Contents by Genre.
List of Illustrations.
Preface to Instructors.
Letter to Students.
I. GETTING STARTED: FROM RESPONSE TO ARGUMENT.
1. The Writer as Reader.
Reading and Responding.
Ripe Figs, Kate Chopin.
Reading as Re-Creation.
Making Reasonable Inferences.
Reading with Pen in Hand.
Recording Your First Responses.
Identifying Your Audience and Purpose.
Your Turn: A Writing Assignment.
Sample Essay by a Student: Ripening.
The Argument Analyzed.
Other Possibilities for Writing.
2. The Reader as Writer.
Developing a Thesis, Drafting and Writing an Argument.
Pre-Writing: Getting Ideas.
Annotating the Text.
More About Getting Ideas: A Second Story by Kate Chopin.
The Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin.
Brainstorming for Ideas for Writing.
Focused Free Writing.
Listing.
Asking Questions.
Keeping a Journal.
Arguing with Yourself: Critical Thinking.
Arguing a Thesis.
Drafting Your Argument.
A Sample Draft by a Student: Ironies in an Hour.
Revising an Argument.
Outlining an Argument.
Soliciting Peer Review.
The Final Version of the Sample Essay: Ironies of Life in Kate Chopin's 'The Story of an Hour.'
A Brief Overview of the Final Version.
Writing with a Word Processor.
Checklist: Writing with a Word Processor.
Your Turn: Two Additional Stories by Kate Chopin.
Désirée's Baby.
The Storm.
Note about Literary Evaluations.
3. Reading Literature Closely: Explication.
What Is Literature?
Literature and Form.
Form and Meaning.
The Span of Life, Robert Frost.
Reading in Slow Motion.
Explication.
A Sample Explication: Harlem, Langston Hughes.
Working Toward an Explication.
Journal Entries.
Sample Essay by a Student: Langston Hughes' `Harlem.'
Explication as Argument.
Checklist: Drafting an Explication.
Why Write? Purpose and Audience.
Your Turn: Poems for Explication.
Sonnet 73 (“That time of year thou mayst in me behold”), William Shakespeare.
On My First Son, Ben Jonson.
London, William Blake.
Spellbound, Emily Brontë.
I Ask My Mother to Sing, Li-Young Lee.
In Just-, e.e. cummings.
Musée des Beaux Arts, W. H. Auden.
If We Die, Claude McKay.
Ulysses, Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
4. Reading Literature Closely: Analysis.
Analysis.
Analyzing a Story from the Hebrew Bible: The Judgment of Solomon.
The Judgment of Solomon.
Analyzing the Story.
Other Possible Topics for Analysis.
Analyzing a Story from the New Testament: The Parable of the Prodigal Son. AHEADS = The Parable of the Prodigal Son.
Comparison: An Analytic Tool.
Sample Essay by a Student: Two New Women.
Looking at the Essay.
Checklist: Revising a Comparison.
Evaluation in Explication and Analysis.
Choosing a Topic and Developing a Thesis in an Analytic Paper.
Analyzing a Story.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, James Thurber.
Working Toward a Thesis: Journal Entries.
Developing the Thesis: List Notes.
Sample Essay by a Student: Walter Mitty Is No Joke.
Developing an Argument.
Introductory Paragraphs.
Middle Paragraphs.
Concluding Paragraphs.
Coherence in Paragraphs: Using Transitions.
Checklist: Revising Paragraphs.
Review: Writing an Analysis.
Note on Technical Terminology.
A Lyric and a Sample Student Essay.
Song: Love Armed, Aphra Behn.
Journal Entries.
Sample Essay by a Student: The Double Nature of Love.
Checklist: Editing a Draft.
Your Turn: Short Stories and Poems for Analysis.
The Fall of the House of Usher, Edgar Allan Poe.
A Haunted House, Virginia Woolf.
The Necklace, Guy de Maupassant.
Mine, Raymond Carver.
Little Things, Raymond Carver.
El Tonto Del Barrio, José Armas.
The Man to Send Rain Clouds, Leslie Marmon Silko.
Filling Station, Elizabeth Bishop.
The Fish, Elizabeth Bishop.
One Art, Elizabeth Bishop.
5. Other Kinds of Writing About Literature.
Summary.
Paraphrase.
What Paraphrase Is.
The Value of Paraphrase.
Literary Response.
Writing a Literary Response.
A Story by a Student: The Ticket (A Different View of `The Story of an Hour').
A Poem Based on a Poem.
The Tyger, William Blake.
For Allen Ginsberg, X. J. Kennedy.
Rewriting a Poem.
Annunciation, William Butler Yeats.
Leda and the Swan, [1924] William Butler Yeats.
Leda and the Swan, [1933] William Butler Yeats.
Leda, Mona Van Duyn.
Parody.
This Is Just to Say, William Carlos Williams.
Reviewing a Dramatic Production.
Sample Review by a Student: An Effective Macbeth.
