Literary Title

The title of your paper is NOT the title of the poem you are analyzing. Write a literary title; for example: “A Critical Analysis of Symbols and their Meanings in Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken” (place quotation marks around paper’s title and italicize the title of the poem).

Follow the correct MLA (Modern Language Association) format for the title page/cover page (sample is on D2L). Margins and spacing.

Include the originality statement on the title page (cover page) and sign it.

Title page should not be numbered. Page numbering begins with page 2 (upper right hand side: example: Manuel 2) do not capitalize your last name.

Write a clear and focused Thesis Statement—this will be the last sentence in your introduction. The Thesis Statement must state precisely the literary devices (Example: symbol, setting, rhyme, etc.) you are analyzing in your paper.

Quote lines from the poem to support your essay. Example: The author signifies sleep as both the physical rest at the end of the day and death at the end of one’s life as seen in: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep / And I have promises to keep / And miles to go before I sleep, / And miles to go before I sleep” (lines 13-16).

You will need at least two secondary sources (Journal articles, books, etc.) to support your analysis. In the body of the paper you would say: “Frost’s eye for strong, telling details was matched by his ear for natural speech rhythms” (Meyer 617).

Dictionaries, google/internet articles, Wikipedia are NOT scholarly secondary sources.

You are analyzing a literary piece (poem), so use literary terms in your paper.

Keep your paper objective. Do not use personal experiences as examples to support what you are writing about. Use aformal tone – not informal or casual.

Write a strong conclusion: bring in the main ideas as stated in your thesis. Provide the reader with a lasting impression on the topic.

Works Cited Page: will be the last page of your paper on a separate page. List the textbook and the other sources in thealphabetical order.

Blake, William. “The Garden of Love.” Literature: Voice and Craft. Ed. Nicholas Delbanco and Alan Cheus. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw, 2013. 71. Print.

(The title of the poem is in quotation marks, the book is has an editor, the title is in italics or underlined. The second line begins with an indentation). You can check the format for writing Works Cited on MLA.org)

Include all the sources you have used in your paper in the Works Cited Page.