Tips for Unit 3 Projects

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Tips for Unit 3 Projects
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Titling a poem analysis

• DONT Recapitulate the title of the poem (e.g.
  Ode to the Death of a Favorite Cat Drowned in a
  Tub of Goldfishes
• DO Give the paper a meaningful title that
  indicates what its going to be about
• GOOD Mending Wall Analysis
• BETTER Thomass Hidden Fear in Do Not Go Gentle
  Into That Good Night

3
Paragraph Length

• Paragraphs should be at least 3 sentences
• Each paragraph should have a topic sentence
• GOOD These fleeting characteristics are beauty,
  contentment, spring, and love.
• BETTER Beauty, Contentment, Spring, and Love
  all attend the funeral, representing the fleeting
  characteristics that individuals lose as they
  pass from youth into adulthood.

4
Use present tense when talking about literature

• PAST TENSE
• The poem The Daffodils by William Wordsworth
  contains the thoughts and feelings of a man in a
  happy mood as he walked through a field of
  daffodils. He preserved his happiness at the
  time to remind himself of it later.
• PRESENT TENSE
• The poem The Daffodils by William Wordsworth
  contains the thoughts and feelings of a man in a
  happy mood as he walks through a field of
  daffodils. He preserves his happiness at the
  time to remind himself of it later.

5
Tips for proper quotation

• Spend an equal or greater amount of space
  explaining a quotation as the quotation takes up
• Astrophel begins by showing interest and emotion,
  but tries to allure Stella through making himself
  seem fairly pitiful. He believes that if he
  paints the blackest face of woe Stella will
  take an interest to him. Stellas pleasure of
  my pain seems as if Astrophel only wishes for
  the smallest connection between him and his star.
  The line knowledge might pity win, and pity
  grace obtain supports this idea by portraying
  the speaker as seeking her pity for his situation
  instead of just fully gaining her love.

6
Set quotations of 4 or more lines apart from the
main paragraph

• by single-spacing and using double-indent.
  Unlike in-text quotations, you do not need to put
  quotation marks around them.
• Once Porphyria arrives, the speaker pretends to
  be asleep and she comes to him and lays his head
  on her bare shoulder.
• And called me. When no voice replied,
• She put my arm about her waist,
• And made her smooth white shoulder bare,
• And all her yellow hair displaced,
• And, stooping, made my cheek lie there,
• And spread, o'er all, her yellow hair,
• Murmuring how she loved me
• It is now that the speaker begins to talk about
  how he realizes how much she loves him.

7
Avoid generalizations, particularly in the
opening paragraph

• Generalizations
• Death is something that most people fear and is a
  subject that is not often talked about.
• Robert Frost has written many very popular poems.
• Most poetry, a form of literature which is
  written in a short and sweet form, has many
  hidden meanings.

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First sentences can be broad and
attention-grabbing

• Sonnet 147 alludes to love as disease that cannot
  be cured and makes one question loves intention
  in our lives.
• The Millers Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer is a poem
  filled with scandal, deceit, as well as religious
  humor.
• In A Hymn to the Belly, poet Ben Jonson
  satirically portrays the stomach in a
  particularly unique light.

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Freewriting for April 16

• Take 5-10 minutes to think about the following
  questions
• Has your research changed your reading of the
  poem, as you expressed it in Assignment 3.1?
• Did you agree or disagree with the critical
  opinions you found?
• If you could revise your claim about the poem,
  what might you write now?