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English A1 EE - Optimal Number of Primary Sources Is...?


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I know that usually, people discuss two works in their English EE. Problem for me is that I'm probably going to be discussing poems. I think this significantly limits the number of words I could write if I was to just talk about two poems. So, I just wanted a second opinion on this.

Should I just talk about something like two or three poems and end up scrambling for words to say towards the end OR should I discuss something like four or five poems instead?

The poems I wish to discuss are all fairly short in length, approximately something in the range of 30 - 50 lines per poem (commentary length, haha).

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Are you comparing the works of two different poets? Or just one? If it's commentary length I think maybe three would be a good limit (if you want to go really in depth with them of course). What's your research question? That would give me a better idea because I'm afraid my suggestion's not that great.

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Thanks so much for the advice. I am thinking maybe 3 - 4 poems too at this point; I think ~ 1000 words for a poem sounds doable. :)

At this point, I am probably going to do this on poems by Emily ****inson and/or William Blake, although I am not sure exactly what poems. :) So I don't really know what I want to do as my research question either. ****inson's poems are generally centered around nature, so perhaps my research question will be based on that theme.

Random sidenote: Wow, a 42! Congratulations. :D

Edited by greaterthaninfinity
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I know that I've seen graders' marks on other subjects where students compared too many works. The graders were like 'this would have been better had the student gone more in-depth with 2-3 works.' Just wanted to put that out there.

Here'e something straight from the EE Guide: [Criterion C]

The range of resources includes, in the first place, the primary texts being studied (and, possibly, other

writings by the author(s) in question, such as essays, journals and letters) and, less importantly, secondary

sources such as published criticism on those texts

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I think you could probably get 4,000 words out of a commentary poem if you explored absolutely EVERYTHING and it was a pretty content-rich poem, so 2-3 poems should do you just fine. In any case, why decide before you've written the essay? Write it for 2-3 poems, have some extras on the side, and if you really, really can't make the 4,000 words with the 2-3 of them, add in another until you've got to the limit. It'll take a bit of time to fully integrate the final poem, but nevertheless it's worth doing. :D

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