Writing about Literature: A Guide for the Student Critic - Softcover

Garrett-Petts, W. F.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 155111254X ISBN 13: 9781551112541

Publisher: Broadview Press, 1999

Synopsis

Writing about Literature is the first undergraduate text to integrate recent genre theory and a "writing in the disciplines" approach to the teaching of critical writing. While encouraging students to develop and value their own interpretations, the text helps undergraduates understand the rhetorical and institutional conventions of critical writing. A cross between a rhetoric and a casebook, Writing about Literature provides clear, practical advice and accessible models for writing critical essays on literature―on prose fiction in particular. This book offers students an insider's guide to the language, issues, approaches, styles, assumptions, and traditions that inform the writing of successful critical essays.

About this title

About the Author

W.F. Garrett-Petts is Associate Professor of English at the University College of the Cariboo, where he teaches literature, rhetoric and composition, and critical theory. He has published widely on reading theory, contemporary literature, composition, and interdisciplinary practices.

Review

"For every student who has stared hopelessly at a blank screen, waiting for a literary essay miraculously to appear; and for every instructor who has looked upon a set of just-graded student essays with a sense of failure verging on despair―W.F. Garrett-Petts's Writing about Literature: A Guide for the Student Critic offers immediate help. In lucid, straightforward prose, Garrett-Petts demystifies literary criticism and invites student critics to 'join the conversation' of literary students and scholars already underway. From the opening instruction on how to move effectively from reading to response to criticism (punctuated with an engaging interview with Professor Harold Kolb), through guided reading of Stephen Crane's 'The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky' (produced in its original form, including the wonderful illustrations), through modeling responses to this classic short story, Garrett-Petts deftly initiates students into 'talking the talk' and 'walking the walk' of literary criticism. This brief, accessible, and easy-to-use book is bound to be a hit with students and instructors alike." (Andrea Lunsford)

"More than any other textbook that I know of, Writing About Literature successfully bridges that gap between literature and composition, rhetoric and poetics, theory and practice, reading and writing." (David B. Downing)

"Writing about Literature gives students a stake in their own education by making them active interpreters of texts, fields, and university culture." (Marsha Bryant)

Edition details

• Publisher: Broadview Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 155111254X
• ISBN 13: 9781551112541
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 152