An Examination of Nuance in Students' Literary Interpretive Writing

Students are expected to interpret the complexities and nuances of literary texts yet might struggle with interpreting texts in ways that are academically valued in literary studies. While linguistic studies that examine students’ literary interpretive writing have mainly been situated in secondary contexts, there is a noticeable absence of scholarship on college students’ literary interpretive writing. In this study, I investigate the ways in which students in two writing about literature classes, English 124 and English 298, engage in interpreting literary texts through close reading, as well as the ways their instructors evaluate their writing. By drawing on the Appraisal framework within Michael Halliday’s theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), I more systematically recognize and describe the degree of nuance in students’ writing, which I conceptualize as a recognition of the multiple possibilities, layers, and shades of significance in literary texts. In addition, by cross-analyzing student essays with course materials and interviews with instructors, and by revisiting students’ essays following the interviews, I investigate the ways in which meanings in students’ language choices correlate with valued practices of literary interpretation. This analysis reveals that proficient student writers interpret the possible significances of literary language using expressions that expand the dialogic space (e.g., “At first glance, the word appears to be...In another sense, it could mean...”), attending to the details and nuances of literary language. Moreover, proficient writers calibrate the relatively superficial and deep layers of their interpretations by wielding softened expressions (e.g., “This seemingly simple word reveals the complexity of the relationship...”). Meanwhile, emerging writers often signal interpretation yet instead summarize the literary texts, reaching toward without fully realizing interpretations of literary significance. Through careful attention to language, I elucidate valued yet elusive qualities of writing, creating pathways toward supporting students with crafting more nuanced interpretations. I illustrate that a linguistic attention to writing can equip students and instructors with a more explicit, systematic metalinguistic awareness of the ways specific language choices create valued literary interpretive moves. I suggest that instructors can encourage students to attend closely to the ways writers’ language choices create valued meanings in model essays and in students’ own writing. In delineating the language choices that construe nuance in students’ essays, this study contributes an innovative framework that can guide further inquiry into students’ writing in the disciplines, illuminating through a systematic approach abstract qualities of literary interpretation including nuance.PhDEnglish & EducationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/172651/1/ruthli_1.pd