Take-Home Poetry Research Essay (28%)
ENGL 1202 L11, Summer 2023
Due: Friday August 4th 2022
Context:
The second essay requires sustained textual analysis of a poem as well as the incorporation of peer-
eviewed sources, both of which should highlight the skills you developed this term.
Instructions:
You must compose an original XXXXXXXXXXword essay that answer’s the following question: What
literary or rhetorical device most empowers the message of the assigned poem? This essay also
includes research requirements. To determine your sources, you must choose 1 of following options:
OPTION A OPTION B OPTION C
Song/Poem (Primary
Source)
Leanne Simpson’s
“jiibay or aandizooke”
(assigned poem)
+
1 Additional Primary
Source of Your
Choice
Rita Wong’s “North
Shore Sewage Story”
(assigned poem)
+
1 Additional Primary
Source of Your
Choice
Tawahum Bige’s
“Origin”
(assigned poem)
+
1 Additional Primary
Source of Your
Choice
Peer-Reviewed
Sources
Leanne Simpson’s
“First Nations and
Last Species”
+
1 Additional Peer-
Reviewed Source of
Your Choice
Rita Wong’s
“Watersheds”
+
1 Additional Peer-
Reviewed Source of
Your Choice
Leanne Simpson’s
“First Nations and
Last Species”
OR
Rita Wong’s
“Watersheds”
+
1 Additional Peer-
Reviewed Source of
Your Choice
[Hint: Simpson and Wong have both published additional primary and peer-reviewed sources that
would be appropriate for this essay]
Important Notes:
• Word Count Penalty: You will lose 1% for every word over or under the required word count for
the essay. Your submission information, title, and Works Cited page are not included in the
essay’s word count.
• Thesis: As in all essays, this effort requires that you have a strong thesis: an original claim about
the topic that goes beyond a simple observation. You must determine an original and significant
argument that arises from your analysis.
• Content: Use close-reading skills and provide original analysis, not summary. Use textual
evidence (i.e. quotations) from your texts. Discuss at least 2 literary devices or techniques.
• Structure: The essay must contain all the Essay, Paragraph, and Thesis Statements “Parts” as
studied in class.
• Style: Your essay must include in-text citations, proper formatting, and a Works Cited page in
accordance with MLA Style: https:
libguides.kpu.ca/mla or
https:
owl.purdue.edu/owl
esearch_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/ml
a_formatting_and_style_guide.html
Evaluation: Letter Grade—See KPU’s Grading System (https:
www.kpu.ca/calenda
2015-
16/academic-affairs/grades.html) and the ru
ic included on the following page for details.
Submission: Upload on Moodle under “Assignment Submissions” as a doc. or docx. file. (No Pages
files or PDFs please)
Due Date: Friday August 4th 2023 by 11:59 PM (PST)
https:
libguides.kpu.ca/mla
https:
owl.purdue.edu/owl
esearch_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html
https:
owl.purdue.edu/owl
esearch_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html
https:
www.kpu.ca/calenda
2015-16/academic-affairs/grades.html
https:
www.kpu.ca/calenda
2015-16/academic-affairs/grades.html
ENGL 1202 Poetry Research Essay Checklist
Do not submit your essay until this checklist is complete.
☐ Double-spaced lines
☐ 1-inch margins
☐ 12pt. font in Times New Roman, Arial, or Cali
i
☐ Submission information in accordance with MLA guidelines (name, date, instructor, course &
title)
☐ An original title
☐ XXXXXXXXXXwords (not including your submission info, title, or Works Cited page)
☐ Introduction:
☐ Opening Hook
☐ Focusing Sentences
☐ Thesis Statement (with all the “parts”)
☐ Plan of Development
☐ Body Paragraphs:
☐ Topic Sentence
☐ Claims
☐ Textual Evidence (with properly integrated quotations)
☐ In-text citations
☐ Analyses/Interpretations
☐ Concluding Statement
☐ Transitional Words/Phrases
☐ A Conclusion with all its “parts”
☐ Quotations used from all sources
☐ 1 peer-reviewed source by Simpson or Wong
☐ 1 additional peer-reviewed source
☐ 1 additional primary source
☐ A Works Cited page in accordance with MLA guidelines
☐ Proofread the essay
☐ Complete this checklist
ENGL 1202 L11, Summer 2023 Poetry Research Essay
Evaluated Categories Achievement Level
Content/Ideas F: Very Poor D Range:
Poor
C Range: Fair
to Good
B Range: Good
to Very Good
A Range:
Excellent
1. Clarity of Thesis: intelligible,
engaging articulation of main
argument; recu
ently refe
ed.
