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| Preface | |
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| Acknowledgments | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Interpreting Literature | |
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| Strategies for Interpreting Literature | |
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| Why Do People Read Literature? | |
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| What Is Interpretation? | |
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| How Do We Interpret? | |
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| Checklist for Interpreting Literature | |
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| Work Cited | |
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| What Is Literature? | |
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| Literature Is Language | |
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| Literature Is Fictional | |
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| Walt Whitman, Cavalry Crossing a Ford | |
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| Literature Is True | |
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| Henry Howard, Earl of Survey, My Friend, the Things that Do Attain | |
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| Literature Is Aesthetic | |
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| Literature Is Intertextual | |
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| Checklist for the Elements of Literature | |
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| Works Cited | |
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| Interpreting Fiction | |
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| The Elements of Fiction | |
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| Theme | |
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| Point of View | |
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| Mary Robison, Yours | |
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| Plot | |
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| Characterization | |
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| Setting | |
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| Irony | |
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| Symbolism | |
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| Other Elements | |
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| Checklist for Interpreting Fiction | |
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| Works Cited | |
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| Interpreting Drama | |
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| The Nature of Drama | |
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| The Elements of Drama | |
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| Plot | |
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| Characterization | |
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| Setting | |
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| Theme | |
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| Irony | |
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| Subgenres | |
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| Checklist for Interpreting Drama | |
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| Works Cited and Consulted | |
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| Interpreting Poetry | |
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| What Is Poetry? | |
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| Emily Bronte, The Night Is Darkening Round Me | |
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| Sense in Poetry: Elements that Convey Meaning | |
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| Getting Started: Reading a Poem the First Time | |
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| Diction | |
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| William Wordsworth, A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal | |
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| Syntax | |
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| Louise Bogan, Song for a Lyre | |
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| Characterization, Point of View, Plot, and Setting | |
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| Jane Kenyon, In the Nursing Home | |
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| Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach | |
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| Robert Browning, My Last Duchess | |
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| Imagery: Descriptive Language | |
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| Imagery: Figurative Language | |
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| Samuel Daniel, Love Is a Sickness | |
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| Thomas Campion, There Is a Garden in Her Face | |
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| Symbolism | |
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| William Blake, The Sick Rose | |
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| The Sound of Poetry: Musical Elements | |
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| Rhythm | |
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| William Shakespeare, Sonnet 129 | |
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| Word Sounds | |
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| Edgar Allan Poe, To Helen | |
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| Structure | |
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| William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116 | |
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| Edna St. Vincent Millay, I, Being Born a Woman | |
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| Anonymous, The Daemon Lover | |
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| Emily Dickinson, Because I Could Not Stop for Death | |
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| Matsuo Basho, haiku | |
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| Taniguchi Buson, haiku | |
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| Kobayashi Issa, haiku | |
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| Psalm 23 | |
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| Ezra Pound, Xenia | |
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| Amy Lowell, Road to the Yoshiwara | |
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| Langston Hughes, Vagabonds | |
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| Elizabeth Bishop, One Art | |
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| Sight: The Visual Qualities of Poetry | |
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| George Herbert, Easter Wings | |
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| e.e. cummings, 1(a | |
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| Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool | |
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| Checklist for Interpreting Poetry | |
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| Works Cited | |
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| Specialized Approaches to Interpreting Literature | |
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| Literary Criticism and theory | |
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| Places for Interpretation | |
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| The Work | |
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| New Criticism | |
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| Structuralism | |
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| Deconstruction | |
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| Archetypal Criticism | |
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| The Author | |
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| Historical and Biographical Criticism | |
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| New Historicist Criticism | |
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| The Reader | |
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| Reader-Response Criticism | |
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| All of Reality | |
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| Marxist Criticism | |
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| Psychological Criticism | |
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| Feminist and Gender Criticism | |
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| Works Cited | |
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| Writing about Literature | |
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| Writing about Literature | |
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| Why Write about Literature? | |
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| How Can You Write about Literature? | |
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| The Writing Process | |
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| Choosing Topics | |
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| Preliminary Steps | |
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| Be an Active Reader | |
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| Identify Your Audience | |
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| Raise Questions about the Work | |
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| Narrow Your Topic | |
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| Search Strategies | |
