Writing Analytically

David Rosenwasser taught at the College of William and Mary prior to joining the faculty at Muhlenberg College, where he served the English department for 36 years. With scholarly interests in contemporary Irish literature, comic theory and writing studies, he has taught novel courses on both British and European fiction, modern and contemporary Irish writing, as well as ALICE IN WONDERLAND and its afterlife as cultural myth. In addition, he taught a first-year seminar on comic theory called Laughing to Death and a creative writing course called The Nature of Narrative. Dr. Rosenwasser's literary papers include studies of Edna O'Brien, William Trevor and Malcolm Lowry, and an analysis of the politics of Bruce Springsteen's albums, written with a political science professor. His current interests in literature include contemporary Irish fiction and drama, particularly Anne Enright, Sally Rooney, Martin McDonagh and Conor McPherson. He completed his B.A. at Grinnell College and both his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Virginia, specializing in the theory and history of the novel. Jill Stephen served on the Muhlenberg College faculty for 34 years. She has taught courses on writing and rhetoric, the history of the English language, Anglo-Saxon literature, Early Modern prose and poetry, Shakespeare, John Milton and a first-year seminar called Thinking Like a Writer. Especially interested in poetry as a form of thought, she also has taught courses on the connection between Romantic poetry and Early Modern religious poetry, courses on the poetry of Emily Dickinson and of Frank O'Hara and the New York School, and a creative writing course called Poetry and the Imaginative Process. Dr. Stephen's literary papers include a study of the fiction of Irish writer John McGahern and studies of the poetry and critical appropriation of Emily Dickinson. Before coming to Muhlenberg, she taught part time at New York University and at Hunter College (CUNY). She completed her B.A. at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and both her M.A. and Ph.D. at New York University, specializing in Early Modern literature and rhetorical theory.

Preface.
Unit I. THE ANALYTICAL FRAME OF MIND.
1. The Five Analytical Moves.
2. Reading Analytically.
3. Interpretation: Moving from Observation to Implication.
4. Responding to Traditional Writing Assignments More Analytically.
5. Thinking Like a Writer.
Unit II. WRITING ANALYTICAL PAPERS, ESSAYS, AND REPORTS.
6. Reasoning from Evidence to Claims.
7. Finding and Evolving a Thesis.
8. From Paragraphs to Paper: Forms and Formats Across the Curriculum.
Unit III. USING SOURCES: RESEARCH-BASED WRITING.
9. Conversing with Sources.
10. Finding, Evaluating, and Citing Sources.
Unit IV. GRAMMAR AND STYLE.
11. Style: Choosing Words, Shaping Sentences.
12. Nine Basic Writing Errors (BWEs) and How to Fix Them.
Appendix.
Index.