Reading and Writing about Literature
Fifth Edition ©2021 Janet Gardner; Joanne Diaz Formats: Achieve, E-book, Print
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Authors
-
Janet Gardner
Janet E. Gardner was Associate Professor of English at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, where she taught courses in drama, British and world literature, and writing for many years. She has published numerous articles, reviews, and chapters on contemporary drama, especially modern British drama and the work of Caryl Churchill.
-
Joanne Diaz
Joanne Diaz is the recipient of fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation. She is the author of My Favorite Tyrants and The Lessons, the co-editor of The Little Magazine in Contemporary America, and the co-host of the Poetry for All podcast. She is the Isaac Funk Endowed Professor of English at Illinois Wesleyan University.
Table of Contents
[* Indicates sections or material new to this edition]
Preface for Instructors
Brief Contents
1. INTRODUCTION TO READING AND WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE
Why Read Literature?
Why Write about Literature?
What to Expect in a Literature Class
Literature and Enjoyment
2. THE ROLE OF GOOD READING
The Value of Rereading
Critical Reading
The Myth of "Hidden Meaning"
Active Reading
Annotating
*WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, The Second Coming (Annotated Poem)
Note Taking
Journal Keeping
Using Reference Materials
Questions for Active Reading: Fiction
Questions for Active Reading: Poetry
Questions for Active Reading: Drama
Asking Critical Questions of Literature
BEN JONSON, On My First Son (Annotated Poem)
Checklist for Good Reading
3. THE WRITING PROCESS
Prewriting
Choosing a Topic
*Developing an Argument
*The Thesis
Gathering Support for Your Thesis
Organizing Your Paper
Drafting the Paper
Revising and Editing
Global Revision Checklist
Local Revision Checklist
Final Editing Checklist
Peer Editing and Workshops
Tips for Writing about Literature
Using Quotations Effectively
Quoting from Stories
Quoting from Poems
Quoting from Plays
Formatting Your Paper
4. COMMON WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
Summary
Response
*ZORA NEALE HURSTON, Sweat
*STUDENT ESSAY: Taylor Plantan, “A Response to ‘Sweat’”
*Explication
ROBERT HERRICK, Upon Julia's Clothes
STUDENT ESSAY: Jessica Barnes, "Poetry in Motion: Herricks Upon Julias Clothes"
*Analysis
ROBERT BROWNING, My Last Duchess
STUDENT ESSAY: Adam Walker, “Possessed by the Need for
Possession: Brownings My Last Duchess"
Comparison and Contrast
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, After Death
STUDENT ESSAY: Todd Bowen, "Speakers for the Dead: Narrators in My Last Duchess and After Death"
Essay Exams
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Sonnet 73”
ROBERT HERRICK, To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time
STUDENT ESSAY EXAM: Midterm Essay
5. WRITING ABOUT STORIES
Elements of Fiction
Plot
Character
Point of View
Setting
Theme
Symbolism
Style
Stories for Analysis
CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN, The Yellow Wallpaper
KATE CHOPIN, The Story of an Hour (Annotated Story)
STUDENT ESSAY: An Essay that Compares and Contrasts: Melanie
Smith, "Good Husbands in Bad Marriages"
6. WRITING ABOUT POEMS
Elements of Poetry
The Speaker
The Listener
Imagery
Sound and Sense
Two Poems for Analysis
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Sonnet 116 (Annotated Poem)
T.S. ELIOT, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (Annotated Poem)
STUDENT ESSAY: An Explication: Patrick McCorkle, "Shakespeare Defines Love"
7. WRITING ABOUT PLAYS
Elements of Drama
Plot, Character, and Theme
Diction
Spectacle
Setting
How to Read a Play
Watching a Play
The Director’s Vision
SUSAN GLASPELL, Trifles
STUDENT ESSAY: An Analysis: Sarah Johnson, "Moral Ambiguity and Character Development in Trifles"
8. WRITING A LITERARY RESEARCH PAPER
Finding Sources
Evaluating Sources
Working with Sources
Quotations
*Paraphrases and Summaries
Commentaries
Keeping Track of Your Sources
Writing the Paper
Refine Your Thesis
Organize Your Evidence
Start Your Draft
Revise
Edit and Proofread
*Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism
What to Document and What Not to Document
Documenting Sources: MLA Format
In-Text Citations
Preparing Your Works Cited List
*STUDENT ESSAY: Research Paper: Rachel McCarthy, “The Widening Gyres of Chaos in Yeats’s ‘The Second Coming’”
9. LITERARY CRITICISM AND LITERARY THEORY
Formalism and New Criticism
Feminist and Gender Criticism
Queer Theory
Marxist Criticism
Cultural Studies
Postcolonial Criticism
Historical Criticism and New Historicism
Psychological Theories
Reader-Response Theories
Structuralism
Poststructuralism and Deconstruction
*Ecocriticism
Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms
Acknowledgments
Index of Terms
Product Updates
Available with Achieve with Gardner/Diaz, Literature. Achieve for Literature puts student reading, writing, and revision at the core of your course, with interactive close reading modules, a full ebook of reading and writing coverage plus an anthology of literary selections, reading comprehension quizzes, videos of professional writers and students discussing literary works, and a dedicated composition space that guides students through draft, review, source check, reflection, and revision. For details, visit macmillanlearning.com/college/us/englishdigital.
