Katherine O. Acheson's Writing Essays About Literature is a concise, fully portable and very well-priced guide that gets it right. Acheson's emphasis on inductive reasoning is wonderfully refreshing. It really helps English professors persuade their students to argue from the specific to the general, to found their arguments on the details of evidence and on the careful-and affectively sensitive-analysis of that evidence. And the very best thing about this book is that Acheson's casual and unassuming prose style makes students want to read it. And they do. And then they bring it to class!" - Glenn Clark, University of Manitoba<br /><br />"For those of us interested in teaching writing through literature, Katherine O. Acheson's guide is an indispensable companion, teaching students that writing is more about process and less about imagined giftedness. The book begins by teaching students how to perform a close reading of a text--a craft that every writer should learn to hone. After this groundwork has been laid, Acheson builds upon it with chapters on research, analysis, methodology, argumentation, and revision; all of this from an author whose writing style is clear, witty, and intelligent." - Jack R . Baker, Spring Arbor University
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. It is designed to strengthen argumentation skills and 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.