Interview and Works Cited

Wow, I was amazed at how many students were unable to come to school on Friday! I hope everyone is feeling better as we enter the last couple weeks of school. I promise I will do all I can to provide meaningful work related to our study of literature to ensure all your school days are worthwhile 🙂

Remember that your interview project (potentially worth 200 points!) is due Tuesday, May 21.

In order to help you as much as I can, I am including the documents I distributed on Friday. Please read them thoroughly and prepare to ask any questions you might have so that you can be successful in this project.

CLICK HERE for information on how to write the interview as well as for how to create the Works Cited page.

CLICK HERE for information about how to create the introduction to your interview.


Research Project – Interview

Last Friday, I assigned each student a different poet from our literature book. Here is the  RAFT I put together to help students focus on their task:


Role – You are a writer for a popular magazine that focuses on the lives of poets.
Audience – Your readers are intelligent literary-minded people, well-read and interested in learning more about writers, poets, and artists.
Format – You will present your report in an Interview format.
Topic – What makes this poet stand out among other writers and/or poets? What makes this individual unique and interesting? What common themes does he or she explore in his or her poetry, and why is this an important theme to the poet?

I directed students to generate at least 10 open-ended questions they could ask a poet during an interview and then gave more information; to wit:

Your poet is featured in the literature book somewhere, but you should also be able to find more information about him or her on the Internet.

Just as we saw with The Belle of Amherst, poets live life somewhat differently from other people. Not that they are all as eccentric as Ms. Dickinson, but they are interesting people to explore. Distinct, unique people with their own ideas, their own experiences, their own personalities.

You have been assigned a poet. Your task is to do extensive research into this person’s life and written work and to then create a character sketch of that poet showing how his or her works are representative of his or her life.

  • Where did he or she grow up?
  • What was his or her family like?
  • What significant relationships – romantic or otherwise – did he or she have?
  • What sort of work (like a job) did he or she do?
  • How much did he or she publish in his or her lifetime?
  • How does his or her experiences/background appear in his or her written work?
  • How was he or she reviewed by critics of his or her time?
  • Based on what you have learned, describe his or her personality.

To successfully complete this assignment, you will need to access at least one biographical work, at least five examples of his or her written work, and at least two critical sources that discuss his or her work. Keep track of these materials so you can create your working bibliography.

I then explained that this research would be presented as an INTERVIEW, not as an ESSAY, and I provided these directions:

You will present your research project as if it were an interview. To accomplish this task, you will act as the Interviewer, asking questions to prompt the poet into responding. (Identify yourself as INT. (for Interviewer) and the poet by his or her initials.

For example, if during your research you discovered that Emily Dickinson never left her home as an adult, you might as the Interviewer ask her that question and then, writing as if you had actually interviewed her, provide her extended response. Her responses will provide the bulk of your end product, with all the research you will have done.

INT. I heard that you never left the house as an adult. Why did you make this decision?
E. D. I found that my social interactions were never very satisfying. My sister, Lavinia, and my brother, Austin, were always the social ones. I just never developed the gift of talking to other people. My way of talking to others was through notes and through my poetry.
INT. What sort of notes did you send?
E. D. Oh, I wrote the most confusing notes to people. They used to share my notes with others, I heard, to see what “half-cracked Emily Dickinson was up to now.”

Allow the conversation (the interview) to develop naturally, as if you were actually talking to the poet.

You will present your written interview as well as a Works Cited page (listing your various sources of information) on May 20. Feel free to submit this earlier, as I know that this is much more time than you’ll need.

I also shared with students one of several sample interviews, all of which can be accessed HERE, HERE, and HERE

Following this, students were directed to find the poet’s biographical information page in our textbook and to take notes they felt were appropriate. I provided them a sample MLA bibliographic citation; all they need to do is change the name of the poet and the page number(s)

Emily Dickinson.” Pearson Literature Florida. Pearson. 2015. pp. 404-405.


ON MONDAY I provided time in class to work on their research:

  • Read the biographical information located inside the textbook (using the index beginning on page R54) and take notes.
  • Use your Internet-seeking device (phone, tablet, laptop, etc.) to locate other information about the poet that you have been assigned and take notes. Remember that you must access at least five of their poems and at least two critical responses to their writing, in addition to the biographical information you located search in the textbook. (Feel free to search for biographical information elsewhere on the Internet if you feel this would be useful.) Be sure to write down information to help you find these information sites again.
  • Once you have done the research, it might be a good idea to begin rough drafting your interview. Remember that this should seem like a natural conversation between you and the poet, where you ask questions and the poet responds, using information that you have discovered during your research.

