Short Guide to Writing about Literature, A

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