600-850 Word Essay

1. This essay will be the first in which you will use some sources. While it should primarily passages from the poem discuss as evidence, it should also reference 1-2 informational or critical sources from outside of your textbook.
2. The essay should be in MLA essay format and should have the student/teacher cover letter as the first page (see this document for the cover letter questions and final draft checklist, and the sample essay for an example of an MLA formatted essay).
3. The essay must have an MLA format works cited list that cites all sources used.

Assignment: Analyze 1 poem from the assigned readings using 1 of the following critical approaches (NOT reader response) we discussed in the Week 4 forum, using 1-2 secondary sources to help support your argument. Make sure that the essay has a strong thesis related to the approach--do not argue that "this poem is best analyzed with this approach." Again the allowed critical approach choices are:

• biographical criticism
• feminist criticism
• historical criticism
• Marxist and social criticism
• New Historicism
• psychological criticism
• structuralism

Assignment will be about the poem on PAGE:268

By: Walt Whitman

Title: Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking

Attached is the poem on page 268 and an example of what the paper should include. A cover letter and a 600-850 word essay. 

Cover letter should include the following:

Cover Letter Questions

The following questions should be answered in all essay cover letters:

1. What poem are you writing on, and why did you choose to write on this poem?
2. What critical approach did you decide to use in this essay and why?
3. What critical question were you exploring in this essay? Did you find this question difficult to answer?
4. How did your understanding of the work(s) about which you are writing change as you wrote this essay? If it did not change, why do you think that was?
5. What did you find the hardest about your writing process for this essay?
6. What do you see as the essay's strengths and why?
7. What do you see as the essay's weaknesses and why?
8. What specific feedback would you like from your instructor?

Remember that these questions should be answered in the form of a letter.