Bibliography Cards & Taking Notes on Poet's Major Works

Wednesday16 May 2018 for Periods 5 & 6 and Thursday 17 May 2018 for Periods 1, 2, & 7

Students used their research style manual or Purdue University's OWL for requirements for MLA style bibliographic entries.

Mr. Stone worked through three bibliography cards with the students: 

one for an entry from Encyclopedia Britannica (an article/page on a web site or look at p. 159 of Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers' A Pocket Style Manual),

a second for The Poets Laureate Anthology (book or look at p. 151 of Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers' A Pocket Style Manual),

and one for an entry from the American Academy of Poets' Poets.org  (an article/page on a web site or look at p. 159 of Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers' A Pocket Style Manual).

Students read Edgar Lee Masters' "Lucinda Matlock" as an example of a dramatic poem.

Homework:  Complete ten note cards.  Begin on the secondary question:  what are the poet's major works,  and then take more notes on your assigned poet's life if you need or desire.

How to Take Notes on Major Works

Whether a work of literature is considered a major or minor work of an author is a sophisticated judgment made by literary scholars.  I am not asking you to determine if a work is major or minor yourself.  You can determine which works are generally considered major by which works are most frequently selected and mentioned in descriptions of the poet's writing.  You should collect notes on the works a poet has published. 

Keep track of your notes for different works by your assigned poet by the book’s title.  ( If a poet is known for particular short poems, find out the title of the first book in which they were published.)

Your note cards will have “works” as the secondary keyword and a specific book’s title for the tertiary keyword.

For example, if Donald Hall was your poet, you might have a note card from The Encyclopedia Britannica that had “works:  One Day” as the keyword heading.

Another note card from The Encyclopedia Britannica might say:

A third note card from The Encyclopedia Britannica might say:

For your notes on major works by the poet, you could include any of following information:

Date of publication

Complete title if longer than the title listed as the keyword of the card you are writing (Some books have a title and a subtitle.  The subtitle is usually written after a colon.  A complete title includes both the main title and the subtitle.)

Primary topic of the book (if there is one)

Form or style of the poems included in the book

Awards or prizes given to the work

Inspiration or reason for the work

Other general notes on works might include the number of books published and the types of works they have published (poetry, nonfiction prose, novels, children’s books, etc.)