Cover: Reading and Writing about Literature, 6th Edition by Janet Gardner; Joanne Diaz

Reading and Writing about Literature

A Portable GuideSixth Edition ©2025 Janet Gardner; Joanne Diaz

Reading and Writing about Literature: A Portable Guide is an ideal supplement for writing courses where literature collections and individual literary works that lack writing instruction are assigned. 

This brief guide introduces strategies for reading liter...
Read more

Institutional Prices

Cover: Reading and Writing about Literature, 6th Edition by Janet Gardner; Joanne Diaz

A brief and very affordable guide to reading and writing about literature

Reading and Writing about Literature: A Portable Guide is an ideal supplement for writing courses where literature collections and individual literary works that lack writing instruction are assigned. 

This brief guide introduces strategies for reading literature, explains the writing process and common writing assignments for literature courses, provides instruction in writing about fiction, poetry, and drama, and includes coverage of writing a research paper as well as sections on literary criticism and theory. The sixth edition features new discussions on reading challenging literature and on artificial intelligence. 

Achieve for Gardner Literature: A Portable Anthology features a robust e-book with the same reading and writing coverage that appears in Reading and Writing about Literature plus a full anthology of nearly 250 literary selections, writing tools, interactive close reading models, skill-building close reading activities, LearningCurve for Literature, reading comprehension quizzes and videos of professional writers and students discussing literary works.

Features

Brief and affordable. Comprehensive coverage at a fraction of the cost of comparable guides.

Introduces strategies for reading literature. Because good writing about literature depends on reading it well, Chapter 2 discusses and demonstrates close reading.

Explains the writing process and common writing assignments, including writing about the specific literary genres. Chapter 3 takes students through the stages of writing about literature, from invention to final editing, with examples of how to quote literature effectively. Chapter 4 discusses a range of typical writing assignments, including response, explication, analysis, comparison, and essay exams.  Students learn to write about the three major literary genres (stories, poems, plays) in Chapters 5, 6, and 7. Sample student papers illustrate the instruction and model for students how to proceed with their own assignments.

Covers the literary research paper and a variety of critical approaches to literature. These challenging assignments are covered in Chapter 8 (which presents detailed coverage of finding, evaluating, and documenting sources) and Chapter 9 (which includes concise descriptions of critical approaches students may use in their analytical writing, and suggests possible applications of each approach using familiar works of literature).

New to This Edition

New guidance on understanding the role of artificial intelligence in the classroom. With AI as a rapidly evolving new technology that is changing the nature of writing, new guidance in Chapter 8 encourages students to think critically about the implications – positive and negative – of artificial intelligence when deciding whether and how to integrate it into their writing and learning processes.

New guidance on reading difficult literature: To aid teachers and students in navigating an increasingly polarized response to what should be read and why, a new section in Chapter 1 explores the value of reading literature that challenges us – literature with explicit themes, disturbing depictions of reality, or offensive language – that may elicit strong emotions in readers. Students are encouraged to respond to these literary texts responsibly and with resilience, considering historical, cultural, and societal contexts that may alter responses to these works.
“Concise with a small but well-chosen variety of fiction, poetry, and drama.”
– Daniel Brooks, Aquinas College

“I love the writing instruction.”
– David McCracken, Columbia College

Digital Options

Table of Contents

Reading and Writing about Literature

* indicates sections or material new to this edition

1. INTRODUCTION TO READING AND WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE

Why Read Literature?

Why Write about Literature?

What to Expect in a Literature Class

Literature and Enjoyment

*Literature and Difficulty

2. THE ROLE OF GOOD READING

The Value of Rereading

Close Reading:

    The Myth of Hidden Meaning

Questions for Close Reading: Fiction

    Annotating

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, The Second Coming (Annotated Poem):

Questions for Close Reading: Poetry

    Note Taking

Questions for Close Reading: Drama

    Informal Writing

    Using Reference Materials

Asking Critical Questions of Literature

BEN JONSON, "On My First Son" (Annotated Poem)

Checklist for Good Reading

3. THE WRITING PROCESS

Prewriting:

    Choosing a Topic

    Developing an Argument

The Thesis:

    Gathering Support for Your Thesis

Organizing Your Paper

Drafting the Paper

Revising and Editing:

