Essay 1 Strategy

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Essay 1 Strategy

• Where to start, how to get organized and how to
  write your paper

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Step 1 Deciding on your poem

• As you choose your poem, make sure you pick one
  where there is a strong speaker.
• Oftentimes, it is easier to identify speaker in a
  poem with a strong I presence.

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Step 2 Reading and Notetaking

• Mark parts of the poem that are important with a
  highlighter or jot down notes in the margin as
  you read the poem.
• Notes areas where the same types of symbols are
  being used (such as the references to kingship or
  royalty in Richard Cory)
• Your notes in your text will help you when you
  begin writing your essay.

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Step 3 More Reading

• Dont be satisfied with one reading of the poem.
  Read it again and again.
• Spend some time away from the poem
• Read it again.

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Step 4 Breaking it down

• This essay is an analysis, which comes from the
  Greek breaking up. How do the elements of the
  poem help to reveal the speaker?
• Use the questions in the text to help you when
  analyzing the elements of the poem.

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Step 5 Deciding on a thesis

• Sum up your controlling idea, your thesis, in one
  sentence. Usually, this sentence will be placed
  at the end of the introduction.
• Dont just write down a lot of random impressions
  about the poem. Give your impressions shape and
  form. Make one point strongly.
• Stick to ideas that are related to your thesis.

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Step 5 Thesis

• Consider a thesis similar to the one in the
  textbook for Elizabeth Bishops Manners.
• Bishop enriches this poem about manners by
  developing an implicit theme through her subtle
  use of such elements of poetry as speaker,
  setting, rhyme, meter, symbol and images.

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Step 5 -- Thesis

• A similar thesis could be constructed for Mews
  The Farmers Bride.
• Mews farmer shows his true character through the
  depiction of his relationship with his wife,
  figures of speech and imagery.

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Step 5 Thesis

• Another option would be to use the thesis to
  outline specific traits of the speaker.
• Robinsons Miniver Cheevy reveals a weak man
  who longs for the past and seems unable to take
  his fate into his own hands.
• You also could use the elements of poetry in this
  thesis
• Robinson uses careful diction, figures of speech
  and allusions to reveal a weak man who seems
  unable to take his fate into his own hands.

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Step 6 Creating an outline

• Use your thesis to help you create an outline for
  your essay.
• Your body paragraphs might be shaped around
  personality characteristics of the speaker or
  elements of poetry and what that element reveals
  about the speaker.
• The outline you turn in should have a complete
  sentence thesis and phrases for the major
  headings.

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Step 7 Writing your essay

• Create an original title that either uses the
  name of the poem and author or suggests what the
  essay will be about. Titles should be centered.
• Robinsons Misfit Miniver Cheevy

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Step 7 Writing

• Mention the author and the title of the poem
  early in the introduction.
• Sometimes people are unable to accept or make the
  best of what their lives have become. They wallow
  in their misery and seem unable to control their
  own destinies. In Miniver Cheevy, Edwin
  Arlington Robinson paints a picture of a man who
  is unhappy with his life. The poem, written in
  1910, is one of a series of Robinsons Tilbury
  Town poesm of disillusioned misfits. Based on
  Gardiner, Maine, the town of his youth, Tilbury
  Town became the mythical location for many of
  Robinsons well-known poems (Henderson 542).
  Robinsons Miniver Cheevy reveals a weak man
  who longs for the wealth of the past and seems
  unable to take his fate into his own hands.

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Step 7 Writing the essay

• Avoid using I in your essay. The essay comes
  from you, so unless otherwise noted, the reader
  assumes that the essay is your opinion. You also
  should avoid using you in essays. You is
  considered familiar and, therefore, has no place
  in a formal essay. Formal essays should use the
  third person (see Hacker).

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Step 7 Writing the essay

• Present tense is used when discussing literature.
  Robinson paints or Robinson reveals.
• When discussion historical events or incidents in
  the authors life, though, use the past tense.

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Step 7 Writing the essay

• Use frequent references to the poem itself to
  support your thesis and topic sentences.
  Remember, though, that no more than 15 percent of
  any essay should be direct quotes.
• Use MLA style to document where you have used the
  poem.

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Step 7 Writing the essay

• Make sure your conclusion effectively wraps up
  the essay. Avoid just restating your introduction.