Word count: 750-1,000 words (word count is the text of your paper–does not include the heading or your works cited)

Word count: 750-1,000 words (word count is the text of your paper–does not include the heading or your works cited)

Overview:

In Essay 3, you should synthesize what you have learned this semester about literary interpretation and analysis. You will be graded not only on your depth of analysis of the work and critical thinking but also how effectively you choose a secondary source that is appropriate for a college-level literary paper, how well you integrate these sources into your writing, and how closely you adhere to MLA documentation.

Topic

1. Gwendolyn Brooks, “a song in the front yard” (307); “We Real Cool” (309); “The Bean Eaters” (309)

What do Brooks’s poems suggest about the special challenges of being an African-American poet in a time when many other genres and media compete for attention? What do her poems suggest about the challenges of being a poet who deals with social and moral problems? How does poetry, in Brooks’s hands, become an effective means for observing and teaching?

Requirements:

You will need a minimum of two sources for this paper: one source will be the work from the textbook (this is your primary source), and the other will be a secondary source (such as a journal article) that is written about the work(s) you are discussing. Finding another anthology that includes the work does NOT count as a secondary source.

Your works cited page will have at least two entries—one for the work from our textbook, and one for the secondary source.

The paper should have a clear thesis statement at the end of the introductory paragraph.

I expect a minimum of four quotes from your primary source (i.e. if you are discussing “Cathedral,” I expect four quotes from the work) as well as two quotes from the secondary source.

Your paper should be written following MLA guidelines for formatting, in-text citations, and works cited page.