IB English 12

Poetry Commentary/Dominant-Effect Thesis-Driven Essay

You are required to produce aliterary commentary essay arguing the effect of dominant literary conventions in your assigned William Butler Yeats poem.

  • “To Ireland in the Coming Times”
  • “September 1913”
  • “The Second Coming”
  • “Sailing to Byzantium”

Formal requirements:

Length 1,000–1,200 words. If the limit is exceeded, assessment will be based on the first

1,200 words.

Submission The final essay will be submitted for assessment to turnitin.com. No written copy will be submitted. The essay should be a well-presented, formal piece of work.

Assessment The final essay is awarded a mark out of 20 using assessment criteria A, B, C, and F.

Calendar:

  • Tuesday, 11/7: Poem Selection and Commentary Practice
  • Wednesday, 11/8: Full-class work period for Yeats commentary paper
  • Monday, 11/20 @ 8AM: Yeats commentary paper due to turnitin.com

Notes from the Subject Report: What the IB Gods want you to know about analytical poetic writing

Regarding Criterion A:

“…examiners had some reservations about the quality of the candidates’ understanding of the layers of meaning, of the subtext, of the patterns of artistic expression that give the work their richness.”

Historical/Biographical Context:

“…it is useful if the poem or poems … are presented with some indication of their context in a larger collection.”

“Candidates seem to love using biographical information and relating it to a text. At times this may be relevant but often it is a distraction that hinders the proper understanding of a work.”

Regarding Criterion B:

“Candidates need to give specific attention to two questions: what choices do you observe the writer making in presenting ideas, plots, characters, places and what do these particular choices contribute to the particular or overall effect of the literary work. Particular weaknesses here are summaries of plots or paraphrasing of poetic lines with slight allusion to the topic chosen for the essay, treating characters as real people, and adding hypothetical observations about how the work would change if other choices were made by the writer.”

Quality of work:

“ While writing an essay the candidate should have the text beside them so that they can give close references and quote accurately. Essays where names are misspelt and events are misplaced are not acceptable in coursework.”

RegardingCriterion C:

Essay Structure:

“A good essay should have an introduction which guides the reader in to what to expect from the essay. If the essay deals with abstractions then they need to be defined so that the candidate knows precisely what he or she will be writing about. Introductions often contain a thesis which will form the centre of the argument in the essay. The body of the essay should present an argument or provide an insight into the chosen aspect of the text. It should contain detailed references to the text and integrated quotations. The conclusion should synthesize the information and not just repeat what has already been stated. Some candidates have a habit of telling the reader what the essay is about three times, each time adding a little more information. This is not a very successful technique as it is likely to lead to repetition and fragmentation.”

Regarding Paragraphing and Quotation Integration:

“ The most basic skill of all is being able to write in paragraphs. More and more examiners wonder why this skill does not seem to be taught effectively anymore. The other skill that must be taught is how to integrate quotations seamlessly into the essay. Quotations are not self-explanatory. They need a context and should be directly related to what is being discussed.

Regarding Criterion F:

Proofreading:

“What does need more attention though is proof reading. Nowadays, when spell-checks are readily available, spelling mistakes are not acceptable. Careful reading should pick up other technical errors. Sometimes it seems that candidates have been encouraged to make use of a thesaurus. This is fine but candidates need to be told that not all synonyms can replace each other. Overuse can result in unintended connotations or in a pretentious, overblown or even incomprehensible syntax.”

Works Cited:

“A works cited page which contains the date, author, and edition of a work is important, especially with earlier works where there may be very different texts.”