literature

Prince George’s Community College

English 1020

Prof. Kpalukwu

Essay #2 – Poetry Explication/Analysis Essay

Essay Requirements:

1. You may choose any of the assigned poems in our textbook for this assignment (if you

are unsure which poems were assigned for class, check the Course Schedule located in

the Syllabus and Schedule tab in Blackboard).

2. Essay should include:

1. Title

2. Introduction

3. Thesis Statement

4. Topic sentences for each paragraph, and supporting details.

5. Conclusion

3. There are two goals of the essay:

a. To analyze a poem using formalist elements: content, character, or style; or a

combination of all, as you see fit. DO NOT summarize (meaning to retell) the poem

line by line in your paper (boring to read!). You are encouraged to use the chapter

checklists to help you with your analysis, but do not just answer the questions. This

should be a developed essay.

b. To use outside research to expand the analysis / discussion of the poem through

either application of a school of critical theory (if using reader-response, you

must use an additional school of criticism) or literary criticism. You must

conduct research for this paper using academic sources or by using literary criticism

written about the poem (use Artemis as accessed through the PGCC

Databases). Sparknotes, CliffsNotes, GradeSaver or any study guides, or Wikipedia

or free essay websites cannot be used as research for the papers in this class.

4. Do not use first person (I, my, me, we, us) or second person (you, your) when writing the

essay (unless quoting a source that uses first or second person or including reader

response criticism).

5. The audience for the paper is an academic audience. Academic audiences expect very

few (if any) sentence level errors and a professional, formal tone.

6. Essays must follow MLA format, both in appearance (Times New Roman 12 point

font, double spacing, first page heading, pagination, etc.) and citation (works cited AND

in-text citation). Refreshers on MLA format are in Course Contents in Blackboard and

Chapter 3 in your textbook.

7. The minimum length of each essay is 4 full pages. Essays may exceed the minimum;

however, do not go over 5 full pages. Essays shorter than 4 pages or over 5 pages will be

penalized one letter grade (ten points). The works cited does NOT count towards page

count.

8. The minimum amount of sources required for the essay is two. One must be the poem

(if you would like to see an example of a works cited page with a citation from our

textbook) and the other is the student’s choice. Students are encouraged to use more than

this, but two is the minimum.