ABSTRACT
This chapter explores ways to help students productively engage academic conversations about literature: to navigate among different textual voices as readers and to direct conversational traffic as writers. It is about more than just the conventions of reading-based writing; it's about helping students genuinely care about what other human beings have to say. Literary reading helps us care about the experiences and perspectives of people different from ourselves. Literature also speaks to our own experiences, deepening our understanding of our individual identities. Literary reading is an important pathway to greater empathy and tolerance. The Writer/Character T-Graph invites students to distinguish between what a literary character is saying and what a writer is saying through the character's words. Hosting an academic conversation through writing is an act of synthesis that requires great skill and responsiveness.
