Grade 9 Up—In the first chapter, Kerr gives students excellent general strategies for writing about theme, character, form and genre, language, symbols and imagery, history and context, philosophy and ideas, and comparison and contrast essays. The techniques for writing an exemplary paper follow: preparing to write, thesis statements, outlines, body paragraphs, introductions, conclusions, citations and formatting, documenting sources, parenthetical citations, and avoiding plagiarism. The writing is straightforward and consistently supported with clear examples of strong versus weak practices. A model essay on Salinger's short story, "For Esmé—with Love and Squalor" is included. A general discussion precedes chapters devoted to one of Salinger's novels or short stories, e.