Covers reading and writing about literature with more visual references. More targeted instruction throughout includes new visual references, including charts and examples in the sections on thesis, developing an argument, paraphrase and summary, explication and analysis, and understanding and avoiding plagiarism.
Includes two new student essays on two new literary selections. The new essays include a response paper on Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat” as well as a fully documented, source-based research paper on William Butler Yeats’s poem “The Second Coming.”
Provides updated coverage of literary criticism and theory. The section on literary theory now includes a substantial new entry on ecocriticism.
Authors
-
Janet Gardner
Janet E. Gardner was Associate Professor of English at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, where she taught courses in drama, British and world literature, and writing for many years. She has published numerous articles, reviews, and chapters on contemporary drama, especially modern British drama and the work of Caryl Churchill.
-
Joanne Diaz
Joanne Diaz is the recipient of fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation. She is the author of My Favorite Tyrants and The Lessons, the co-editor of The Little Magazine in Contemporary America, and the co-host of the Poetry for All podcast. She is the Isaac Funk Endowed Professor of English at Illinois Wesleyan University.
Table of Contents
[* Indicates sections or material new to this edition]
Preface for Instructors
Brief Contents
1. INTRODUCTION TO READING AND WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE
Why Read Literature?
Why Write about Literature?
What to Expect in a Literature Class
Literature and Enjoyment
2. THE ROLE OF GOOD READING
The Value of Rereading
Critical Reading
The Myth of "Hidden Meaning"
Active Reading
Annotating
*WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, The Second Coming (Annotated Poem)
Note Taking
Journal Keeping
Using Reference Materials
Questions for Active Reading: Fiction
Questions for Active Reading: Poetry
Questions for Active Reading: Drama
Asking Critical Questions of Literature
BEN JONSON, On My First Son (Annotated Poem)
Checklist for Good Reading
3. THE WRITING PROCESS
Prewriting
Choosing a Topic
*Developing an Argument
*The Thesis
Gathering Support for Your Thesis
Organizing Your Paper
Drafting the Paper
Revising and Editing
Global Revision Checklist
Local Revision Checklist
Final Editing Checklist
Peer Editing and Workshops
Tips for Writing about Literature
Using Quotations Effectively
Quoting from Stories
Quoting from Poems
Quoting from Plays
Formatting Your Paper
4. COMMON WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
Summary
Response
*ZORA NEALE HURSTON, Sweat
*STUDENT ESSAY: Taylor Plantan, “A Response to ‘Sweat’”
*Explication
ROBERT HERRICK, Upon Julia's Clothes
STUDENT ESSAY: Jessica Barnes, "Poetry in Motion: Herricks Upon Julias Clothes"
*Analysis
ROBERT BROWNING, My Last Duchess
STUDENT ESSAY: Adam Walker, “Possessed by the Need for
Possession: Brownings My Last Duchess"
Comparison and Contrast
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, After Death
STUDENT ESSAY: Todd Bowen, "Speakers for the Dead: Narrators in My Last Duchess and After Death"
Essay Exams
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Sonnet 73”
ROBERT HERRICK, To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time
STUDENT ESSAY EXAM: Midterm Essay
5. WRITING ABOUT STORIES
Elements of Fiction
Plot
Character
Point of View
Setting
Theme
Symbolism
Style
Stories for Analysis
CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN, The Yellow Wallpaper
KATE CHOPIN, The Story of an Hour (Annotated Story)
STUDENT ESSAY: An Essay that Compares and Contrasts: Melanie
Smith, "Good Husbands in Bad Marriages"
6. WRITING ABOUT POEMS
Elements of Poetry
The Speaker
The Listener
Imagery
Sound and Sense
Two Poems for Analysis
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Sonnet 116 (Annotated Poem)
T.S. ELIOT, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (Annotated Poem)
STUDENT ESSAY: An Explication: Patrick McCorkle, "Shakespeare Defines Love"
7. WRITING ABOUT PLAYS
Elements of Drama
Plot, Character, and Theme
Diction
Spectacle
Setting
How to Read a Play
Watching a Play
The Director’s Vision
SUSAN GLASPELL, Trifles
STUDENT ESSAY: An Analysis: Sarah Johnson, "Moral Ambiguity and Character Development in Trifles"
8. WRITING A LITERARY RESEARCH PAPER
Finding Sources
Evaluating Sources
Working with Sources
Quotations
*Paraphrases and Summaries
Commentaries
