Literature and the Writing Process, MLA Update (11th Edition) - Softcover

McMahan, Elizabeth; Day, Susan X; Funk, Robert; Coleman, Linda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0134678753 ISBN 13: 9780134678757

Publisher: Pearson, 2017

Synopsis

For courses in Literature for Composition, Writing About Literature, and Introduction to Literature.

This version of   Literature and the Writing Process has been updated to reflect the 8th Edition of the MLA Handbook (April 2016)*

Great literature as a path to learning writing and critical-thinking skills
Great literature is always thought provoking, always new — why not use it to improve students’ writing skills and sharpen critical thinking?
 
Literature and the Writing Process  combines an introductory anthology with detailed instruction in the writing process. By seamlessly integrating literature and composition into one multi-purpose text, the authors enable students to enjoy, understand, and learn from imaginative literature — and to write clearly and intelligently about what they have learned.
 
Text writing assignments use literature as a tool of critical thought, a method for analysis, and a way of communicating ideas. Careful integration of rhetorical instruction with the critical study of literature guides students through the allied processes of analytical reading and argumentative writing.  As a result, students learn how to write essays about the major features that are involved in interpreting short stories, poems, and plays.

* The 8th Edition introduces sweeping changes to the philosophy and details of MLA works cited entries. Responding to the “increasing mobility of texts,” MLA now encourages writers to focus on the process of crafting the citation, beginning with the same questions for any source. These changes, then, align with current best practices in the teaching of writing which privilege inquiry and critical thinking over rote recall and rule-following.

About this title

About the Author

Elizabeth McMahan is professor emerita of English at Illinois State University. She holds a Ph.D. in nineteenth-century literature from the University of Oregon. While still in graduate school, she wrote her first book, A Crash Course in Composition, published by McGraw Hill. She has taught on every level, from freshman composition to graduate seminars, and has published critical articles on works of literature and teaching composition. She served as the director of writing programs for seven years at Illinois State University. During her academic career, she received an NDEA Title IV Fellowship, the Kester Svendson Dissertation Grant, and the 1978 Illinois Arts Council Essay Award. Since taking early retirement, she has devoted her energies to writing and revising textbooks. Robert W. Funk taught high school for 10 years before receiving his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois in 1974. He is currently a professor of English at Eastern Illinois University and lectures in grammar, advanced composition, Shakespeare, and methods for teaching English in the secondary school. He has co-authored a number of college-level textbooks with Elizabeth McMahan and Susan Day, including Literature and the Writing Process (6th ed., 2001), The Simon & Schuster Short Prose Reader (2nd ed., 2000), Strategies for College Writing (2000) He has also lectured at Eureka College and Richland Community College and has presented numerous workshops on composition and the teaching of literature at national and regional conferences, including CCCC and NCTE, and for state and local in-service training sessions. His current research interests include contemporary rhetoric, composition theory, and reader-responsecriticism. Susan X Day is an assistant professor of psychology at Iowa State University of Science and Technology in Ames. She pursues two research programs, one concerning personality and the development of interests, and one concerning the use of distance technology in psychotherapy. Dr. Day taught English at Illinois State University for 20 years before beginning her Ph.D. in psychology at University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Her specialties in English studies are writing and pedagogy, and she has done research on the practices of dissertation writers and the identity development of creative writers. In 1999, Dr. Day won the national American Psychological Association-sponsored Outstanding Graduate Student Award for excellence in scholarship and professional development in her field. She is the author and co-author of more than a dozen college textbooks in rhetoric, grammar, and literature, and her research has appeared in prestigious journals such as American Psychologist and Psychological Science.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pearson
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0134678753
• ISBN 13: 9780134678757
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 1048