Literary Criticism Research Paper © Copyright Academic Year 2009 by M. Baltsas. All Rights Reserved. Revised , 2010

Evaluating the Time Period What time period are you focusing on? Romantic, Victorian, Modern, Post-Modern? What years are covered? What were the social and political events? What were some characteristics of the time period? Paragraph 1 © Copyright Academic Year 2009 by M. Baltsas. All Rights Reserved. Revised , 2010

Comprehending your Author Key events/ Influences Works Attitudes Reactions from critics Favorite themes Forms of writing style Paragraph 2 © Copyright Academic Year 2009 by M. Baltsas. All Rights Reserved. Revised , 2010

Analyzing the FORM/ Structure of poetry Is there a rhyme scheme? Patterns, meter, rhyme? Are there stanzas? How many? Are they short? Long? Is there a problem? A solution? What is the message the poet is conveying? Paragraph 4 © Copyright Academic Year 2009 by M. Baltsas. All Rights Reserved. Revised , 2010

Analyzing the Content of poetry What is the main point/ purpose? What does the title suggest? Who is this written for (audience)? What are the arguments used? What are some assumptions or biases? What are the emotions/ feelings? Paragraph 5 © Copyright Academic Year 2009 by M. Baltsas. All Rights Reserved. Revised , 2010

Analyzing Literary Devices Select 1 literary device Claim: Using 1-2 sentences, introduce the literary term… indicate what line or stanza the term is in. Example: “In the first stanza, Keats uses two metaphors to compare _________ to ___________.” Evidence: Use the exact quote from the poem and indicate the line or stanza # in parentheses Analysis: Using 2-3 sentences, analyze.. break down the literary term and explain it in your own words. Paragraph 6 © Copyright Academic Year 2009 by M. Baltsas. All Rights Reserved. Revised , 2010

Analyzing Literary Devices Select 2nd literary device Use the same format for paragraph 5 Paragraph 7 © Copyright Academic Year 2009 by M. Baltsas. All Rights Reserved. Revised , 2010

Your Conclusion What conclusions can be made about this poem in relation to the literary time period and the author who write it? Restate your thesis and summarize the main ideas articulated in your paper. Paragraph 8 © Copyright Academic Year 2009 by M. Baltsas. All Rights Reserved. Revised , 2010

Sources you will use Databases (literary criticism) http://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/ http://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/guide.html http://www.onlineuniversitylowdown.com/2007/08/50-places-to-find-literary-criticism-online.html Textbook (author, time period) Masterplots Series (in school library) 1 book from the library © Copyright Academic Year 2009 by M. Baltsas. All Rights Reserved. Revised , 2010

Additional Online Sources http://www.poetseers.org Begin source card/ citation with “Sri Chimnoy et al…) http://www.poets.org Begin source card/ citation with "The Academy of American Poets, Inc.” © Copyright Academic Year 2009 by M. Baltsas. All Rights Reserved. Revised , 2010

Online Sources to Avoid about.com, askjeeves.com, wikipedia, sparknotes, pinkmonkeynotes, cliffnotes No web site that does not have an author/(s) or date © Copyright Academic Year 2009 by M. Baltsas. All Rights Reserved. Revised , 2010

1 General Online Source Card _____________ ____________ A B A. Author’s Name (last name goes FIRST) or Contributing organization 1 _____________ A ____________ B _______________________ B B.Title of web page _____________ ____________. C D _______________________________ E D. Date of access C. Date of web page E. Web address

Keeping Track of Sources   Keeping Track of Sources Textbook Source Card City of publication Title of Textbook The Language of Literature. Evanston: McDougal Littell. 2006. Pages 323-416 Page(s) Publisher Year © Copyright Academic Year 2009 by M. Baltsas. All Rights Reserved. Revised , 2010

Thesis Statement Templates The general argument made by author ______________________ in his/her work _______________________________________ is that__________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________. More specifically, _________________ argues that _____________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Although ___________________________________ (believes, demonstrates, argues) that_______ ____________________________________________________________________________________, I suggest that ___________________________________________________________________________________________. Or, simply In _______________________________________ (title), __________________________________ (author) uses ____________________________, ________________________________ and ________________________ In order to convey __________________________________________________________________________.