Below is a sample of a very strong student paper from fall 2017. This student’s paper was published in City Tech Writer, the college’s journal of outstanding student writing. Dominique’s paper focused on the connection between Langston Hughes’ poem “I, Too” and the Charlottesville protests in August, 2017.
Notice how Dominique’s paper quotes from the poem throughout her paper and how she makes connections between the poem and the protests:
Paper 2 Langston Hughes Charlottesville
After you identify your topic for Paper #2, the next step is to figure out how to move from a topic to a strong thesis statement.
Here’s an example:
Let’s say your topic is how Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” connects to New York City’s yellow cab drivers and the increase in driver suicides.
This is still just a topic. You need to identify a specific point of view or angle on this topic so that you don’t wind up writing a paper that is very broad. A strong thesis statement leads to a strong paper.
Here are three examples of thesis statements stemming from this topic. Which one is the strongest?
In Walt Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing” the speaker writes about jobs. This connects to contemporary taxi drivers.
In Walt Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing,” the speaker writes about jobs that help men earn a good living. This is an economic issue that connects to New York City’s yellow cab drivers.
In Walt Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing,” he writes about jobs that were common in the nineteenth century but they aren’t common now. This connects to the recent news stories about yellow cab drivers in New York City taking their own lives because they can’t earn a decent living, due to competition from apps like Uber and Lyft.
Which of these will lead to the strongest paper and why?
Aim to be very specific as you develop your thesis. I will give you feedback as quickly as possible as to whether your topic (poem + specific news even or poem + specific person in the news) is approved, and then I’ll give you additional feedback on how to improve your thesis as we move forward.
Here’s an online link to Nancy Miller Gomez’s poem “Discovering Colors in Prison”
References connected to colors in “Discovering Colors in Prison”
Hi everyone,
I finally had a chance to sit down and grade Blog Post #1. Everyone should have received a private comment (which means only the student writer and I can see it on our site) and a grade (a numerical value that only you and I can see). These have all been posted.
I just want to remind everyone how I graded Blog Post #1, since I’ll be using the same system for Blog Posts 2 and 3:
4 points=full credit: the post was complete, responded to the assignment, was posted on time, was about 200 words
2 points = partial credit: the post responded to the assignment and was posted on time, but was incomplete, substantially fewer than 200 words.
0 points= no credit: the post wasn’t submitted, was submitted too late to receive credit (late posts do not count as per the guidelines I distributed) or does not respond to the assignment.
The Open Lab work portion of the course grade consists of Blog Posts 1, 2, and 3 (full credit will be 12 points), plus 10 vocabulary words posted by December 12 (full credit will be 10 points), plus 3 comments on other students’ blog posts 1-3 (full credit is 3 points). This totals 25 points, which is 25% of the course grade.
If you write 3 additional blog post comments above the 3 that are required, then I will drop one failing vocabulary quiz grade. I will only drop one failing quiz grade so everyone may only use this option once. Please remind me to announce this in class as well.
Hi everyone,
Here are the instructions for Paper #2, which will be due December 10th.
We’ll be spending some class time working on this paper–the first step is to choose a topic and submit it for my approval on Monday, Nov 19th.
Paper 2 poetry research fall 2018Confessional poetry is a style of poetry, rather than a specific poetic form. In other words, poets who write confessional poetry may choose a specific form or to make up their own. Confessional poetry is a term that refers to the subject matter that poets choose to write about.
Here’s a good introduction to this type of poetry from poets.org:
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/brief-guide-confessional-poetry
Here are the directions for Blog Post #2, which will be due Mon, November 26.
Blog post #2 researching a poet
Hi everyone,
Here are some changes to our syllabus (readings/deadlines) for the next two weeks:
For Wed, October 31–we’ll be discussing Alicia Ostriker’s poem “Thirsting”–online link on OpenLab and Margaret Atwood’s poem “True Stories” (in textbook pp.217-218).
Wed, October 31st at 10 am is the extended deadline to put up Blog Post #1–Poetry in Motion.
For Mon, Nov 5th, we’ll be discussing Sylvia Plath’s poems “You’re” and “Metaphors” (both are online links). We will not be discussing Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy.”
Monday, November 5th is the due date for handing in revised paper #1.
Wed, November 7th is the due date for comments on Blog Post #1. Please comment on at least one other student’s post. Commenting on more than 1 post will earn extra credit.
If you are opting to revise paper #1, the due date for the revised paper is Monday, November 5th.
When you hand in your revised paper, you must hand in your original (with the grading rubric attached) and write a one-paragraph summary of changes you’ve made to your paper.
The most important area to focus on in revising Paper #1 is adding specific details, both to your analysis of the poem and to the section of the paper about a specific course or person.
Below is a handout that should give you a sense of the level of detail Paper #1 really needs. This paper needs to be more than 5 paragraphs in order to provide specific details. Adding details can mean being more specific in your analysis of the poem, or it can mean being more specific when you write about the person in your life you are connecting to this poem.
Questions to consider:
Revising Paper 1 with details
Hi everyone,
I forgot to remind you today that a week from today, 10/24, is not also the midterm date but also the date by which you should have posted five vocabulary words to the OpenLab glossary.
If you missed today’s class you can find the Midterm Review sheet posted on our site–search for it under the category Midterm.
We’ll spend time on Monday discussing “The Lonely Child,” “The Thirteenth Woman,” and “Success Story” to help you prepare for the midterm. We’ll also talk about the difference between how a poem works and what a poem means.
Have a good weekend!
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