Assignment: Your goal is to “(p)ose an interpretive question about a group of poems by the same author or about a musical
album and respond analytically showing your readers how the lyrics/poetry support your interpretation.” You may use any
single music album by one artist that features singing/rapping/lyrics other than a “Greatest Hits/Best of” album or a “mix”
album. You cannot work with instrumental music (music with no lyrics spoken or sung) either. If you choose to use poetry,
make sure the poems have something in common. You need to pick no fewer than 3 poems or songs and no more than 5
poems or songs to support your thesis. “In the introduction to your essay, pose an interesting, problematic, and significant
question about the lyrics/poetry, one that can be answered several different ways according to the evidence in the text.
Look for a question that might lead to differences in opinion among your classmates and that offers readers new insights
into the lyrics/poetry. Your task in this assignment is not to discover the right way to interpret the text, but to explain your way
of reading some aspect of it.
Using a closedform
structure, present your thesis and your supporting arguments. Before you give your thesis, make clear
just what question you are putting to the text and why. It is this question that engages your readers’ interest and makes
them look forward to your analysis.” (In other words, no one should ask, “Who cares?” after reading your introductory
paragraph). Then, in the body of your paper, explain your own responses to this question, contrasting your answer with
other possible interpretations that (may) have been proposed by your classmates (or others) or that you yourself have
considered. You need to provide the citation/integration of at least two secondary sources that provide an insight into your
reading of the lyrics/poetry. Feel free to dispute “the alternative interpretations” if necessary, but “concentrate on showing
your reader how you arrived at your interpretation and why you think that interpretation is valuable. Use details from the
poetry/lyrics (and appropriate secondary sources) for support.”
Good literary questions call attention to problematic details of the text, stimulate conversation, and provoke readers to
return to the text to reread and rethink. You know you have a good question if (others) disagree about the answer and (can)
contribute their own views to the conversation.” Good questions can arise from Chapter 18 of your Literature for
Composition text as well as questions on text, author, culture, and reader.
Evaluation Criteria:
Provision
of a fairly original interpretive question about poetry/music lyrics with an analytical response to it showing
