Essay #1-Poetry Explication [SLOs 1-5]
Due Date: Sunday, September 29, 2024, 11:59p.m.
Note: AI use for this first essay assignment will be not be allowed.
Background: For this assignment, the student will explore the explication of poetry through a comparison and contrast essay analysis with a focus on an event. The students will utilize the Modern Language Association, 9th edition for their internal citations and works cited throughout the essay.
Definition of Explication: “A poetry explication is an analytical essay that comments on a poem's elements and possible meanings. In other words, writers make connections between the narrative of the poem and the literary choices the poet uses to convey that narrative such as imagery, tone, rhythm and meter, and word choice” (Google Definition).
Learning Outcomes for ENGL 1302:
This essay #1 assignment will clearly address all five learning outcomes as identified in this course.
TOPIC: For this poetry explication, the student will write a comparison and contrast essay by selecting two published poems focused on the student’s selected event [Examples: A wedding/a birth/a time of war/a birthday]. Each poem should have a minimum of 12 lines for purposes of analysis. Both poems must describe the same event, but the contrast will occur in how both poems represent the idea and its portrayal within the poems.
Requirements:
Essay #1 will follow the MLA assignment and page heading format. The four-page essay [approximate 1000 words] will be typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman font style, 12-point font size. Along with your essay, the following items will be submitted: Pre and Post Questionnaires of your topic and writing process, brainstorming [student choice], a topic outline [word to phrase outline], and works cited page referencing your selected two (2) poems and two (2) secondary sources of your choice [Examples: Literary criticism, website, critical essay, a peer-reviewed journal article, etc.]
Tutor Review:
You will be required to submit your essay for a tutor review through the following locations: Brainfuse, SLAC online tutoring, or SAC Writing Center, or a writing center at one of our other designated colleges of Alamo Colleges. Please note that the SAC tutoring is linked through our library link on Canvas as well as Brainfuse. The tutor review is required as a part of your essay grades, so schedule your online tutor appointments ahead of time. When you meet with your online tutor, please refer to the assignment task, so that the tutor can identify what the assignment requires. You will need to provide a confirmation page or paperwork that will verify your tutoring session, so please request this verification at the beginning of your tutoring session/in writing is using an online platform.
For this assignment, the student will develop a greater understanding of characterization as it pertains to its purpose in the drama of Fences by August Wilson/Antigone by Sophocles. Students will select one question from the list of possible topics provided. The research will provide the students with a better understanding of the character analysis of these men and women during the date of the play’s time period.
Learning Outcomes for ENGL 1302:
This essay #2 assignment will clearly address all five learning outcomes as identified in this course.
1. Demonstrate knowledge of individual and collaborative research processes.
2. Develop ideas and synthesize primary and secondary sources within focused academic arguments, including one or more research-based essays.
3. Analyze, interpret, and evaluate a variety of texts for the ethical and logical uses of evidence.
4. Write in a style that clearly communicates meaning, builds credibility, and inspires belief or action.
5. Apply the conventions of style manuals for specific academic disciplines (e.g., APA, CMS, MLA, etc.).
Topics are listed below, choose one topic:
Fences by August Wilson
Reference-The Norton Introduction to Literature by Kelly J. Mays. Shorter 14th Edition
I. Question #3 Suggestions for Writing located in your textbook on pg. 1340:
“Write an essay exploring Wilson’s characterization of Rose. What might the play suggest, through her, about the options available to, or conflicts faced by, women in general or African American women in particular in the 1950s? To what extent might Wilson’s play, [FENCES] reproduce or challenge our preconceptions [or stereotypical views] about such women ?”
OR
II. Question #4-Suggestions for Writing located in your textbook on pg. 1340:
“Research theories of tragedy and the tragic hero. Drawing on both these and evidence from Wilson’s play, explain whether and how Fences might be considered a tragedy or Troy Maxson a tragic hero.”
OR
Antigone by Sophocles
III. Question #1-Suggestions for Writing located in your textbook on pg. 1718:
“The first two scenes or episodes of Antigone introduce us to each of the play’s two main characters—first Antigone, then Creon. Write an essay in which you explore what each scene shows us about who these characters are, what motives and values drive them, and why they come into conflict. What does Sophocles achieve by showing us Antigone in conversation with her sister, or Creon with a “convocation of the elders” (line 177)? In terms of characterization and conflict, what is the significance of the choral songs that end each of these two opening episodes?”
Essay #2 will follow the MLA heading format. The four-page [estimated word count-1,000 words] essay written in third person [he/she/it] will be typed, double-spaced, use Times New Roman font style, 12-point font size.
Along with your essay, a pre and post questionnaires of your topic and writing process, required brainstorming-Reporter Questions [1-H and 5 W’s], a topic outline, two-annotated bibliographies [peer-reviewed journal article and website article] and works cited page referencing your primary source of the play either Antigone or Fences and four secondary sources. Of the four secondary sources, one source will be a peer-reviewed journal article and another source will be an article on a website. The students will utilize the Modern Language Association, 9th edition for their internal citations and works cited throughout the essay.
You will be required to submit your essay for a tutor review through the Student Success Center/Writing Center/SLAC online tutoring/Brainfuse. The tutor review is required as a part of your essay grades, so schedule your online tutor appointments ahead of time. When you meet with your online tutor, please refer to the assignment task, so that the tutor can identify what the assignment requires.