Digging into Literature reveals the critical strategies that any college student can use for reading, analyzing, and writing about literary texts. The authors' unique approach is based on groundbreaking studies of the successful interpretive and rhetorical moves of hundreds of professional and student essays. Full of practical charts and summaries— with plenty of exercises and activities for trying out the strategies— the book convincingly reveals that while great literature is complex, writing effective essays about it doesn't have to be.