The Review Reviewed.
II. UP CLOSE: THINKING CRITICALLY ABOUT LITERARY WORKS AND LITERARY FORMS.
6. Critical Thinking: Asking Questions, Making Comparisons.
What Is Critical Thinking?
Asking and Answering Questions.
Comparing and Contrasting.
Analyzing and Evaluating Evidence.
Thinking Critically: Asking Questions and Comparing - E.E. Cummings Buffalo Bill's, e.e. cummings.
Three Versions of a Poem, and More, Emily Dickinson.
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain, Emily Dickinson.
I Felt a Cleaving in My Mind, Emily Dickinson.
The Dust Behind I Strove to Join, Emily Dickinson.
Imaginative Play: Thinking About Three Poems.
The Wild Swans at Coole, William Butler Yeats.
We Real Cool, Gwendolyn Brooks.
The Wild Swans Skip School, Andrew Hudgins.
The Silver Swan, Anonymous.
7. Reading and Writing about Essays.
Types of Essays.
The Essayist's Persona.
Tone.
Pre-writing.
Black Men and Public Space, Brent Staples.
Summarizing.
Writing Assignments.
Checklist: Getting Ideas for Writing About Essays.
Your Turn: Essays for Analysis.
A Hanging, George Orwell.
The American Indian Wilderness, Louis Owens.
The Rewards of Living a Solitary Life, May Sarton.
September 11, 2001, John Updike.
8. Reading and Writing About Fiction.
Stories True and False.
Samuel, Grace Paley.
Elements of Fiction.
Plot and Character.
Foreshadowing.
Setting and Atmosphere.
Symbolism.
Narrative Point of View.
Style and Point of View.
Theme.
Cat in the Rain, Ernest Hemingway.
A Student's Notes and Journal Entries on "Cat in the Rain".
Asking Questions about a Story.
A Sample Essay by a Student: "Hemingway's American Wife".
Checklist: Getting Ideas for Writing About Fiction.
Your Turn: Short Stories for Analysis.
Young Goodman Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Misery, Anton Chekhov.
Araby, James Joyce.
The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
One Friday Morning, Langston Hughes.
A Rose for Emily, William Faulkner.
A Worn Path, Eudora Welty.
A & P, John Updike.
The Two, Gloria Naylor.
The Lesson, Toni Cade Bambara.
In The Gloaming, Alice Elliott Dark.
Courting a Monk, Katherine Min.
9. Thinking and Writing Critically About Short Stories: Two Case Studies.
Case Study: Writing About Ralph Ellison's Battle Royal.
Battle Royal, Ralph Ellison.
Atlanta Exposition Address, Booker T. Washington.
Of Our Spiritual Strivings, W. E. B. Du Bois.
Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others, W. E. B. Du Bois.
On Social Equality, Gunnar Myrdal.
On Negro Folklore, Ralph Ellison.
Life in Oklahoma City, Ralph Ellison.
Case Study: Writing About Flannery O'Connor.
A Good Man Is Hard to Find, Flannery O'Connor.
Revelation, Flannery O'Connor.
Remarks from Essays and Letters.
From Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction.
From The Nature and Aim of Fiction.
From Writing Short Stories.
On Interpreting A Good Man Is Hard to Find.
A Reasonable Use of the Unreasonable.
10. Reading and Writing About Drama.
Types of Plays.
Tragedy.
Comedy.
Elements of Drama.
Theme.
Plot.
Gestures.
Setting.
Characterization and Motivation.
Organizing an Analysis of a Character.
First Draft.
Revised Draft.
Checklist: Getting Ideas for Writing About Drama.
Thinking About a Filmed Version of a Play.
Checklist: Writing About a Filmed Play.
Your Turn: Plays for Analysis.
A Note on Greek Tragedy.
Thinking Critically About a Tragedy: Sophocles'Antigone.
Antigone, Sophocles.
A Note on Elizabethan Theatre.
A Note on Hamlet on Stage.
The Tragedy Hamlet, The Prince of Denmark William Shakespeare.
A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen.
Trifles, Susan Glaspell.
The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams.
Los Vendidos, Luis Valdez.
11. Reading and Writing About Poetry.
Elements of Poetry.
The Speaker and the Poet.
I'm Nobody! Who Are You? Emily Dickinson.
Wild Nights-Wild Nights, Emily Dickinson.
The Language of Poetry: Diction and Tone.
Writing About the Speaker.
The Telephone, Robert Frost.
Journal Entries.
Figurative Language.
Imagery and Symbolism.
The Sick Rose, William Blake.
Verbal Irony and Paradox.
Structure.
Upon Julia's Clothes, Robert Herrick.
Sample Essay by a Student: Herrick's Julia, Julia's Herrick.
The Analysis Analyzed.
Love Is Not All, Edna St. Vincent Millay.
In an Artist's Studio, Christina Rossetti.
Explication.
An Example.
The Balloon of the Mind, William Butler Yeats.
