ENGL197 G – PW7
Writing in the English Discipline
English 197 G | Preparatory Writing Assignment #7
Introduction
So far in this sequence, you have produced a relatively uncritical reading of a poem, working to communicate
the meaning and value of a single poem without intense concern for explaining what is at stake in your
approach to meaning and value in literature (PW6). Some of you have also spent some time reflecting on those
uncritical readings on Go-Post, articulating the “how” of the reading in relation to 3 major modes of reading:
Common Sense Criticism, New Criticism, and Reader-Response Criticism. Now it is time to deploy our insights
into these two fields in argumentation.
In upcoming Essay #2 you will begin to focus more critically on your own reading method with the ultimate
aim of writing an argument about critical theory through a self-aware reading of poetry. So, instead of writing
about the poem and its value, you will be struggling to demonstrate through a critical theory-informed
reading of the poem.
The next step in writing, then, is to shape an effective introduction which clearly lays out this aim, and
presents a provisional academic claim that articulates your insights into the practice of reading and criticism.
These introductions will be provisional, but they can certainly be used as the beginning of your Essay #2. This
week we will be focused on walking you through how to write an effective argument from an
organizational/argumentation perspective – purposeful use of text will just be assumed. So, remember that the
first step is always close reading and developing a line of inquiry/interest that is relevant and focused on that
reading.
Directions
In order to make this assignment productive you need to have done the following:
1. Close read the poem(s) and found something that sparked your interest
2. Close read Critical Practice and have some sense of what you think about the various emphases in critical
theory
3. Thought about what you want to say about critical practice as ways of reading literature in a general sense
Armed with this general sense of your own views about reading in light of what you read in Critical Practice, do
the following:
1. Write a 1-2 paragraph introduction in which you:
a. Shape a focused line of inquiry (an interest to be pursued)
b. Posit an academic claim that addresses your insight into the idea of critical reading
2. Write a list in sentence-outline from your prospective “critical moves.” These are descriptive sentences of
the main phases you think you have to have in your essay in order to demonstrate your claim.
Please make use of the “Introductions” and “Academic Claims” handouts in writing this assignment!
Details
Format: 1-2 paragraphs, typed, single-spaced, MLA format
Due: 10/31/2007 in class as hardcopy
Poem Options:
Emily Dickinson – “I dreaded that first robin so”
John Donne – “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”
John Keats – “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
William Blake – “The Chimney Sweeper” Songs of Innocence, and/or Songs of Experience
William Wordsworth – “The Solitary Reaper,” “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”
Other Poems – Must clear this with me first!