I also provided a sheet laying out the guidelines for creating bibliographic citations for websites, which can be accessed by clicking HERE.


ON TUESDAY, they had more time to conduct their research. I encouraged them to come to me if they had any questi\ons, and I helped as much as I was able.


Wednesday is a testing day for most students, so they will have time to work on this if they are in class.

On Thursday, I will give final directions on how to write an interview and how to to create a Works Cited page. I asked students to finish their research by Thursday so they can gain the most benefit from that day’s teaching.

This assignment is due Monday, May 20 and I am toying with the idea of making it worth 200 points (in order to offer a nice grade boost). Typing is expected, but I cannot *require* it.

Please comment below with any questions, comments, or considerations.

NaPoWriMo Feedback Sought

I would appreciate some feedback on my NaPoWriMo. Please consider visiting and reading through my poetry from April 1, 2019 through April 30, 2019 (blogs are backwards dated, so it will start with April 30 and work its way backwards).

I do not expect feedback on all 30 (as marvelous as that would be) but I’d appreciate it if you would do the following:

  • Tell me the titles of at least 3 poems that you really enjoyed, that you felt had promise for future publication. Explain in a few sentences after each why you thought it was good. Suggest revisions.
  • Tell me the titles of 2 or 3 poems that just didn’t seem up to par. NaPoWriMo is about writing a poem every day in April, not about writing a “good” poem every day, so I am sure there are several that just aren’t that good. After each, tell me in a few sentences why you thought it was lacking. [NOTE: Feel free to tell me if you spot spelling errors, etc., but don’t make that the foundation of why you didn’t like a poem.] Again, feel free to suggest revisions to make the poem better.

You can either present this to me on paper, via email, or as comments left beneath the appropriate poems. (Comments left beneath the poems is my preferred method of communication for this.) Let’s send an end date for this to Monday, May 13, just in case I decide this is worth extra credit of any sort. Realistically, I am asking you as fellow writers to provide me some feedback on my writing, so the incentive of “extra credit” should be completely secondary; perhaps consider this “extra credit of the heart,” as we have discussed in class.

Important: Do not hesitate to be very honest about why such and such a poem was not good. Simply saying “I like this poem” is not the least but helpful; pointing out a poem’s weaknesses (and perhaps suggesting ways to improve the poem) is immeasurably helpful as I continue to grow as a writer.

Please be aware that one of my poems contains profanity; I thought the verbiage was necessary for the poem. If you are offended by such language, do not read “The Cancer Blues” (NaPoWriMo #8).

Thanks in advance to all who care enough to provide meaningful feedback. I value your opinions.

NaPoWriMo 2019 – All Poems Assigned

April 1 – Bio Poem (Google: I Am Poem)

April 2 – List Poem (Google List Poem)

April 3 – “Is Poetry Important?” (Turn paragraphs into poems)

April 4 – Write a poem about Children Playing (Noun Verbing)

April 5 – Alphabet Poem (26 words with consecutive A-Z or 26 lines with consecutive A-Z)

April 6 – Free Poem

April 7 – Free Poem

April 8 – Acrostic Poem (Google Acrostic Poem)

April 9 – Countdown Poem

April 10 – Triolet (Google Triolet)

April 11 – Write a poem about a CHILDHOOD MEMORY

April 12 – “I remember, I remember”

April 13 – Free Poem

April 14 – Free Poem

April 15 – “Halfway”

April 16 – Pantoum (Google Pantoum)

April 17 – Write three haiku, connected in some way (morning-afternoon-evening … friend-lover-enemy … breakfast-lunch-dinner … physical-mental-emotional … Heaven-Purgatory-Hell … come up with some interesting idea). Remember that haiku has 5 syllables in line one, 7 syllables in line two, and 5 syllables in line three.

April 18 – Write a poem about SUCCESS or about FAILURE – any poetic format, any interpretation

April 19 – Free Poem

April 20 – Free Poem

April 21 – Free Poem

April 22 – Shadorma (Google Shadorma)

April 23 – Narrative Poetry

April 24 – “Music”

April 25 – Tanka

April 26 – A Lesson

April 27 – Free Poem

April 28 – Free Poem

April 29 – Angry Poem (or Happy Poem, if you prefer)

April 30 – Sestina (Google Sestina)


Poetry Folder is due May 6
I extended the date so you could have another weekend and also so I did not get the Friday “forgetfulness” that might follow two days off school for job shadowing.
You’re welcome.

