Writing Critically About Literature

Literature means writing in three genres: prose fiction, poetry, and drama. Literature studied in college is considered humanity's highest level of writing. It is because this literature draws on the most intensely felt creativity of the writer and on the keenest sensibilities and understanding of the readers.

Colleges require lots of writings and these vary both in amount and diversity. Some assignments may be relatively straightforward and similar to things students have written before, such as lab report. Other kinds of assignments such as problem solving report, critical essays, briefs, design papers, case studies, to name just a few, require more than they have encountered.

Writing about literature, indeed, involves the understanding of what lies beyond paragraphs. Students need to critically read the story before writing their own critical analysis.

Critical quality of writing includes at least three characteristics. College writing requires students to do not only locate and report information but also evaluate it. Critical writing, therefore, involves critical reading. Students are also expected to make judgments. Evaluate some information should be supported by recommendation or solution. Last, students are expected to be both more thorough and more precise. To do this, students need to have more than one piece of evidence and information, to use more than one source, to look at things more than one way.

Many good prose fictions appeal to our love of narration. They repay our attention in a good tale of adventure, love, or conflict. Often a short story or a novel will leave us with a dominant impression which is the main idea this work communicates to us. This is called theme of the story.

Sometime the theme is fairly easy to discern. However, some great works do not present an obvious point. Instead, the students as readers have to read closely, analytically, and imaginatively to discern a point.

Fiction involves narrative and therefore exhibits characteristics that can be isolated and considered separately. Plot, characterization, conflict and point of view are the main characteristics of prose fiction.

Plot in a story is the sequence of events. It includes what, when, and why things happen. It might be sequence of time or cause and effect.

Characterization provides the people of the story, including main, central opposing and supporting characters. There are major and minor characters. Characters may be also classified into flat or round, and static or developing characters.

Conflict gives life to the story. It generates plot and brings characterization into focus through actions. It presents problems to be solved and may take the form of person versus person, person versus environment, and person versus self.

Point of view is the point from which a story is told. Third person omniscient means the writer is located outside the story and tells not only what happens but also what selected characters are thinking. Third person limited means the writer limits what he/she can see. First person means the writer is inside the story. He/she is the participant of the story. The last point of view is the most difficult because the narrator tells only what characters say. There is no interpretation.

By rich language it is meant the word choices. It is the diction the writer chooses to tell the story. This language is significant and contributes to the theme. Rich language may take the form of symbolism and imagery.

Writing should be taught as a process of discovery of something beyond the reading material. It implies that revision becomes the main focus of the course and the teacher intervenes to guide the students through the process. Related to critical thinking, students should be able to review the text without any feeling that they have to agree to it. Even when they disagree, they are able to write it in a mature way, putting reason rather than emotion.

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