Persuasive much?!

Jackeline Salazar

My favorite blog post was the “WHITE AMERICAAAAAAAA” by Dannyon13, their blog post was the most persuaded post and that caught my attention. I liked how they mention the rhyme scheme in the beginning of their post describing what scheme the poems were by Mckay and how they mention that they were both sonnets. They also said in their first paragraph the theme within the poem they choose which was a great way to end the first paragraph. The next few paragraphs they are then describing what and why each poem was parting the theme of racism that they mention in the first paragraph. This blog post in particular had a great well written and it was concise throughout their entire blog post. Therefore I will grade this blog post a B+ almost an A-.

The 2nd most persuaded blog post “Tropic Shadows” by kitsham, their blog post was ver organized. In the 2nd paragraph I liked how they mentioned the poem and their sonnet form. They also brought up a few lines from the poem to back up their theme and thesis that they have mentioned in their first paragraph. I think the only difference is if they were to have separate their paragraphs or sections of the poems they were talking about in their blog post so that way it can be easier to point out that they mentioned both of the poems in their blogs instead of having it on one big paragraph. That is my only concern for this blog post other than that they seemed to have answered the prompt and were concise throughout their entire blog post. I would grade  this post an A-.

The last blog post, “The Great Divide” by marklipnickey was another good post too. I liked how they mentioned the form of the sonnets and they have mentioned where the volts where in each of the poems they chose. They mentioned a theme or a thesis in the beginning of their blog post. They had a very well structured and organized blog post throughout the whole way. They also talked about some elements that they found in their poems. Which was great way to start off before they stared to explain the poems and meanings of it. This was beyond and good in a way because it makes the reader understand the poem more. Overall the post was great I would grade this post an A. It was very well structured and organized and they had their main points and added some extras to make their post stand out more. Which was more persuading and it was a good post overall.

Grading is hard

by Alex Luna

When taking a look at the blog post titled “Tropic Shadows” it definitely does an excellent job of conveying the true feelings that come from city life like New York. The author does a good job of using textual evidence to support their claim, particularly in the 2nd and 3rd by highlighting the rhyme structure presented in McKay’s “Subway Wind.” They later continue this good analysis by pointing to specific words and phrases/lines in the poems and how the two poems are connected and convey a unique message. Due to the presentation of a clear thesis and strong textual evidence, this blog post definitely deserves an A.

Upon reading WHITE AMERICAAAAAAA, we can see that the author jumps right into textual evidence considering that they bring up the rhyme scheme in the first paragraph. However, beyond this first mention, the rest of the blog post lacks in textual evidence, opting to focus on the context by mentioning McKay’s background as a poet to support their claims. I also feel like their thesis is a bit underdeveloped. Going into more specifics on what this “critique” of America really is would have made this post better. Due to the weaker thesis, and lack of textual evidence, I’ll give this one a B.

Finally, “The Great Divide” presents a clear and interesting thesis compared to the other two blog posts. I think the idea of anxiety being presented has a lot of potential to be built up well. This blog post also brings up the rhyming structures, but I feel like the author could have gone more in-depth on how the mention of the rhyme scheme supports their thesis. Even when they write about other poems, they still don’t really support their thesis. While they had an interesting thesis, the lack of a well-written argument sets this blog post back a bit. I give it a B-.