Keeping Track of Your Sources
Writing the Paper
Refine Your Thesis
Organize Your Evidence
Start Your Draft
Revise
Edit and Proofread
*Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism
What to Document and What Not to Document
Documenting Sources: MLA Format
In-Text Citations
Preparing Your Works Cited List
*STUDENT ESSAY: Research Paper: Rachel McCarthy, “The Widening Gyres of Chaos in Yeats’s ‘The Second Coming’”
9. LITERARY CRITICISM AND LITERARY THEORY
Formalism and New Criticism
Feminist and Gender Criticism
Queer Theory
Marxist Criticism
Cultural Studies
Postcolonial Criticism
Historical Criticism and New Historicism
Psychological Theories
Reader-Response Theories
Structuralism
Poststructuralism and Deconstruction
*Ecocriticism
Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms
Acknowledgments
Index of Terms
Product Updates
Available with Achieve with Gardner/Diaz, Literature. Achieve for Literature puts student reading, writing, and revision at the core of your course, with interactive close reading modules, a full ebook of reading and writing coverage plus an anthology of literary selections, reading comprehension quizzes, videos of professional writers and students discussing literary works, and a dedicated composition space that guides students through draft, review, source check, reflection, and revision. For details, visit macmillanlearning.com/college/us/englishdigital.
Covers reading and writing about literature with more visual references. More targeted instruction throughout includes new visual references, including charts and examples in the sections on thesis, developing an argument, paraphrase and summary, explication and analysis, and understanding and avoiding plagiarism.
Includes two new student essays on two new literary selections. The new essays include a response paper on Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat” as well as a fully documented, source-based research paper on William Butler Yeats’s poem “The Second Coming.”
Provides updated coverage of literary criticism and theory. The section on literary theory now includes a substantial new entry on ecocriticism.
A brief and very affordable guide to reading and writing about literature
This brief guide introduces strategies for reading literature, explains the writing process and common writing assignments for literature courses, provides instruction in writing about fiction, poetry, and drama, and includes coverage of writing a research paper as well as sections on literary criticism and theory. The fifth edition features expanded coverage of essential topics such as thesis and developing an argument, as well as two new student essays on new literary selections. Paired with Achieve, an engaging and powerful digital platform (see Related Titles for more details).Success Stories
Here are a few examples of how Achieve has helped instructors like you improve student preparedness, enhance their sense of belonging, and achieve course goals they set for themselves.
Prof. Kiandra Johnson, Spelman College
See how the resources in Achieve help you engage students before, during, and after class.
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Achieve (full course) includes our complete e-book, as well as online quizzing tools, multimedia assets, and iClicker active classroom manager.
Most Achieve Essentials courses do not include our e-books and adaptive quizzing.
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Achieve (full course) includes our complete e-book, as well as online quizzing tools, multimedia assets, and iClicker active classroom manager.
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We can help! Contact your representative to discuss your specific needs for your course. If our off-the-shelf course materials don’t quite hit the mark, we also offer custom solutions made to fit your needs.
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Reading and Writing about Literature
This brief guide introduces strategies for reading literature, explains the writing process and common writing assignments for literature courses, provides instruction in writing about fiction, poetry, and drama, and includes coverage of writing a research paper as well as sections on literary criticism and theory. The fifth edition features expanded coverage of essential topics such as thesis and developing an argument, as well as two new student essays on new literary selections. Paired with Achieve, an engaging and powerful digital platform (see Related Titles for more details).
Select a demo to view:
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