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| Focus on the Work's Conventions (Its Formal Qualities) | |
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| Use Topoi (Traditional Patterns of Thinking) | |
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| Respond to Comments by Critics | |
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| Draw from Your Own Knowledge | |
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| Talking and Writing Strategies | |
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| Talk Out Loud | |
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| Make Outlines | |
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| Freewrite | |
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| Brainstorm | |
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| Make Notes | |
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| Keep a Journal | |
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| Sample Essay about Literature | |
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| Michelle Henderson, "Paradise Rejected in Homer's Oddsey" | |
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| Comments on the Essay | |
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| Checklist for Choosing Topics | |
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| Works Cited | |
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| Drafting the Essay | |
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| The Argumentative Nature of Interpretive Essays | |
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| The Structure of Essays about Literature | |
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| The Argumentative Structure | |
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| The Rhetorical Structure | |
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| Guidelines for Writing First Drafts | |
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| Keep in Mind the Needs of Your Audience | |
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| Avoid Extreme Subjectivity (Overuse of "I") | |
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| Draw Up a Rough Outline | |
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| Begin Writing | |
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| Use Sound Deductive Reasoning | |
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| Support Key Claims with Facts | |
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| Use Sound Inductive Reasoning | |
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| Define Key Terms | |
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| Organize Evidence According to a Coherent Plan | |
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| Make Comparisons Complete and Easy to Follow | |
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| Checklist for Drafting the Essay | |
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| Works Cited | |
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| Revising and Editing | |
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| Revise Throughout the Writing Process | |
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| Revise for the Final Draft | |
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| Write a Clear and Readable Prose Style | |
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| Have Other People Read and Respond to Your Draft | |
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| Edit the Final Draft | |
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| Rules of Usage | |
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| Citations of Sources | |
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| Quotations | |
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| Other Rules of Usage Related to Essays about Literature | |
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| Physical Format | |
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| Sample Essay in Two Drafts | |
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| Robert Frost, The Death of the Hired Man | |
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| Early Draft | |
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| Comments on the Early Draft | |
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| Final Draft: Jennifer Hargrove, "A Comparison of Mary and Warren in Robert Frost's 'The Death of the Hired Man'" | |
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| Comments on the Final Draft | |
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| Checklist for Revising and Editing | |
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| Works Cited | |
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| Documentation and Research | |
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| Primary Sources | |
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| Secondary Sources | |
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| Research Papers and the Use of Secondary Sources | |
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| How to Find Information and Opinions about Literature | |
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| Library Catalogs and Stacks | |
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| Library Reference Room | |
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| Library Periodicals Room and Stacks | |
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| Information and Opinion on the Internet | |
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| Evaluating the Quality of Internet Sites | |
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| Giving Credit to Sources | |
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| Why Should You Give Credit? | |
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| When Should You Give Credit? | |
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| Where Should You Give Credit? | |
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| Correct Documentary Form | |
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| Guidelines for Parenthetical Citations | |
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| Guidelines for Using Footnotes and Endnotes | |
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| Guidelines and Form for the Works Cited List: General Rules | |
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| Sample Entries for Books | |
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| Sample Entry for Articles in Scholarly Journals | |
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| Sample Entries for Articles in Popular Publications | |
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| Sample Entries for Computer Databases | |
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| Sample Entries for Other Nonprint Sources | |
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| Frequently Used Abbreviations | |
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| Sample Research Paper | |
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| Harold Wright, "The Monster's Education in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" | |
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| Comments on the Research Paper | |
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| Checklist for Documentation and Research | |
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| Taking Essay Tests | |
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| Guidelines for Taking Essay Tests | |
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| Sample Test Essays | |
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| Essay 1 | |
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| Comments on Essay 1 | |
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| Essay 2 | |
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| Comments on Essay 2 | |
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| Essay 3 | |
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| Comments on Essay 3 | |
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| Checklist for Taking Essay Tests | |
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| Sample Essays | |
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| Essay on a Poem | |
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| Edwin Arlington Robinson, Richard Cory | |
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| George Cannon, "Point of View in Edwin Arlington Robinson's 'Richard Cory'" | |
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| Essay on a Short Story | |
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| Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado | |
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| Blake Long, "Montresor's Fate in Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado'" | |
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| Essay on a Play | |
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| Susan Glaspell, Trifles | |
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| Carolyn Briner, "The Meaning of Physical Objects in Susan Glaspell's Trifles" | |
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| Essay on a Novel | |
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| Shalita Forrest, "First Love, Lost Love in George Eliot's Adam Bede" | |
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| Glossary | |
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| Credits | |
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| Index of Concepts and Terms | |
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| Index of Critics, Authors, and Works | |