Due 10:45 pm eastern time 6/14

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Requirement and Guidelines for Essay 2

For the second essay, you must choose one of the poems from the Poetry Foundation https://www.poetryfoundation.org/ or a short story from Classicshorts.com. Focus on either theme, tone, symbol, or style.

This essay is ANALYTICAL. IT IS NOT A SUMMARY. Don’t retell the story; assume your reader has read it. Check your calendar for the due date! Your essay should have the following components:

Your essay must have these components: (1) an introduction, (2) body, (3) conclusion, (4) thesis statement, (5) good development, (6) topic sentences, and (7) transition words. Your paper must be double-spaced, three full pages (about 800 words), and written in 12 point font. You must cite your main source (primary source), incorporate and cite 3 secondary sources from the library databases, and adhere to MLA style formatting.

- YOU MUST DO RESEARCH to aid you in writing this assignment, and you must use proper MLA documentation that accurately credits your sources.

-For this assignment, a secondary source is one that discusses or analyzes your chosen story. Many academic journals contain articles that discuss short stories. You must locate your secondary sources from the library databases (such as Gale Literary Databases, Academic Search Complete, Literature Resource Center, Gale Virtual Reference Library).

Secondary sources such as Shmoop, Cliff's Notes, SparkNotes, enotes.com, bookrags.com, 123helpme.com, Wiki anything, and exampleessays.com ARE UNACCEPTABLE. Your secondary source must come from an academic journal or published book.

NOTES AND REMINDERS:

-The turn-it-in drop box is set up to allow you to rewrite over the submissions as many times as you need to prior to the drop box close date/time to allow you to make revisions after reviewing the results it provides. If you submit an essay with plagiarism in it, your instructor will determine the consequences, which could be as much as a 0 on the assignment or dismissal from the course.

-Primary Source: The piece of literaure in the anthology textbook you are analyzing is your primary source.

-Secondary Sources: The literary criticism found in the Literary Reference Center in GALILEO is the secondary source. You may use more than two secondary sources. 2 secondary sources is the minimum required for this assignment.

- Use MLA FORMAT (Times New Roman 12; double spaced; 1 inch margin; heading; header with last name page number inserted using header function).

- You must use quotations from both the literature selection you are analyzing AND from at least 2 of your 3 secondary sources (minimum). Use correct in-text formatting. Remember that quotations must connect to your words and cannot stand alone in the essay.

- When quoting from a story, you use the author and page number in the parentheses. When quoting poetry, you must use the space/space format between lines of the poem and put the line number in the parentheses.

The Life of a Digger

BY MARGARITA ENGLE

Henry from the island of Jamaica

Jamaican digging crews have to sleep

eighty men to a room, in huge warehouses

like the ones where big wooden crates

of dynamite are stored.

My hands feel like scorpion claws,

clamped on to a hard hard shovel all day,

then curled into fists at night.

At dawn, the steaming labor trains

deliver us by the thousands, down into

that snake pit where we dig

until my muscles feel

as weak as water

and my backbone

is like shattered glass.

But only half the day

is over.

At lunchtime, we see sunburned

American engineers and foremen

eating at tables, in shady tents

with the flaps left open,

so that we have to watch

how they sit on nice chairs,

looking restful.

We also watch the medium-dark

Spanish men, relaxing as they sit

on their train tracks, grinning

as if they know secrets.

We have no place to sit. Not even

a stool. So we stand, plates in hand,

uncomfortable

and undignified.

Back home, I used to dream of saving

enough Panama money

to buy a bit of good farmland

for Momma and my little brothers

and sisters, so that we would all

have plenty to eat.

Now all I want is a chair.

And food with some spice.

And fair treatment.

Justice.

Margarita Engle, "The Life of a Digger (Henry from the island of Jamaica)]" from Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal. Copyright © 2014 by Margarita Engle. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Source: Silver People: Voices from the Panama Canal (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014)

BLK History Month

BY NIKKI GIOVANNI

If Black History Month is not

viable then wind does not

carry the seeds and drop them

on fertile ground

rain does not

dampen the land

and encourage the seeds

to root

sun does not

warm the earth

and kiss the seedlings

and tell them plain:

You’re As Good As Anybody Else

You’ve Got A Place Here, Too

Notes:

Note to Poetry Out Loud students: The title of this poem may be recited "BLK History Month" or "Black History Month." Either is acceptable and should not affect your accuracy score.

Source: Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea (HarperCollins Publishers, 2002)

the right way to speak

BY JACQUELINE WOODSON

The first time my brother says ain't my mother

pulls a branch from the willow tree growing down

the hill at the edge

of our backyard.

As she slips her closed hand over it,

removes the leaves,

my brother begins to cry

because the branch is a switch now

no longer beautifully weeping at the bottom of the hill.

It whirs as my mother whips it

through the air and down

against my brother's legs.

You will never, my mother says,

say ain't in this house.

You will never

say ain't anywhere.

Each switching is a warning to us

our words are to remain

crisp and clear.

We are never to say huh?

ain't or y'all

git or gonna.

Never ma'am—just yes, with eyes

meeting eyes enough

to show respect.

Don't ever ma'am anyone!

The word too painful

a memory for my mother

of not-so-long-ago

southern subservient days . . .

The list of what not to say

goes on and on . . .

You are from the North, our mother says.

You know the right way to speak.

As the switch raises dark welts on my brother's legs

Dell and I look on

afraid to open our mouths. Fearing the South

will slip out or

into them.

Jacqueline Woodson, "the right way to speak" from Brown Girl Dreaming. Copyright © 2014 by Jacqueline Woodson. Used by permission of Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

Source: Brown Girl Dreaming (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014)