IMPORTANT POINTS FOR YOUR FIRST, POETRY, PAPER

Write me a paper that compares similar themes! 

I am giving you a recommended outline that begins as follows:

"Poem A" and "Poem B" [provide two titles of poems to be compared] are similar because both teach us to [fill a lesson/theme/lifestyle]. 

Students lose credit (get less than a "B" on the paper) because they don't start off by answering the question. They either don't understand the difference between plot (what it is about) and theme (the lesson the literature/poem teaches), or they fool themselves and still miss the point.

Thus, I strongly recommend that you use the exact words I give you above to start your paper. A theme is a lesson, advice on what we should or shouldn't do as we live our lives. It is plot if you say two poems are similar because they are about love, or loneliness, or death, or any particular subject.

Even if you use the wording I provide, you still are only comparing plot if you say, "Poem A" and "Poem B" are similar because they both teach us about love or life, or any similar subject. The word "about" is a good indication you are still only comparing subject matter or plot.

A theme makes a critical judgment. That is, it might warn us not to do something or face specific consequences. A theme might tell us to do something specific in order to succeed. A theme is stronger, the more it advises us on how we should live our life, and stronger still if it takes a stand and thus teaches us right from wrong, good from bad, how to be happy or what would make us sad.

Here is  yet another link that presents an email exchange I had with a student who checked with me to improve her thesis statement: More help with thesis statement.

Write me a paper that is accurate and well-styled!

I'm an English professor! You have to write well. I will mark your grammar (which I refer to as "accuracy") not just because the Department of English considers your Introduction to Literature course to also be a writing course. I will mark any errors in grammar and style because literacy, writing well, writing clearly, should be objectives for any college-educated person.

Thus, you will lose credit if you don't carefully proof your paper before sending it. You will lose credit if you write yucky sentences or show no concern for grammatical rules.

As I grade each of your three papers, I will expect you to improve your style. If, by the final paper, you are still making the same, or just too many errors in style, then your final grade for the term will be lowered.

Write well. Do your best. I'm rooting for you!