Many freshmen come to English courses thinking that they generally dislike poetry and that in particular they dislike writing critical essays about poetry. Two strategies which are effective in helping students overcome their own negative perceptions are to allow students to: (1) engage in transactional reader response; and (2) explore poetry…

Approaching literary study from two distinct yet interlocking perspectives (by looking at the major genres of literature and by examining the forms in which students of literature are expected to write about the literature they read), this book has two main sections. Following the Prelude, which treats the relationships between reading and writing…