Reading And Writing From Literature

by Schwiebert, John E.

• ISBN13: 9780618454112
• ISBN10: 061845411X
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-08-13
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing

Summary

Reading and Writing from Literature is ideal for instructors who wish to support students with significant writing instruction accompanied by a robust literary anthology that includes fiction, poetry, drama, and essays. Using an approachable, conversational tone, this thematic anthology and writing text emphasizes intertextuality--the way in which texts, including the student's own writing, grow out of other texts. Thirteen chapters of guidance on writing about literature (Parts I-III) cover such topics as planning, drafting, and revising essays on literature, research and documentation in a literature-based context, writing argumentative literary essays, and creating a writing portfolio. Part IV introduces students to the genres--short stories, poems, plays, and essays. Part V provides a thorough overview of figurative language. Part VI, the text's thematic anthology, is organized around themes of particular interest to students: Gender and Relationships, Families, Experience and Identity, Individual and Society, People and Cultures in Conflict and Change, and Work and the Quality of Life. New! Responding to the increased emphasis on visual literacy in many literature and literature and composition courses, a new four-color insert presents art and photography for analysis. Prompt questions encourage students to respond to the images with creative and analytical writings. New! "Writing Arguments" (Chapter 9) provides a thorough and nuanced definition of argument followed by a careful analysis of an argumentative essay (Barbara Kingsolver's "The One-Eyed Monster, and Why I Don't Let Him In") that takes into account issues such as persona, audience, and supporting evidence, then guides students through the argument writing process. The chapter concludes with a sample student argumentative essay analyzing William Blake's "The Clod and the Pebble." New! "Introduction to Figurative Language" (Part V, Chapter 19) explains and illustrates all of the major types of figurative language. Students learn how to identify and interpret metaphors, similes, paradoxes, irony, and other figures across literary genres and other contexts. This section features the most extensive and detailed treatment of figurative language of any composition text on the market. New! "Writing Literature-Based Research Papers" (Chapter 10) presents a thorough overview of the research process, including material on keeping a research log, narrowing focus, identifying and keeping track of source information, and citing outside sources. New! Concluding chapter, "Literature, So What?," addresses a question neglected in other literature and composition textbooks: Beyond preparing students for writing in the university and on the job, does literature have any value? Is the acquisition of "marketable skills" the ultimate and only aim of writing and reading literature? This essay argues that the writing and reading of literature also intensify the experience of living by fostering habits of contemplation and empathy in a hectic and often indifferent world. Revised! Part VI, "A Thematic Anthology of Readings" contains 45 new poems, essays/nonfiction writing, and short stories, with an emphasis on the contemporary. This edition features a stronger representation of international and multicultural authors, including such writers as Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Derek Walcott, Yusef Komunyaka, Sei Shonagon, and Allan Gurganus. New! "'Hurry Notes:' Using a Small Notepa

Table of Contents

A Conversation Model of Writing and Reading

Why Don't You Let It Out Then?

Three Writers A Conversation Model of Writing and Reading Activities for Writing Readings

Tillie Olsen, excerpt from Yonnondio

From the Thirties

Gary Soto, ""Behind Grandma's House""

Making New Texts from Old

Intertextuality A Four-Step Process for Writing from Reading Applying the Four-Step Process Reading

""Waiting for the Idiot to Go Away"" Activities for Writing Readings

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