Writing Homework Help

Materials needed: 

• Textbook: Literature, An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Writing

Chapter 41, “Writing About Literature”, pp.1887-1905

Chapter 43, “Writing About a Poem”, pp.1993-1944; pp. 1946-1948 (includes how to compare two poems); pp. 1950-1951 (“How to Quote a Poem”)

Pay special attention to the SAMPLE ESSAYS on pp.

• MODULE UNIT 1 POETRY (Key Terms, and Figurative Language may be especially helpful.
• Purdue OWL YouTube Channel videos on formatting papers

GUIDELINES FOR WRITING: See the chapters above.  Also remember the following:

Include the following features in your paper:

Give your paper an original title-—DO NOT UNDERLINE TITLE OR PUT IT IN QUOTATION MARKS – – You may put the title of the poems in quotation marks if you include them in your own title. Your title should be the same size as the rest of your font.        

• Make sure that when you refer to specific features of the poem you document lines.  Remember to use quotation marks when quoting from the poem.
• Use parenthetical references. For instance, if you quote a line directly from the poem, write “In line two the speaker says…” or “The speaker notes that… (ll-7-8.)”
• BE SURE TO HAVE A WORKS CITED PAGE. DO NOT use the word “Page” in your heading. Just call it Works Cited. DO NOT use the word “References” or any words other than Works Cited.  DO NOT put the heading in quotation marks. DO NOT underline the heading. DO NOT make the heading in a font different from the font in the rest of the paper. For this essay you will need only one entry—the poem you are discussing. Cite it this way:

Ryan, Kay. “Turtle”. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama,

           and Writing Twelfth Edition, edited by X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia,

           Pearson, 2005, p. 786.