Description

Part of Longman's successful Short Guide Series, A Short Guide to Writing about Literature emphasizes writing as a process and incorporates new critical approaches to writing about literature.

The twelfth edition continues to offer students sound advice on how to become critical thinkers and enrich their reading response through accessible, step-by-step instruction. This highly respected text is ideal as a supplement to any course where writing about literature or literary studies is emphasized.

Features

• Part I emphasises the close connections between reading and writing, reflecting the need for good writers to be effective, analytic readers.
• Part II offers strategies and practical guidelines for understanding how literature 'works' (form and meaning), and for understanding the differences between interpretation and evaluation.
• Part III explores the differences between writing about fiction, drama, and poetry, and includes an in-depth look at the writing of a single author (Langston Hughes).
• Part IV offers guidance for writing academic papers including research and formatting.
• Appendices include two stories that are the subjects of student essays in the book, a glossary of literary terms, and a quick review quiz.
• A wealth of student papers, including preliminary notes, drafts, and revisions of drafts appear throughout the book.
• Checklists on a variety of topics offer brief, effective guidelines.

New to this Edition

• A new chapter on graphic novels (Ch. 11) offers guidance for writing about a fast-emerging genre.
• A new chapter on writing about poems and pictures (Ch. 14) lexplores the challenges of assignments that ask for comparisons of these two genres.
• New selections include works by Gwendolyn Brooks, William Blake, Robert Frost, and Anne Sexton, as well as the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
• Several new sample texts for analysis and interpretation appear throughout (see particularly Chs. 4 and 7).
• A new section on synthesis (Ch. 17) encourages students to understand and practice this critical skill.
• A new appendix on plagiarism--including a quick self-review quiz--enables student to test themselves on their use of sources.

Table of Contents

PREFACE
LETTER TO STUDENTS  

PART 1

Jumping In

 

2—THE WRITER AS READER: READING AND RESPONDING 

 Kate Chopin, “Ripe Figs” 

 The Act of Reading 

 Reading with a Pen in Hand 

 Recording Your First Responses 

 Audience and Purpose 

 A Writing Assignment on “Ripe Figs” 

 The Assignment 

 A Sample Essay: “Images of Ripening in Kate Chopin’s ‘Ripe Figs’ ” 

 The Student’s Analysis Analyzed 

 Critical Thinking and the Study of Literature 

 

3—THE READER AS WRITER: DRAFTING AND WRITING 

 Pre-writing: Getting Ideas 

 Annotating a Text 

 More about Getting Ideas: A Second Story by Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour” 

 Kate Chopin: “The Story of an Hour” 

 Brainstorming for Ideas for Writing 

 Focused Free Writing 

 Listing 

 Asking Questions 

 Keeping a Journal 

 Critical Thinking: Arguing with Yourself 

 Arriving at a Thesis and Arguing It 

 Writing a Draft 

 A Sample Draft: “Ironies in an Hour” 

 Revising a Draft 

  A Checklist for Revising for Clarity

 Two Ways of Outlining a Draft 

  A Checklist for Reviewing a Revised Draft 

 Peer Review 

 The Final Version 

 Sample Essay: “Ironies of Life in Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour’ ”  
 The Analysis Analyzed 

 Quick Review: From First Response to Final Version: Writing an Essay about a Literary Work 

 

4—TWO FORMS OF CRITICISM: EXPLICATION AND ANALYSIS 

 Explication 

 A Sample Explication: Langston Hughes’s “Harlem” 

 Working toward an Explication of “Harlem”  
 Some Journal Entries  
 The Final Draft: “Langston Hughes’s ‘Harlem’ ”  
 The Analysis Analyzed  
A Checklist: Drafting an Explication 

 Analysis: The Judgment of Solomon 

 Thinking about Form 

 Thinking about Character 

 Thoughts about Other Possibilities  

For Further reading and Analysis: The Parable of the Prodigal Son  NEW

Comparison: An Analytic Tool 

A Checklist: Revising a Comparison  

For Further Reading and Comparison: Gwendolyn Brooks’s “We Real Cool” NEW

  Finding a Topic 

 Considering the Evidence 

 Organizing the Material 

 Communicating Judgments 

 Review: How to Write an Effective Essay

1. Pre-writing 

  2. Drafting 

  3. Revising 

  4. Editing  
An Editing Checklist: Questions to Ask Yourself When Editing 

For Further Reading, Explication, and Comparison: William Blake’s “The Tyger” NEW

 

5–OTHER KINDS OF WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE 

 A Summary 

 A Paraphrase 

 A Review 

 A Review of a Dramatic Production  
 A Sample Review: “An Effective Macbeth” 

 

 

PART 2

Standing Back: Thinking Critically about Literature