Annotations and Journal Entries.
A Sample Essay by a Student: Explication of W.B. Yeats' `The Balloon of the Mind.'
Checklist: Explication.
Rhythm and Versification: A Glossary for Reference.
Meter.
Patterns of Sound.
Stanzaic Patterns.
Blank Verse and Free Verse.
Checklist: Getting Ideas for Writing About Poetry.
Your Turn: Poems About People, Places, and Things.
People.
To His Coy Mistress, Andrew Marvell.
My Last Duchess, Robert Browning.
The Vanishing Red, Robert Frost.
anyone lived in a pretty how town, e.e cummings.
Those Winter Sundays, Robert Hayden.
To the Lady, Mitsuye Yamada.
Daddy, Sylvia Plath.
De Titanic, Huddie Ledbetter.
Indian Boarding School: The Runaways, Louise Erdrich.
For Malcolm, A Year After Places, Etheridge Knight.
Daystar, Rita Dove.
Places.
An Old Pond, Basho.
Sailing to Byzantium, William Butler Yeats.
Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota, James Wright.
Facing It, Yusef Komunyakaa.
A Far Cry from Africa, Derek Walcott.
Deep River, Anonymous.
I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing, Walt Whitman.
Things.
The Red Wheelbarrow, William Carlos Williams.
A Noiseless Patient Spider, Walt Whitman.
Hawk, Mary Oliver.
12. Thinking Critically About Poetry.
Case Study: Writing About Emily Dickinson.
I Heard a Fly Buzz—When I Died—, Emily Dickinson.
The Soul Selects Her Own Society, Emily Dickinson.
These Are the Days When Birds Come Back, Emily Dickinson.
Papa Above! Emily Dickinson.
There's a certain Slant of Light, Emily Dickinson.
This World Is Not Conclusion, Emily Dickinson.
I got so I could hear his name—, Emily Dickinson.
Because I could not stop for Death, Emily Dickinson.
Those-dying, then, Emily Dickinson.
Apparently with no surprise, Emily Dickinson.
Tell All the Truth but tell it slant, Emily Dickinson.
A Sample Essay by a Student: Religion and Religious Imagery in Emily Dickinson.
III. STANDING BACK: ARGUING INTERPRETATIONS AND EVALUATIONS, AND UNDERSTANDING CRITICAL STRATEGIES.
13. Arguing an Interpretation.
Interpretation and Meaning.
Is the Author's Intention a Guide to Meaning?
What Characterizes a Sound Interpretation?
An Example: Interpreting Pat Mora's Immigrants.
Immigrants, Pat Mora.
Thinking Critically About Responses to Literature.
Two Interpretations.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Robert Frost.
Sample Essay by a Student: Stopping by Woods—and Going On.
Sample Essay by a Student: `Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening' as a Short Story.
Your Turn: Poems for Interpretation.
When I Consider How My Light Is Spent, John Milton.
Mending Wall, Robert Frost.
A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal, William Wordsworth.
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T. S. Eliot.
14. Arguing an Evaluation.
Criticism and Evaluation.
Are There Critical Standards?
Morality and Truth as Standards.
Other Ways of Thinking About Truth and Realism.
Your Turn: Poems and Stories for Evaluation.
Dover Beach, Matthew Arnold.
The Dover Bitch, Anthony Hecht.
Design, Robert Frost.
The Man That Got Away, Ira Gershwin.
Homosexuality, Frank O'Hara.
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Ambrose Bierce.
Miss Brill, Katherine Mansfield.
15. A Case Study: Writing About Barbie and Gender.
Beauty and the Barbie Doll, Anonymous.
Barbie Curtsies to Political Correctness, Kevin Leary.
Barbie as Boy Toy, Meg Wolitzer.
Sex and the Single Doll, Yona Zeldis McDonough.
Barbie Doll, Marge Piercy.
Buddhist Barbie, Denise Duhamel.
Appendix A: Remarks About Manuscript Form.
Basic Manuscript Form.
Corrections in the Final Copy.
Quotations and Quotation Marks.
Quotation Marks or Underlining?
A Note on the Possessive.
Appendix B. Writing a Research Paper.
What Research Is Not, and What Research Is.
Primary and Secondary Materials.
Locating Materials: First Steps.
Other Bibliographic Aids.
Taking Notes.
Two Mechanical Aids: The Photocopier and the Word Processor.
A Guide to Note-Taking.
Drafting the Paper.
Focus on Primary Sources.
Documentation.
What to Document: Avoiding Plagiarism.
How to Document: Footnotes, Internal Parenthetical Citations, and a List of Works Cited (MLA Format).
Checklist: Researching a Literary-Historical Paper.
Checklist: Evaluating Sources on the World Wide Web.
Checklist: Citing Sources on the World Wide Web.
Literary Credits.
Photo Credits.
Index of Authors, Titles, and First Lines of Poems.
Index of Terms.
