Studying English literature: a practical guide

Описание

Studying English Literature
This practical guide provides students beginning to study literature at university with the reading and writing skills needed to make the most of their degree. It begins by explaining the history of the subject and of literary criticism in an easily digestible form. The book answers the key questions every first-year English student wants to ask: how to approach assignments and reading lists, how to select the best online resources, how to make effective notes to retain and use what you’ve read, how to write an essay, how to find something to say when you’re stuck, and how to construct your argument. It contains key tips on grammar, style and references, and examples of real student essays, with explanations of what works and what doesn’t. Both for those beginning English degrees and for those considering studying English, this book will be an essential purchase.
Tory Young is Senior Lecturer in English at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge.
Studying English Literature
A Practical Guide
TORY YOUNG
University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.
It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.
First published 2008
7th printing 2013
Printed in the United Kindom by Clays, St Ives, plc
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-0-521-86981-2 Hardback
ISBN 978-0-521-69014-0 Paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
For Mark
Contents
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 What this book is about
1.2 Some practicalities: how to use this book
1.3 Reading and writing in your life
1.4 A very brief history of writing and reading
1.5 What do novels know?
1.6 Literacy in contemporary society
1.7 Stories, narrative and identity
Works cited
Chapter 2 Reading
2.1 Writing as reading?
2.2 A love of literature
2.3 The discipline of English
2.4 The new English student
2.5 Plagiarism: too complete a loss of self
2.6 How to read: ways of avoiding plagiarism
2.7 What to read
2.8 Some recommended websites
Works cited
Chapter 3 Argument
3.1 Having something to say
3.2 Rethinking dialogue: Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (1895–1975)
3.3 Stories, arguments and democracy
3.4 The folded paper: how to stand at a distance and start a dialogue with a text
3.5 What is rhetoric?
3.6 A very brief survey of Classical rhetoric
3.7 Wayne Booth (1921–2005) and The Rhetoric of Fiction
3.8 More ways of discovering arguments
Works cited
Chapter 4 Essays
4.1 What are essays for?
4.2 What is an essay?
4.3 How do you think you write an essay?
4.4 The stages of writing an essay
4.5 Thinking of or about the question
4.6 Research
4.7 Making a plan
4.8 The thesis statement
4.9 Writing the main body of the essay
4.10 Beginnings and endings
4.11 Editing
4.12 Finally, a frequently asked question: ‘Is it OK to use “I”?’
Works cited
Chapter 5 Sentences
5.1 The most common errors made in student assignments
5.2 Errors involving clauses
5.3 Errors involving commas
5.4 Errors involving apostrophes
5.5 Errors involving pronouns
5.6 Errors involving verbs
5.7 Errors involving words
Works cited
Chapter 6 References
6.1 The MLA system
6.2 Citations in the MLA style
6.3 Quotations
6.4 Bibliographies and Works Cited in the MLA style
Works cited
Appendix. Sample essay by Alex Hobbs
Index
Acknowledgements
Since I began to teach academic writing, I have been privileged to meet and learn from some of the most inspiring innovators in the field. I am particularly grateful to the following: Rebecca Stott and Simon Avery for allowing me to work with them on Anglia Ruskin University’s Speak–Write Project; Catherine Maxwell for introducing me to Thinking Writing at Queen Mary, University of London, and Sally Mitchell and Alan Evison themselves for allowing me to participate in the events of this programme; all the staff of the John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines, but in particular Jonathan Monroe and Katy Gottschalk, whose influence during the two summers I spent at the Cornell Consortium for Writing in the Disciplines provoked a decisive change in my thinking; Lisa Ganobcsik-Williams for her thorough knowledge of the ways that writing is taught on both sides of the Atlantic and her generosity in sharing it with me: both she and David Morley have offered intellectual and practical support for my work and this project. As a lecturer in English Literature, I’m happy to have worked among dedicated colleagues at Anglia Ruskin University – Katy Price, Catherine Silverstone, Alison Ainley, Rick Allen, Nora Crook and Mary Joannou have been especially supportive – and to teach highly engaged and engaging students such as Tracey Tingey and Alex Hobbs, who have kindly allowed me to reproduce their essays. My friends and colleagues at the London Modernism Seminar Anna Snaith and Maggie Humm helpfully provided information about writing and grading practices in their respective universities. In New York, Mark Macbeth was a superlative host and guide to the CCCC and the city when the conference was held there. A particularly big thank you is due to Rebecca Beasley and Markman Ellis who put me up in style when I was working in the British Library. I am thankful to the readers of the initial proposal and final manuscript of Studying English Literature , whose suggestions were invaluable, to Margaret Berrill, the copy-editor, for important suggestions and corrections, and to Cambridge University Press for their continued patience in the gestation of the project. Since I started working on it, I am thrilled to have become daughter-in-law of Jo Anderson and Bill Currie, whose conversations about literature and language I relish. As ever, I thank Robert, Jane and Edward Young, and Miriam Lynn for their love and support, but the beginning, middle and end of the story lies with Mark Currie, to whom I dedicate this book.

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