A Method for Writing Essays about Literature

by Paul Headrick

A Method for Writing Essays About Literature is designed to clearly explain to students how to write essays that analyze literature. This clear, step-by-step Canadian text, gives students a clear understanding of the purpose and structure of the literary analysis essay.

Genres: Nonfiction

153 pages, Unknown Binding

First published July 24, 2009

About the author

Paul Headrick lives in Vancouver with his partner, novelist Heather Burt. Paul is the author of a novel, That Tune Clutches My Heart, a short story collection, The Doctrine of Affections, and a textbook, The Wiley Guide to Writing Essays about Literature (Canadian version: A Method for Writing Essays about Literature).

Reviews

[Cora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back to school after fifteen years, and floundering to say the least. This book recommended by my professor not only pointed out all the areas where I was lacking in my first essay assignment, it showed me how it could be improved, and provided a checklist for said improvement. I'm confident that my next essay will prove to be considerably better than the first, and I owe that entirely to this book. Thank you Paul Headrick.

EDIT: The next essay grade was 81% (A-) - THANK YOU!

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative and easy to read.

[Ian Mccartney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the book that taught me how to write essays about literature. It was assigned to me by my first year English Professor, who also happens to be the author of the book. A hustle? Maybe, but it was one of the cheaper textbooks I ever ended up buying so I'm not complaining too much.

It's a very short and sweet approach, and there's nothing particularly fancy or profoundly insightful involved which, really, is what you want as a first year student at a small university. I ended up using the basic framework for more or less every essay I had to write. Most of those papers were written after transferring to a larger "prestigious" university in UBC. It turns out that the method applied well enough to political science and econ, as I never fell below a "B+/A-" on any essays. Given the limited effort I put in to some of them, that's saying a fair bit.