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Digging into Literature
First Edition| ©2016 Joanna Wolfe; Laura Wilder
PACKAGE THIS TITLE WITH OUR 2016 MLA SUPPLEMENT, Documenting Sources in MLA Style (package ISBN-13: 9781319084844). Get the most recent updates on MLA citation in a convenient, 40-page resource based on The MLA Handbook, 8th Edition, with plenty of models. Browse our catalog or contact your repre...
PACKAGE THIS TITLE WITH OUR 2016 MLA SUPPLEMENT, Documenting Sources in MLA Style (package ISBN-13: 9781319084844). Get the most recent updates on MLA citation in a convenient, 40-page resource based on The MLA Handbook, 8th Edition, with plenty of models. Browse our catalog or contact your representative for a full listing of updated titles and packages, or to request a custom ISBN.
Digging into Literature reveals the critical strategies that any college student can use for reading, analyzing, and writing about literary texts. The authors’ unique approach is based on groundbreaking studies of the successful interpretive and rhetorical moves of hundreds of professional and student essays. Full of practical charts and summaries-- with plenty of exercises and activities for trying out the strategies-- the book convincingly reveals that while great literature is complex, writing effective essays about it doesn’t have to be.
LaunchPad Solo for Literature takes some of the strategies explored in Digging into Literature and moves them online. This helpful resource offers a set of online materials to support beginning literature students as they learn and practice close reading and critical thinking skills in an interactive environment. In spring 2016, LaunchPad Solo for Literature will include videos of students using the strategies introduced in Digging into Literature.Institutional Prices
Paperback + Documenting Sources in MLA Style: 2016 Update
C$37.90
ISBN:9781319084844
This package includes Paperback and Paperback.
C$37.90

PACKAGE THIS TITLE WITH OUR 2016 MLA SUPPLEMENT, Documenting Sources in MLA Style (package ISBN-13: 9781319084844). Get the most recent updates on MLA citation in a convenient, 40-page resource based on The MLA Handbook, 8th Edition, with plenty of models. Browse our catalog or contact your representative for a full listing of updated titles and packages, or to request a custom ISBN.
Digging into Literature reveals the critical strategies that any college student can use for reading, analyzing, and writing about literary texts. The authors’ unique approach is based on groundbreaking studies of the successful interpretive and rhetorical moves of hundreds of professional and student essays. Full of practical charts and summaries-- with plenty of exercises and activities for trying out the strategies-- the book convincingly reveals that while great literature is complex, writing effective essays about it doesn’t have to be.
LaunchPad Solo for Literature takes some of the strategies explored in Digging into Literature and moves them online. This helpful resource offers a set of online materials to support beginning literature students as they learn and practice close reading and critical thinking skills in an interactive environment. In spring 2016, LaunchPad Solo for Literature will include videos of students using the strategies introduced in Digging into Literature.Features
Demystifies reading and writing for literature courses. Based on research into hundreds of professional and student critical essays, Digging into Literature demystifies the often tacit goals, values, and expectations for writing about literature by teaching students explicitly about them, and provides fifteen examples of classic and contemporary literary and critical texts for student practice.Shows how close reading translates directly into interpretive writing. Digging into Literature subordinates traditional attention to formal features of literary texts to instruction on how to use awareness of these features to craft an interpretive argument. Part One, "Introducing Literary Analysis" presents the features of literary analysis, while Part Two "Strategies for Close Reading" shows how to turn unique critical reading strategies (such as "surface/depth," "patterns," and "opposites") into critical writing. Makes advanced critical research strategies accessible even to beginning literature students. Digging into Literature integrates strategies for working with secondary sources throughout and, in Part Three, "Strategies for Going Beyond the Text," explains both why and how literary critics use literary theory, historical materials, and secondary criticism in their analyses of literary texts. Offers an activity-driven approach to critical reading and a practical approach to critical writing. Rather than present only "good" student writing, Digging into Literature provides short interpretations of varying quality for students to compare and contrast. Such brief exercises lend themselves to in-class work and provide opportunities to discuss how to improve the persuasiveness of critical writing. Conversely, Digging into Literature not only shows students how to evaluate arguments about texts, but also how to compose their own effective arguments through multiple writing "templates." Activity-driven instruction in Part Four, "Crafting Your Essay," helps students develop, organize, document, revise, and peer-review their critical essays. Heartens and instructs novices by revealing how even experts struggle to make meaning of texts. Digging into Literature contains transcriptions of literary critics using the strategies outlined in the book as they encounter unfamiliar texts for the first time and struggle to interpret them. These "transcript excerpts" make interpretation more accessible to students by showing that even experts flail and stumble during the messy process of brainstorming. (Similarly, Launch Pad Solo for Literature includes annotated videos of students using the strategies to "think aloud" about a poem.)Introduces a disciplinary perspective that will serve students well in their other college courses. Digging into Literature is thoroughly grounded in recent genre-focused pedagogical approaches to "writing in the disciplines" (WID) that will be useful in general education courses serving non-majors as well as literature courses intended for English majors. Brief, flexible, and affordable enough for a wide range of literature courses. Consisting of 400 pages and fifteen literary and critical works, Digging into Literature allows instructors to supplement the rhetorical instruction it provides with further readings for students to discuss and write about. Because its take on "literary texts" is broad and inclusive, it can be used in courses focused on a specific literary period, theme, or issue, and even in courses that ask students to write about film and other works of popular culture. The text is priced affordably and is also available as an e-book at half the price of the print version.Volumes from Bedford/St. Martin’s’ literary reprint series can be shrink-wrapped with Digging into Literature at a discount. For a list of available titles, visit macmillanlearning.com/literaryreprints/catalog
New to This Edition
Really terrific at conveying the tacit dimension of interpretive insight, the basis for the skilled moves that literary scholars make. Nowhere have I seen more lucid explanations of how trained readers of literature come up with valid interpretations of texts and how effective writers produce responsible and persuasive textual explications. -- David Richter, Queens College of CUNYIt "demystifies" the process of writing literary analysis in a way I’ve never seen a textbook do before, . . .This book would be adopted immediately by many of my colleagues in literary studies.
Christian Smith, University of South CarolinaWhat I’m most impressed with is the authors’ ability to condense a complicated and unruly process into a clear, logical, and orderly discussion. It’s what I’ve been hoping for: A clear and compelling explanation of the how and, most importantly, the why of literary analysis.
Stephen Bernstein, University of Michigan-FlintI endorse this book with enthusiasm! I’m impressed with the way the authors translated rhetoric and composition research into a lively sophisticated writing pedagogy. Great way to develop writing and analytical skills using literary materials.
Deborah Miller, University of GeorgiaThe entire concept is a dramatic shift, and eminently more useful than any other supporting text for literary analysis.
Carol Murphy, Adams State College

