written in the present tense. This is how one writes about literature (even if one has already read the piece). Analyses are written in third person. Use pronouns like “he,” “she,” “they,” and “one.” Do not write in first person, using pronouns like “I,” “we,” and “us” or in second person, using pronouns like “you” and “y’all.” 4. Make the finishing touches. Check your work against the rubrics. Canvas rubric Inquiry and Analysis Rubric Written Communication Rubric 5. Peer editing. Then, revise, revise! 6. Turn in four places: On Canvas > Assignments > Research Paper Bring a physical copy printed to class. On Watermark* via Canvas under “Written Communications.” Do not log into Watermark directly. On Watermark via Canvas under “Inquiry and Analysis.” Do not log into Watermark directly. * New to this semester, Watermark is an online writing portfolio. (Last year, we used Taskstream.) It is required by The Citadel for FSWI, LDRS 211, and a few other courses. We will have class time to figure this out together.