writing

I'm forced to use this book at the college where I teach because a committee chose it. While it does an acceptable job at explaining the basics of story elements--character, plot, dialogue, etc.--its essay examples are mediocre to awful. Worse, Roberts likes to refer to what every undergraduate and graduate class I've ever taken calls a "thesis" as a "central idea." In turn, he calls a list of supporting points the "thesis." The result is never-ending confusion for students--I've actually had students tell me, "But that's not what we called a thesis in freshman composition." Also, this isn't Roberts' fault, but we use the book in American literature courses when most of his examples are British--perhaps more examples focusing on American writers would make the book more applicable to American literature courses? New editions of the book are also churned out every couple of years, but the differences between the more recent editions appear to be marginal, meaning students have to keep shelling out dollars to get the new edition for what is mostly the same information as the old edition.

A wonderfully helpful, classy book. I just wish this book had been the first choice for students at the college where I teach an introduction to literature course. I use Writing About Literature to supplement the classroom textbook. Writing About Literature makes difficult concepts about chacterization, theme, symbol, irony, and so on easier for students to understand. The narrative voice is friendly, never stiff or preachy. Super job, Mr. Roberts. This book goes with me to every introductory literature course I teach.

WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE offers clear strategies for writing a variety of literary analysis essays. Many examples and step-by-step procedures to write a variety of essays such as: characterization, setting, metaphor and allegory, point of view, theme, imagery, and tone. An appendix at the back of the book provides samples of literature for students to use as resources for analysis including classic short stories, poems, and two plays. This 9th edition also includes a chapter explaining 10 critical approaches to literature.