Reading good literature to gain good favor

Better readers make better writers: that's my mantra in Grammar 200. To give them an extra nudge, I give them style assignments that ask them to examine the language of published authors. When we learned about clauses, I asked them to find published sentences in certain patterns. When we worked to sharpen our own diction, I had them analyze the diction of authors.

After the first assignment, I admitted to them that I was impressed by the sources they had chosen for the style exercises. So for the next assignment, they upped the ante. Some used their textbooks, others used articles from their favorite magazines, but most of them used esteemed pieces of literature. Hamlet, The Count of Monte Cristo, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Catcher in the Rye. I knew well that these students probably didn't all just happen to be reading these works, and I told them that. Then I said it's ok. Even if their only aim is to kiss up to their anglophile professor, at least I've exposed them to good literature.