2. Insight into Topic/Text(s):
perceptive and compelling ideas,
supported by close, accurate and
detailed reading of chosen
topic/text(s).
3. Development of Ideas: thoughtful
elaboration of main and supporting
idea; easy to follow an argument;
clear direction.
4. Textual Support of Ideas: clear,
properly incorporated quotations in
direct support of argument; proper in-
text citations.
5. Overall Relevance: applicable to
the essay topic; follows instructions.
Research F: Very Poor D Range:
Poor
C Range: Fair
to Good
B Range: Good
to Very Good
A Range:
Excellent
1. Research Ability: right amount
and types of requested sources, from
appropriate locations; shows sound
esearch abilities.
2. Research Incorporation: properly
integrated as textual evidence; sources
are clearly identified.
3. Research Relevance: the artifacts’
original contexts are respected; texts
are not misrepresented; selections are
pertinent to the author’s topic.
Essay Structure F: Very Poor D Range:
Poor
C Range: Fair
to Good
B Range: Good
to Very Good
A Range:
Excellent
1. Formatting: co
ect essay format,
including proper use of MLA or APA
2. Paragraphing: clear topic
sentences; full development of a
single idea in each paragraph.
3. Logical Organization: clear
connections between and within each
paragraph; use of transitions; logical
ordering.
Writing Skills F: Very Poor D Range:
Poor
C Range: Fair
to Good
B Range: Good
to Very Good
A Range:
Excellent
1. Clarity: unambiguous, intelligible
wording; use of varied and relevant
diction.
2. Originality: stylistically varied
sentence structure; rhetorically
persuasive.
3. Grammar + Spelling: co
ect
spelling & use of ve
s, prepositions,
subordination, parallelism, modifiers,
etc.; no typos.
4. Punctuation: co
ect use of
comma, semi-colon, period,
apostrophe, dash, quotation marks.
etc.
Grade:
For comments and notes, please see my in-text copyedits and comments in your essay above; ensure that
“All markup” is selected in your Review tab.
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Title: Watersheds
Author(s): Rita Wong
Source: Canadian Literature XXXXXXXXXXSpring 2010): p115.
Document Type: Viewpoint essay
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2010 The University of British Columbia - Canadian Literature
http:
www.canlit.ca
Full Text:
I would like to thank the Coast Salish peoples whose unceded te
itories we are on and in particular, the Musqueam. Not fa
from here is the only surviving wild salmon stream in Metro Vancouver, and its survival is due to the efforts of the
Musqueam Ecosystem Conservation Society, which organizes monthly clean ups and offers public education tours about the
stream.
I speak situated as a non-indigenous person who is looking for ways to act as an ally, knowing that my own survival is
intimately connected to the survival of indigenous peoples and their cultures. Through dialogue and thoughtful action we
may shift away from the colonial norms that have been violently imposed upon this land toward a sense of inte
elation and
interdependence, not only with humans but with the plants and animals and minerals to which we owe our lives. That is,
"cultural diversity" extends beyond the realm of the human into "biodiversity" if we are careful listeners and learners.
