Writing Homework Help

Overview

For this workshop, select either “This is Just to Say” (William Carlos Williams) or “The Red Wheelbarrow” (also Williams) and do a brief close reading on it.

Explanation

Let’s warm up our close reading skills.

Two short poems by Williams. (Quite different from the Stevens, isn’t it?) Grab one of the indicated poems, read it again, and start identifying literary elements to discuss. You can go two ways here: 1) develop a thesis statement on the theme, effect, or argument of the poem and what literary elements build that, or 2) just start writing on what literary elements you notice and what their individual effects are on the reader. Either way, prove what you say with properly cited direct evidence from the poem.

Selecting Literary Elements

You are free to choose any literary or rhetorical elements you find in the poem, including these: subject, setting, syntax, word choice, punctuation, diction, line breaks, enjambment, rhyme, alliteration, assonance, rhythm, meter, imagery, mood, tone, juxtaposition, metaphor, structure, repetition, anaphora, apostrophe, asyndeton, metonymy, caesura, or form.

Structuring Your Response

First, prewriting: number the lines of the poem so that you can refer to them by number as you go like thus (line 2).

Please strictly follow these guidelines in structuring your 350-450 word workshop response:

1. Give the author and the title of the poem in bold. Short poem titles go in quotation marks and are not italicized.
2. Make a space, then start start your close reading of the poem.
3. Discuss at least three literary elements in the poem and their effects.
4. Place any and all literary/rhetorical elements you refer to in bold.
5. If you are giving a thesis, make it the first sentence of your close reading. If not, jump in.
6. Don’t add any other preliminaries. Just the close reading.