Analytical Essay 1

First Draft due Tuesday, January 31

Final Draft due Thursday, February 2

Four to Six Pages, Typed, and Double-Spaced

For this assignment you will write an analytical essay in which you interpret a poem for people who do not share part of your cultural background. Your interpretation should introduce a problem that the poem addresses to your audience, part of which you should assume is unaware of the problem or how it affects some people from your cultural background.

Steps for Completing this Assignment

  1. Have a journal post approved with the poem and the problem that your poem addresses.
  2. Present your poem and the problem your poem addresses to your group. Respond over e-mail to the presentation of someone else in your group.
  3. Have a journal for background research approved.
  4. Have a journal for your research question approved.
  5. Write your outline.
  6. Workshop your outline with a partner in your group.
  7. Revise your outline based on feedback from your partner.
  8. Have your outline approved.
  9. Write your first draft.
  10. Workshop your first draft with a partner in your group.
  11. Revise your essay based on feedback on your workshop.
  12. Submit your final draft.

Note that I will ask you to find a new research question and start the process from the beginning if you submit a draft without having your outline approved. I will be strict about this so that I can prevent students from using essay-writing services.

Selecting a Poem

Your poem should be publicly available through the internet, and your poem should be written by someone who shares a non-US cultural background with you. For the purposes of this assignment you can select either a text that a poet identifies as a poem or the lyrics of a song because song lyrics often follow conventions that are associated with poetry.

You will be required to write about a problem that affects a substantial part of the group that shares the non-US cultural background with you. You might or might not be directly affected by the problem. The problem does not have to be a big political problem (such as immigration restrictions), but the problem has to have a serious effect on the everyday lives of the people who are directly affected (for example, love poems). Examples of problems include state violence (directed against immigrants, people of color, men and/or women), misrepresentations by states and major media (especially when used to justify wars and political repression), and cultural invisibility. Alternatively, the problems can be on a much smaller scale, such as the relationships between people in a family or in a romantic relationship or between individuals and collective histories. I especially encourage you to consider problems related to money and control over capital.

Keep in mind the following factors that will affect the level of difficulty of your selection:

  1. Translation. Your poem should follow English grammar. You will be responsible for translating any part of the poem's text that is not in English.
  2. The problem that your poem addresses. Some problems will be easier to write about than others, and some problems might be more clearly defined by the poets than others.
  3. Whether the text is readily available (applies to videos).
  4. Historical, geographical, and cultural differences between you and the poet.
  5. Unclear references.

Background Research and Research Question

You will develop a research question that your essay will answer as you do background research and learn more about your topic. Your answer for your research question will be the thesis for your essay.

Your research question will change, but here is an initial format for a research question:

Does ["Title of Poem"] represent the ways [problem] affects [group of people who share a non-US cultural background] and does it point towards solutions for the problem?

Outlines

Your essay should have the following parts, and each part might extend over multiple paragraphs:

  • Thesis: The answer to your research question.
  • Problem
    • A minimum of 1/2 page and a maximum of 1 1/2 pages for history (drawn from your background research).
  • Poem
    • A maximum of 1/2 page for summary.
    • Multiple paragraphs that show the relationship of the poem to the problem and that include lines that are important for your assessment.
  • Assessment
    • What makes the poem valuable for raising awareness about the problem?
    • How is the poem related to race, class, gender, and/or sexuality?
    • Is there an important aspect of the problem that is not addressed in the poem? How can the poem or future poems contribute more effectively to a solution?

Class Participation Points

Here are possible participation points you can earn in class for this essay:

  • 2 points: Present topic to group
  • 4 points: Workshop outline with one group member.
  • 4 points: Workshop first draft with one group member

Here are possible participation points you can earn out of class for this essay:

  • 2 points: Presentation write-up
  • 2 points: Presentation response (e-mail your partner in your group and cc the e-mail to me to get credit)

Before you turn in a final draft I advise you to visit the WRC and ask a tutor what kinds of repeated errors you made on the essay with regard to language use and how you can correct them. If you visit the WRC please check in with me after your visit.

The assessment for the essay will abide, when possible, with the Portfolio Scoring Guide for EWRT211.

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