Digging into Literature
First Edition| ©2016
Joanna Wolfe; Laura Wilder
Digital Options

Digging into Literature
First Edition| 2016
Joanna Wolfe; Laura Wilder
Table of Contents
PART I INTRODUCING LITERARY ANALYSIS1. Why Join Critical Conversations about Literature?
Discourse Communities as ParlorsWhy Join the Critical Conversation on Literature?"Texts" and Their "Authors" and "Critics""Text" in Literary and Cultural AnalysisAuthor vs. Literary CriticLet’s Get Started: Joining the Discourse Community of Literary CriticsReview2. What Is Literary Analysis?
A Literary Analysis Makes Interpretive ClaimsA Literary Analysis Must Make Debatable ClaimsA Literary Analysis Supports Arguments with Textual EvidenceA Literary Analysis Argues for a Thesis about the TextA Literary Analysis Explores the Complexity of the TextComplexity of Arguments vs Complexity of ExpressionReview Leslie Marmon Silko, "The Man to Send Rain Clouds" [story] PART II STRATEGIES FOR CLOSE READING3. From Surface to Depth
What is the Surface/Depth Strategy?Sylvia Plath, "Morning Song" [poem]Using Surface/Depth to BrainstormStep 1: Get a Good Grasp of the Surface (Literal) MeaningStep 2: Dig Below the SurfaceUsing Surface/Depth to Write PersuasivelyUsing the Surface/Depth Linking StrategyUsing the Surface/Depth Contrasting StrategyPlausible vs. Implausible ReadingsA Note on Persuasive Interpretations ReviewNow Practice on Your OwnLouise Glück, "Gretel in Darkness" [poem]4. Patterns
Using Patterns to BrainstormUsing the Patterns Strategy before Having Clear Surface/Depth Arguments in MindUsing the Patterns Strategy after Having Brainstormed Some Possible Surface/Depth ArgumentsUsing Patterns to Write PersuasivelySample Essay Using Patterns and Surface/Depth StrategiesSample Essay: Sylvia Plath’s "Morning Song" and the Challenge of Motherly IdentityReviewNow Practice On Your OwnMichael Ondaatje, "The Cinnamon Peeler" [poem] Sample Essay: "Smell Me": Eroticism in Michael Ondaatje’s "The Cinnamon Peeler"Sample Essay: Contradictory Desires in Michael Ondaatje’s "The Cinnamon Peeler"5. Digging Deeper
Character DescriptionsSettingPerspectiveComparisonsIroniesTime and SequenceTitles and Epigraphs Specific WordsSoundBreaks and GroupingsVisual AppearanceReviewNow Practice on Your OwnRick Bass, "Antlers" [story]
6. Opposites
Opposites vs. IronyUsing Opposites to BrainstormUsing Opposites to Write PersuasivelyReviewNow Practice on Your OwnAlice Walker, "Everyday Use" [story] PART III STRATEGIES FOR GOING BEYOND THE TEXT7. Context
Common Types of Contextual InformationUsing Context to BrainstormFinding Contextual InformationFinding Contextual Information Using General Web SearchesFinding Contextual Information Using Library DatabasesFinding Contextual Information Using the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)Phillis Wheatley, "On Being Brought from Africa to America" [poem]Now Practice on Your Own William Wordsworth, "The World Is Too Much with Us" [poem] Using Context to Write PersuasivelyOptions for the Scope of the Context StrategySample Essay: Competing Parental Philosophies in Sylvia Plath’s "Morning Song" Sample Essay: Smelling Sri Lanka in Michael Ondaatje’s "The Cinnamon Peeler"Citing Contextual InformationReview8. Genre and Form
Genre vs. Verse FormMaking Arguments about GenreUsing Genre to BrainstormUsing Unfamiliar Verse Genres: The SonnetThe Sonnet DefinedPetrarchan and Shakespearean SonnetsUsing Genre to Write PersuasivelyLearning More about GenresReviewNow Practice on Your OwnMolly Peacock, "Desire" [poem]
9. Social Relevance
Using Social Relevance to Brainstorm Using Social Relevance to Write PersuasivelySocial Relevance and Other Strategies of Literary Analysis Criticism Changes Over Time Review10. Theoretical Lens
