Reading and Writing about Literature

Reading and Writing about Literature

Sixth Edition  ©2025 Janet Gardner; Joanne Diaz Formats: Digital & Print

Authors

  • Photo of Betsey Stevenson

    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.

  • Photo of Betsey Stevenson

    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

Reading and Writing about Literature
 
* indicates sections or material new to this edition
 
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
  • *Literature and Difficulty
2. THE ROLE OF GOOD READING
  • The Value of Rereading
  • Close Reading: The Myth of Hidden Meaning, Annotating
  • WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, The Second Coming (Annotated Poem): Note Taking, Informal Writing, Using Reference Materials
  • Questions for Close Reading: Fiction
  • Questions for Close Reading: Poetry
  • Questions for Close 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: Herrick's 'Upon Julia's Clothes'"
  • Analysis: ROBERT BROWNING, My Last Duchess; STUDENT ESSAY: Adam Walker, "Possessed by the Need for Possession: Browning's '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
  • *Understanding Artificial Intelligence
  • 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

New guidance on understanding the role of artificial intelligence in the classroom. With AI as a rapidly evolving new technology that is changing the nature of writing, new guidance in Chapter 8 encourages students to think critically about the implications – positive and negative – of artificial intelligence when deciding whether and how to integrate it into their writing and learning processes.

New guidance on reading difficult literature: To aid teachers and students in navigating an increasingly polarized response to what should be read and why, a new section in Chapter 1 explores the value of reading literature that challenges us – literature with explicit themes, disturbing depictions of reality, or offensive language – that may elicit strong emotions in readers. Students are encouraged to respond to these literary texts responsibly and with resilience, considering historical, cultural, and societal contexts that may alter responses to these works.

Authors

  • Photo of Betsey Stevenson

    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.

  • Photo of Betsey Stevenson

    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

Reading and Writing about Literature
 
* indicates sections or material new to this edition
 
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
  • *Literature and Difficulty
2. THE ROLE OF GOOD READING
  • The Value of Rereading
  • Close Reading: The Myth of Hidden Meaning, Annotating
  • WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, The Second Coming (Annotated Poem): Note Taking, Informal Writing, Using Reference Materials
  • Questions for Close Reading: Fiction
  • Questions for Close Reading: Poetry
  • Questions for Close 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: Herrick's 'Upon Julia's Clothes'"
  • Analysis: ROBERT BROWNING, My Last Duchess; STUDENT ESSAY: Adam Walker, "Possessed by the Need for Possession: Browning's '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
  • *Understanding Artificial Intelligence
  • 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

New guidance on understanding the role of artificial intelligence in the classroom. With AI as a rapidly evolving new technology that is changing the nature of writing, new guidance in Chapter 8 encourages students to think critically about the implications – positive and negative – of artificial intelligence when deciding whether and how to integrate it into their writing and learning processes.

New guidance on reading difficult literature: To aid teachers and students in navigating an increasingly polarized response to what should be read and why, a new section in Chapter 1 explores the value of reading literature that challenges us – literature with explicit themes, disturbing depictions of reality, or offensive language – that may elicit strong emotions in readers. Students are encouraged to respond to these literary texts responsibly and with resilience, considering historical, cultural, and societal contexts that may alter responses to these works.

A brief and very affordable guide to reading and writing about literature

Reading and Writing about Literature: A Portable Guide is an ideal supplement for writing courses where literature collections and individual literary works that lack writing instruction are assigned. 

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 sixth edition features new discussions on reading challenging literature and on artificial intelligence. 

Achieve for Gardner Literature: A Portable Anthology features a robust e-book with the same reading and writing coverage that appears in Reading and Writing about Literature plus a full anthology of nearly 250 literary selections, writing tools, interactive close reading models, skill-building close reading activities, LearningCurve for Literature, reading comprehension quizzes and videos of professional writers and students discussing literary works.

Looking for instructor resources like Test Banks, Lecture Slides, and Clicker Questions? Request access to Achieve to explore the full suite of instructor resources.

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