Introduction: Writing about Literature
1. The Role of Good Reading
The Myth of "Hidden Meaning"
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Kubla Khan"
Using Reference Materials
Asking Critical Questions of Literature
Ben Jonson, "On My First Son"
Questions about the Author
Questions about the Cultural Context
Questions about the Reader
Gathering Support for Your Thesis
Drafting, Revising, and Editing
Tips for Drafting, Revising, and Editing
Final Editing and Proofreading
Peer Editing and Workshops
Tips for Writing about Literature
Using Quotations Effectively
Adding to or Altering a Quotation
Omitting Words from a Quotation
Quotations within Quotations
Quotation Marks with Other Punctuation
3. Common Writing Assignments
"Poetry in Motion: Herrick's 'Upon Julia's Clothes"
"Possessed by the Need for Possession: Browning's 'My Last Duchess'"
"Speakers for the Dead: Narrators in 'My Last Duchess' and 'After Death'"
Sample Paper: An Essay That Compares and Contrasts
"Good Husbands in Bad Marriages"
Sample Paper: An Explication
"Shakespeare Defines Love"
Sample Paper: An Analysis
"Moral Ambiguity and Character Development in Trifles"
7. Writing A Literary Research Paper
Paraphrasing and Summarizing
Keeping Track of Your Sources
Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism
What to Document and What Not to Document
Documenting Sources: MLA Format
Preparing Your Works Cited List
"Emily Dickinson's 'Because I could not stop for Death': Challenging Readers' Expectations"
8. Literary Criticism and Literary Theory
Formalism and New Criticism
Feminist and Gender Criticism
Historical Criticism and New Historicism
Poststructuralism and Deconstruction
