Literature and the Writing Process

For Composition Through Literature and Introduction to Literature courses. Blending a complete writing about literature text, a literature anthology, and a handbook into one, this unique text guides students through the allied processes of critical reading and writingillustrating the use of writing as a way of studying literature, and providing students with all the tools necessary to analyze literature on their own. The text promotes interactive learning by integrating writing instruction with the study of literature.

This text grew out of our long-standing interest in the possibilities of integrating the study of literature with the practice of composition. Many of our 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 in the pursuit of critical thinking and improved writing? Toward that end, we have combined an introduction to literature with instruction in writing. Literature and the Writing Process, Sixth Edition, presents literary selections as materials for students to read and write about, not as models for them to emulate. The text is designed to guide students through the allied processes of analytical reading and critical writing. To provide a wide range of options for writing, we have included responsive writing topics as well as critical writing topics in each chapter. The writing instruction, concurrent with the literacy study, follows the widely accepted order of beginning with larger questions of content and organization and proceeding to the particular matters, such as word choice, sentence structure, and manuscript form. On the difficult matters of devising a sound thesis and discovering theme in a literary work, we provide detailed guidance. In order to furnish a clear understanding of writing as process, we produce as illustrations throughout Part I the complete protocol that one of our students followed in preparing an essay; we include samples of her prewriting, drafting, postwriting outlining, revising, editing, and final draft. In Chapter 17 on researched writing, we have included a summary of the steps another student followed in preparing her research paper on a contemporary play. Her reading notes show how she arrived at a thesis for her documented paper, which also appears. Four additional student essays are included: one illustrating the incorporation of library resources in analyzing a short story; one offers an unusual response to a poem; and two demonstrate the revising process by showing annotated first drafts, followed by finished versions. In this revision we have further expanded the diversity of our literary selections. As always, we have been guided by the advice of our reviewers. New in this edition are three casebooks for study: the first, on Joyce Carol Oates's "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" (p. 148); the second, on love poetry through the ages (p. 459); and the third, on Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie (p. 700). Also new are guidelines for arguing an interpretation (p. 19), suggestions for using film and video when studying drama (p. 600), and a summary of current critical approaches to literature (p. 1122). We have also expanded the discussion of peer review in Chapter 3, rewritten Chapter 8 to focus on a short story by Tobias Wolff, and added a second table of contents showing the literary selections arranged by genre. Finally, a word about our Companion Website at www.prenhall.com/mcmahan providing free access to online study resources. It now includes author photos; study questions designed to enhance understanding; a writing-about-literature section offering prompts for setting up an outline; a number of author links for research; a time line for the literary selections providing historical, political, and cultural context; and a .major technological improvement: a navigational bar allowing users to go directly to an author's last name to find information rather than searching by chapter. A "Web Link" icon placed in the margins throughout the text alerts students that there are additional resources on the Website to support the instruction in the text. Another electronic feature that instructors will find valuable is www turnitin.com. This online service makes it easy for teachers to find out if students are copying their assignments fr