Assignment: Short Literary Analysis

I'd like my students to write a brief literary analysis comparing John Donne's "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" to "The Ecstasy" by following these steps:

1. Start a blog post here titled "Writing Plan and Record: [Your Name]." Use the label "writing plan and record 1" as well as "posted by [Your name]." The idea for this post is for you to narrate your process and to be more self aware of your writing. You'll be coming back to it a few times with updates, each of which should be short. Go ahead and post it, even though it is incomplete, then re-publish it after each time you update it.
2. Reread both "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" and "The Ecstasy"
3. Review formal elements identified in "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" by you and other class members from the "preliminary formal analysis" assignment. Focus especially on genre and language.
4. Write one short paragraph in your "Writing Plan and Record" blog post in which you make some observations about the poems so far and any possible direction you might go. Don't make this very long, and precede it with a day/time.
5. Practice listening for aural form (rhythm, rhyme, tone, alliteration, assonance, repetition) by listening to both poems read by Richard Burton: "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" (look for three files listed under the photo, and listen to the middle one--though any by him are okay); and "The Ecstasy." 
6. Add another short paragraph to your "Writing Plan and Record" post giving additional observations about aural form after having listened to both recordings. These don't have to be tightly connected to your prior observations. As before, precede it with a day/time.
7. Do prewriting for the essay. This could be marking up the poem, creating an outline, or whatever other kind of thinking-in-writing you'd like (see, for example, Nicole's use of a whiteboard in this post). 
8. Update your "Writing Plan and Record" with this prewriting -- either a photo of handwritten prewriting you've done, or a link to a Google Doc (make it publicly viewable) with your outline or preliminary written thoughts. Don't put the prewriting itself into the post, unless it's a photo. Link to it with something like "Here's the brainstorming and initial drafting I did." Again, precede this with the day/time. If you link to a document, don't use that document for the final, formal version of the paper (so that it's possible to preserve your earlier drafting stage).
9. Compose your literary analysis of 3-4 pages (750-1000 words). The paper should be thesis-driven, refer to formal elements, and should directly quote passages of both poems. No research is required, though you can draw upon general resources to help you with form. If you do make use of others' observations about form from their blog posts, please cite them and their blog post. Use MLA format for a formal paper. 
10. Make one last update to your "Writing Plan and Record Post" in which you indicate how long it took you to write the formal paper, and what worked well and/or what you remain concerned about. Be sure to post your blog post.
11. Read and comment on three other students' "Writing Plan and Record" posts before 2pm on Wednesday, January 20th.
12. Bring a printed copy of your paper to class on Wednesday, January 20th.