Literature and the Writing Process: Fourth Edition

by Elizabeth McMahan

For Composition Through Literature and Introduction to Literature courses. Literature and the Writing Process promotes interactive learning by integrating writing instruction with the study of literature. Its approach utilizes writing as a mode of learning, as a means for promoting critical thinking, as a method for exploring and developing insights and ideas about literary works. The process-oriented instruction shows students how to use writing as a way of studying literature and gives them the tools to analyze literature on their own. This book allows instructors to teach writing and literature together in a single course. The complementary processes of reading and writing work together to improve students' compositional skills and increase their comprehension of imaginative literature. This textbook grew out of the authors' long-standing interest in integrating the study of literature with the practice of composition. Many of their students have learned to write perceptively and well using literature as their subject matter. Great literature is always thought-provoking, always new. Why not utilize it to sharpen critical thinking and improving writing skills? Toward that end, we have combined an introduction to literature anthology with detailed instruction in the writing process.

1157 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1996

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.