Poet Report

I need to have the paper read, edited and need MLA citations to be fixed. Notes from my professor …. Choose one poet from our anthology and research him/her and his/her poems in this report. Pick a poet ( my poet is Natasha Tretheway) Read several of his/her poems first. Try to find some continuity between the poems. You may find poems online or in books of poems or in our textbook…or a combination. •Research your poet. •Use only 2 sources (not including our textbook or books of poems) for biography content and literary criticism. •Utilize MLA documentation by having clear and correct in-text citations that match a complete Works Cited (a page at the end of the essay). •No eNotes, Wikipedia (or any encyclopedia articles), Shmoop, or SparkNotes as source choices. I consider Poetry Foundation (website) and Poets.org (website) to be bio sources. You may choose one of these as your bio source but please do not use the other as a literary criticism source. I would like you each to search carefully for a quality resource for the literary criticism section of the report. Now, begin writing the reportWrite a one paragraph INTRO that summarizes key biographical information about your poet (no quoting please). This introduction may only be 1 paragraph long—I do not want an excessively long paragraph—this is a short section of the report. Also, use only ONE outside source for this part. End the borrowed summary introduction with a citation that matches your Works Cited entry (following MLA Documentation). Avoid a signal phrase please; consider just launching into the interesting and summarized details of your poet’s life. This report will not require a thesis statement. The BODY of the report: If you found some continuity between some of the poems, share your own findings in your body paragraphs. Use examples from the poems you have read. Analyze the poems/poetry. Do not include outside sources. Do not include any poet bio. Do not offer any poet conjecture. Even with research you have already done, please do not put your poet inside your poem analysis. Keep separate. Use “speaker” or “persona” when analyzing the poems. Optional: in a third body paragraph, you may share your own personal reactions to 1 or 2 poems you read. This personal reaction may use “I” and does not have to be analytical (again, this first person reaction is optional). Write 2-3 body paragraphs. The CONCLUSION will end the report. I would like you to wrap up the overall assessment of the poet’s work and the poems by the poet (do more than praise your poet please). In this paragraph, you must also include some borrowed literary criticism about your poet’s work (your other source). The literary criticism must focus on the poems/poetry/work and NOT on the poet. The conclusion only needs to be 1 paragraph. Do not include biographical information in the conclusion. Do not offer poet conjecture (do not offer your ideas about this person whom you do not know personally). *You do not have a minimum page/word length requirement for this report! *Be sure to use the poet’s last name when writing the report (you are not on a first name basis with your poet choice) *Other than the optional personal reaction inside the third body paragraph, please do not use “I” in this report, especially no “I think” or “I feel” or “I believe” (these are unnecessary phrases). No “you” either please. *Creative title is not required (but I won’t stop you!) Finished Product The essay Works Cited A typed list of all the poems read (just titles needed) Copies of the poems explored in the essay–I call these “inside sources” Because of this request, you only need to cite the poem line numbers in the essay when quoting the poems, and the poems do NOT belong on the Works Cited. Check out Poet Report and “Inside Sources” for some guidance on quoting poem lines and documenting these.