    Global Revision Checklist

    Local Revision Checklist

    Final Editing Checklist

Peer Editing and Workshops

Tips for Writing about Literature

Using Quotations Effectively

Quoting from Stories

Quoting from Poems

Quoting from Plays

Formatting Your Paper

4. COMMON WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

Summary

Response:

    ZORA NEALE HURSTON, “Sweat”

    STUDENT ESSAY: Taylor Plantan, "A Response to ‘Sweat’"

Explication:

    ROBERT HERRICK, "Upon Julia's Clothes"

    STUDENT ESSAY: Jessica Barnes, "Poetry in Motion:

    Herrick's 'Upon Julia's Clothes'"

Analysis:

    ROBERT BROWNING "My Last Duchess"

    STUDENT ESSAY: Adam Walker, "Possessed by the Need for Possession: Browning's 'My Last Duchess'"
Comparison and Contrast:

    CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, "After Death"

    STUDENT ESSAY: Todd Bowen, "Speakers for the Dead: Narrators in 'My Last Duchess' and 'After Death'"

Essay Exams:

    WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, "Sonnet 73"

    ROBERT HERRICK, "To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time"

    STUDENT ESSAY EXAM: Midterm Essay

5. WRITING ABOUT STORIES

Elements of Fiction:

    Plot

    Character

    Point of View

    Setting

    Theme

    Symbolism

    Style

Stories for Analysis:

    CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN, "The Yellow Wallpaper"

    KATE CHOPIN, "The Story of an Hour" (Annotated Story)

    STUDENT ESSAY: An Essay that Compares and Contrasts: Melanie Smith, "Good Husbands in Bad Marriages"

6. WRITING ABOUT POEMS

Elements of Poetry

    The Speaker

    The Listener

    Imagery

    Sound and Sense

Two Poems for Analysis:

    WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, "Sonnet 116" (Annotated Poem)

    T.S. ELIOT, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (Annotated Poem)

    STUDENT ESSAY: An Explication: Patrick McCorkle, "Shakespeare Defines Love"

7. WRITING ABOUT PLAYS

Elements of Drama:

    Plot, Character, and Theme

    Diction

    Spectacle

    Setting

How to Read a Play:

    Watching a Play

    The Director’s Vision

    SUSAN GLASPELL, Trifles

    STUDENT ESSAY: An Analysis: Sarah Johnson, "Moral Ambiguity and Character Development in Trifles"

8. WRITING A LITERARY RESEARCH PAPER

Finding Sources

Evaluating Sources

Working with Sources:

    Quotations

    Paraphrases and Summaries

    Commentaries

    Keeping Track of Your Sources

Writing the Paper:

    Refine Your Thesis

    Organize Your Evidence

    Start Your Draft

    Revise

    Edit and Proofread

Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism

*Understanding Artificial Intelligence

What to Document and What Not to Document

Documenting Sources: MLA Format

    In-Text Citations

    Preparing Your Works Cited List

STUDENT ESSAY: Research Paper: Rachel McCarthy, "The Widening Gyres of Chaos in Yeats’s ‘The Second Coming’"

9. LITERARY CRITICISM AND LITERARY THEORY

Formalism and New Criticism

Feminist and Gender Criticism

Queer Theory

Marxist Criticism

Cultural Studies

Postcolonial Criticism

Historical Criticism and New Historicism

Psychological Theories

Reader-Response Theories

Structuralism

Poststructuralism and Deconstruction

Ecocriticism


Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms

Acknowledgments

Index of Terms
Headshot of Janet Gardner

Janet Gardner

Janet E. Gardner was Associate Professor of English at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, where she taught courses in drama, British and world literature, and writing for many years. She has published numerous articles, reviews, and chapters on contemporary drama, especially modern British drama and the work of Caryl Churchill.

Headshot of Joanne Diaz

Joanne Diaz

Joanne Diaz is the recipient of fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation. She is the author of My Favorite Tyrants and The Lessons, the co-editor of The Little Magazine in Contemporary America, and the co-host of the Poetry for All podcast. She is the Isaac Funk Endowed Professor of English at Illinois Wesleyan University.

Program Resources

See a preview of this program’s resources

1. Sign in to unlock your preview.   |   2. Select your desired resources  |   3. Submit a request.  |   4. Download.

Unlock Your Preview.

Program Resources

request locked icon

Gardner/Diaz, Reading and Writing about Literature 5e to 6e Transition Guide (.pdf)

request locked icon

Sample Syllabus for Gardner, Reading and Writing about Literature 6e (.docx)