Theoretical Lens vs. ContextApplying a Theoretical Lens: Double-Consciousness and Langston HughesLangston Hughes, "Theme for English B" [poem]Sample Synopsis: The Veil and Double-Consciousness in Du Bois’s "Of Our Spiritual Strivings"Using the Theoretical Lens Strategy to BrainstormStep 1: Choose a Theoretical LensStep 2: Work to Understand the Surface Meaning of Both Primary and Theoretical TextsStep 3: Re-read the Primary Text Using the Surface/Depth StrategyStep 4: Reflect on How the Primary Text Differs from the Theoretical TextUsing a Theoretical Lens to Write PersuasivelySample Essay: Double-Consciousness in "Theme for English B"Additional Theoretical TextsReviewNow Practice on Your Own11. Joining the Critical Conversation
Repeating the Conversation vs. Contributing Something New to the ConversationMoving Beyond "Because the Experts Say So"Entering the Discourse Community of Published CriticismAdd New EvidenceAdd New InterpretationsDisagree with Previous InterpretationsUsing the Critical Conversation to BrainstormFinding Published CriticismJoining a Conversation When No One Has Written on a TextUsing the Critical Conversation to Write PersuasivelyRemind Readers What Has Already Been Said about the Conversation You Are JoiningDistinguish Your Views from Those of the Critics You CiteSupport Your ViewsReview
12. Using All the Strategies on a Single Work
David Henry Hwang, As the Crow Flies [play]Now Practice on Your Own PART IV. CRAFTING YOUR ESSAY13. Developing a Thesis and Organizing Your Essay
Understanding the Role of the Thesis StatementAnalyzing the Well-Organized EssaySample Essay: Contradictory Desires in Michael Ondaatje’s "The Cinnamon Peeler"Developing a Thesis by Freewriting and Reverse OutliningSample Freewrite: "The Man to Send Rain Clouds"Developing a Thesis with an Outlining-First StrategyMoving Between Drafting, Organizing, and DiscoveringReviewSample Essay: Hunter and Hunted: The Mixture of Animal and Human in "Antlers"
14. Presenting Textual Evidence Effectively
The Quotation Sandwich Quoting vs. ParaphrasingMechanics of QuotingDocumenting Quotations and ParaphrasesReview
15. Revision and Peer Review
Global vs. Local Revision
How to Revise Globally
Revision Technique 1: Outline or Reverse Outline
Revision Technique 2: One-Paragraph Summary
Revision Technique 3: Paragraph Analysis
Receiving Feedback: Peer Review and the Critical Conversation
Review
Authors

Joanna Wolfe
Joanna Wolfe (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is Director of the Global Communication Center at Carnegie Mellon University, where she develops new methods for improving communication instruction across the university. She is the author of numerous scholarly articles on teamwork, gender studies, collaborative learning technology , technical writing, and rhetoric Her research on collaborative writing in technical communication classes won the 2006 NCTE award for best article reporting qualitative or quantitative research in technical and scientific communication.

Laura Wilder
Laura Wilder (Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin) is Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University at Albany, SUNY, where she teaches courses in rhetoric, writing, film, literature, and composition theory. In 2014, her Rhetorical Strategies and Genre Conventions in Literary Studies: Teaching and Writing in the Disciplines (2012) received the Research Impact Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication, and in 2015 she received both the President's Excellence in Teaching Award from the University at Albany and the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching from the SUNY system.
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Digging into Literature
First Edition| 2016
Joanna Wolfe; Laura Wilder
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