I am an u
an creature, one who has grown up in cities and loves them, but sometimes, the concrete streets and sidewalks
feel like a heavy coat of English smothering the land. Sometimes, as I walk the streets I love, I'll see weeds crack through
pavement, and they'll make me think of indigenous languages, trying to survive, to return balance to the earth so that she
might
eathe. What would happen if English cracked a little more, here and there, and more indigenous languages grew into
it? Decolonizing and reindigenizing, respecting the cultures of this land, means paying attention to the language, not only of
humans, though that is what we've been trained to focus on, but also the languages and cultures of the land. There is much
unlearning and relearning that needs to happen, as pointed out in essays like Jeannette Armstrong's "Land Speaking."
When pavement blocks the flow of water to the earth below, water slowly seeps through, in cracks, with erosion. The ground
I think is so solid, is also full of groundwater, moving at a pace so slow that it may seem imperceptible, but moving
nonetheless.
Underneath the concrete is earthy life, stony life, fluid life.
Writers, scholars, academics, we make our homes in watersheds, not just cities. If I start to map my life, my career, my
communities, and my impact in terms of the watersheds I've lived in, I would start to perceive differently, and through that
shift, perhaps to act differently as well. I might say Bow River instead of Calgary, I might say Fraser River instead of
Vancouver. I might notice how one person's bottled water means another person's dried-up aquifer. I might notice, how close
in salinity I am to ocean water, as Basia Irland puts it, how "each of us is a walking ocean, sloshing down the hallway with
damp saline innards held together by a paper-thin epidermis" (x).
This summer, I received a map of Canada's watersheds. Instead of ten provinces and three te
itories, I saw five watersheds,
draining to the Pacific Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, Hudson's Bay, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico. Instead of seeing
the usual lines that people have drawn, I saw the massive flow of water across the north part of the continent. You and I are
part of that flow. We are roughly 70% water, and we are part of the hydrological cycle, not separate from it. Some of the
water that is in our bodies may have previously circulated in dinosaurs millions of years ago, or jostled around with fish in
lakes and rivers, or been processed by our local sewage treatment plant. Water connects us to places, people and creatures we
have not seen, life that is far away from us, and life that came long before us.
Each watershed has many critical issues that affect us all; these include the destruction of fish habitat, pollution, the body
urden that resides in our fleshy tissues, everything from
ominated flame retardants to anti-depressants to plastics and a
wide a
ay of human medications accumulating in the watery environments that make up 70% of this planet's surface. With
the realization that our individual actions accumulate, there is a growing movement to find ways to change our cumulative
impact.
http:
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At the same time, we cannot ignore that industry has a much larger impact on the environment than individuals. And when I
think of threats to watershed health, one of biggest ones that comes to mind is the Tar Sands in Northern Alberta.
I come from Alberta, the land of oil and water, as Wa
en Cariou's film calls it. In the Alberta Tar Sands, making one ba
el
of oil poisons roughly four ba
els of water. The waste water held in huge tailings ponds are so toxic they immediately killed
hundreds of migrating ducks who flew into the ponds. The wide-open ponds are the size of a city, and as they leak, they
continue to kill humans and non-humans. The cancer rates of nea
y indigenous communities have skyrocketed because of
the pollution.
What might a watershed moment in Canadian literature look like? It would, I think, take up the challenge to respond to the
crisis posed by the Tar Sands. Moreover, and I'm only speculating, but for me, it would involve a reframing of our identities
in relation to water, as a crucial part of the land. The earth is over 70% water, and as Alanna Mitchell points out, it is "the
ocean that contains the switch of life. Not land, nor the atmosphere. The ocean. And that switch can be flipped off" (5) as it
has been during the five previous mass extinctions that have occu
ed on this planet. Living in the midst of what many have
suggested is the sixth mass extinction, I think we are living in watershed times, in the sense that the species which has caused
this situation, are the ones with the responsibility to respond to it.
A number of thinkers like Vandana Shiva have talked about moving from empire to earth community, and held out the
possibility of a great turning in the dominant paradigms and systems by which we live. Literature has a role in such a
watershed possibility, and it is only a possibility, nothing more, nothing less, that I see at this moment. Let me clarify that I
do not see literature as an "instrument" toward some larger hope for humanity, but rather that the cu
ent ecological crisis in
which we find ourselves invites creative