Notes on Writing Good 1-Page Writings
1. Don't paraphrase material from the biographical introduction. Don't copy the question or prompt; just get right to answering it. You may mention something from the author's bio, but only as it applies to some detail in the poetry or fiction.
2. Address the prompt in some detail. Don't quote unless you are going to explain the quotation to make some point. Use this formula: assertion -- quotation -- explanation. Another way to think of it: make a generalization, then quote a line or two, then explain how the line(s) backs up the generalization you made. I realize that in one page you probably can't explain everything in a poem. But you should make some attempt to summarize what you think the whole message is, and follow that with a couple of explanatory details for support.
3. Don't neglect the "little things." Use standard grammar. Punctuate correctly. Get names and titles right.
Here is an example of a sketch I wrote:
In "The Prologue," Anne Bradstreet complains that because she is a woman she is not taken seriously as a poet. She asks men not to dismiss her poetry simply because she is a woman. In the first of eight 6-line iambic pentameter stanzas rhyming ababcc, Bradstreet says she will not write about the grand topics male poets discuss, such as war and kings. With stanza two, she begins to acknowledge, somewhat ironically, the prejudices held against her: "But simple I according to my skill." It's ironic because her poem is not simple. In stanza 3, Bradstreet notes that women are considered naturally inferior to men. The "main defect" of line 15 is women's biology, which, according to the biases of the time, make her supposed artlessness "irreparable" in line 18. This theme of women as the weaker sex is continued in stanza 4: "A weak or wounded brain admits no cure." But in stanza 5 she begins to fight back against the stereotype. In line 26, "says" implies her disagreement with society's expectations, even as she complains in lines 29-30 that even if women perform well, men do not give them credit. The counterattack continues in stanza 6 where Bradstreet askswhy the muse of poetry is a woman, if women are not supposed to be able to write poetry. Then in stanza 7, Bradstreet again acknowledges the abilities of men, but in line 42 she merely asks for the same favor in return: "Yet grant some small acknowledgement of ours." All she wants is for men to admit that women are capable of intellectual endeavors such as poetry. Finally, she tells men that praising a woman's poetry takes nothing away from their own poetry: "This mean and unrefined ore of mine / Will make your glist'ring gold but more to shine." Bradstreet simply wants respect based on the poetry, regardless of the gender of its author.