Writing Essays About Literature: A Brief Guide for University and College Students

by Katherine O. Acheson

This book gives students an answer to the question, “What does my professor want from this essay?” In lively, direct language, it explains the process of creating “a clearly-written argument, based on evidence, about the meaning, power, or structure of a literary work.” Using a single poem by William Carlos Williams as the basis for the process of writing a paper about a piece of literature, it walks students through the processes of reading, brainstorming, researching secondary sources, gathering evidence, and composing and editing the paper. Writing Essays About Literature is designed to strengthen argumentation skills and deepen understanding of the relationships between the reader, the author, the text, and critical interpretations. Its lessons about clarity, precision, and the importance of providing evidence will have wide relevance for student writers.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Education, College, Read For School, Reference

192 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2010

Reviews

[Noelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This could possibly be a good book if it was specifically for someone who has never written an essay about literature. Or even for someone who is not an English Major who doesn't know how to begin an essay for their required English course. Otherwise, it's written in a way that's extremely condescending to anyone who has before written an essay in a different way and liked their result. It's one thing to have a way which you like and would like to share, but she basically just tells you that if you write an essay any other way, your process is wrong and that your teachers will only be impressed if you write it this way. Unimpressed.

[Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

An accessible and useful guide to what it says on the tin, I think: I am not sure I'd use it as a textbook myself, since less-specific texts like "They Say, I Say" or perhaps something by George Gopen get much more into my general philosophy of composition. But if I am tasked specifically with teaching how to write English essays, I'd look here.

[S. Kallahan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stuff on analyzing literature and research was useful and garnered the "good" rating. The material on actually writing an essay was less helpful. I don't understand why so many of these essay writing guides can't and don't distinguish between a topic, thesis, and premise. The thesis is the SINGLE argument (conclusion) founded on the multiple premises that will make up the points of your body paragraphs. Including the premises of your argument in the statement of the conclusion is just confusing. Also, the outline given for the rest of the essay is basically the five-paragraph essay (with the option to extend the number of body paragraphs), which has been covered to death by others. No. Just, no.

One last thing, inductive reasoning is NOT strictly moving from small to big (though yes, Aristotle defined it this way). Inductive reasoning forces us to move from detail to principle because it deals with probable statements, as opposed to truth statements that define the realm of deductive reasoning-if you're going to write a book about such terms, it's always best to look this kind of thing up

As I mentioned above, the research and analysis section of this guide make it worth the buy, and Acheson spends most of her time focused on this. Skip the part about thesis statements and body paragraphs, then head straight to more useful material on editing.

[Sarah McLaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of the material in this book is pretty basic and obvious, but I did appreciate many of the examples and templates provided. It’s a nice guidebook for students who might struggle with the essay-writing process. The writing is clear, concise, and not overly pretentious or academic.

[James ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a very useful tool to break down the essay writing process in simple terms. The way the writing process is broken down into smaller steps made the writing process a lot less overwhelming for me

[Michelle Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating: 4.5

[Cherry-Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still a work in progress. Read this book twice but not sure why I never associate non-fiction with Goodreads, especially since it is my current genre.

[Yovana Milosevic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible resource.

[Ineska Stojšić · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate the dissection of the college literature essay process and the tenets that this book offers. Fine advice is included, not least of which is a breakdown of common grammatical errors included in a section titled "Editing and Proofreading Your Essay", which is useful for secondary school students also.

[Gord Higginson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still reading this book--may be one of the most interesting and comprehensible books on essay-writing I've encountered. So far very easy-to-understand how-to book using W C Williams' poem "This is just to say..." as the subject of the book's hypothetical essay.

[Humayra Sullivan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of this book I thought was just common sense. The rest was taught to me in high school and earlier, so I didn't learn very much from it.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very straightforward manual on essay writing; I will be sharing a number of passages from this with my students.

[Adrianne Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful and straightforward.

[Roz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great for introductory writing courses. English 101 for college or advanced high schoolers!