Books on Writing about Literature
Barnet, Sylvan. A Short Guide to Writing about Literature. 8th ed. Pearson / Longman. 2005.
Organized by literary genre. Covers writing about fiction, drama, poetry, and film. Lots of samples of good student essays, often through more than one draft. Also includes sections on style, format, research papers, and essay exams. Provides excellent advice on how to generate ideas and to turn them into well-argued papers.
Roberts, Edgar V. Writing about Literature. 11th ed. Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2006.
Organized by topics or themes. Topics include writing about plot and structure; character; setting; point of view; idea or theme; imagery; metaphor and simile; symbolism and allegory; tone; rhythm, sound, and rhyme in poetry. Extended examples of student essays. Also has a good extended discussion of writing compare-and-contrast essays.
Garrett-Petts, W. F. Writing about Literature: A Guide for the Student Critic. Broadview: Peterborough, 2000.
An introduction to writing from different theoretical perspectives. Can also serve as a concise introduction to rhetoric and literary theory.
Fussell, Paul. Poetic Meter and Poetic Form. Rev. ed. McGraw Hill, 1979.
A classic text on how meter and form contribute to the meaning of a poem. Defines the essential terms of prosody. Provides many well-observed examples on how to analyze poetry in terms of rhythm and sound. Almost essential reading before writing your first poetry assignment.
Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 8th ed. Holt, Thomson, Wadsworth, 2005.
Contains definitions and examples of all the key terms and concepts used in literary analysis. Updated to contain terms from literary theory. Superb illustrations of concepts make this book not only an essential reference work but a fascinating read.
Gibaldi, Joseph M. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Research Papers. 7th ed. New York: Modern Language Association, 2009.
The definitive source on how to document sources in essays in the humanities. Though you can get a lot of the basic information about documentation on web sites and in writing manuals, this book is worth owning if you plan to write a lot of humanities essays as an undergraduate.
Written by Jerry Plotnick, Director, University College Writing Centre, University of Toronto.