Want to save yourself the embarrassment of forgetting your poetry folder on Monday? Turn it in on Friday, when it was originally due.


Extra Credit Opportunity – Plagiarism Essay

Write an multi-paragraph essay of at least 500 words on this topic: Define plagiarism (cite examples), discuss why it is wrong and what the consequences are, and explain how to avoid it.

You will need to use quotes from at least four (4) sources in your essay. I am providing two:

CLICK HERE to access the plagiarism policy from Hillsborough Community College. When you cite this source, refer to it as “Brandon Campus” – there will be no page numbers.

CLICK HERE to access a document called “Is It Plagiarism?” from Purdue University. When you cite this source, refer to it as “Purdue University” – there will be no page numbers.

You do not need to provide a Works Cited page (since I have not yet taught you how to do this), but do so if you know how. (Always strive to impress your instructor.) Nonetheless, I should easily be able to find your sources based on your citation method.

Your essay should be formatted according to the MLA guidelines that we repeatedly discussed in class and which are available on the Essay Writing Help tab above. Points will be deducted for papers that are not formatted correctly.

Any essay that has plagiarized information will receive no points at all.

This assignment is worth up to 50 extra credit points.

I said I would post this yesterday but was unable to do so. You never suffer for my deficiencies, so this essay will be due Tuesday at the start of your class time (instead of Monday, which I originally announced in class). No late papers will be accepted, even for absences – work is due when it is due.

Have fun writing your essay – I hope you learn something new that will be helpful to you in your future.

Some Topics for Poems

Use these as we write a poem every day in April to celebrate National Poetry Month. Or write about whatever is on your mind and important to you. Feel free to reuse topics on different days – sometimes an idea just seems to open up as it sits in your head. It doesn’t matter what you write – just write!

  1. Write a poem in which you INTRODUCE YOURSELF
  2. Write a THANK YOU poem
  3. Write about the BEST DAY EVER (or the worst)
  4. Write about a FIRST KISS (or a last kiss)
  5. Write a poem to SOMEONE YOU MISS
  6. Write a HATE poem
  7. Write a poem to a CELEBRITY
  8. Write about something you FEAR
  9. Write a poem about your GOALS
  10. Write a poem about a SPECIAL PLACE
  11. Write a poem about something you WORRY about
  12. Write a poem about a TREASURE
  13. Write a poem that is really a DIALOGUE
  14. Write a poem giving ADVICE TO A 10-YEAR OLD
  15. Write a poem in PRAISE OF YOUR SCHOOL
  16. Write a poem about BEING ALONE
  17. Write a poem to you FROM YOUR PET
  18. Write a poem comparing your LIFE to a GAME
  19. Write a poem to your FUTURE SELF expressing your hopes
  20. Write a poem about DIFFERENCES
  21. Write a poem of PRAYER
  22. Write a poem about something you BELIEVE
  23. Write a poem about the WEATHER
  24. Write a poem about WRITING A POEM
  25. Write about your FAVORITE PASTIME
  26. Write a poem about your PERSONAL MOTTO
  27. Write a poem that TEACHES A LESSON
  28. Write a poem about REFUSING something
  29. Write a poem about a CHILDHOOD MEMORY
  30. Write a GOOD-BYE poem

Poetry Presentation

April is National Poetry Month. To celebrate this, we will study, write, and share poetry together all month long.

The first part of this month-long celebration will be you, bringing in a poem that resonates with you that you want to share with others. You can find many poems on the Internet, of course, but consider all your sources. Any poem is fine, so long as it does not contain profanity.

On your assigned day, you will

  • bring in the poem, printed out or typed. Be sure to identify the title and author.
  • present a one hundred word (minimum) paragraph explaining why this poem resonates with you. This will be delivered to me, not read aloud to the class.
  • stand in front of the class and read your poem aloud. (Practice reading it out loud before presenting to the class, please)

For this, you will receive 25 points. Not presenting on your day will earn you a zero, unfortunately, so make sure you are prepared.

NOTE: For clarity, you will read your poem aloud in front of the class (and your reading should sound as if you have practiced reading it out loud) and then deliver to me the physical copy of your poem as well as your 100-word paragraph.

Extra Credit Opportunity

Just because I love you (and because I want you to help yourself), here is an extra credit opportunity worth up to 75 points. This is due Monday (3/18) at the start of your class time – no late papers, no excuses.


It’d be swell of you to contact friends and let them know; not everyone has added me to their REMIND services. They’ve been invited, of course, but I cannot do more than I can do.