The student will be able to:
Reading:

1. Analyze literature from major genres: at minimum poetry, drama, and fiction (novel and short story). Nonfiction supplemented where necessary.
2. Identify and analyze literary and rhetorical devices in connection with a text's main themes.
3. Recognize differences in value systems based on culture in a given text.
4. Draw comparisons to other works and contexts.
5. Read and analyze texts to demonstrate critical thinking skills.

Writing:

1. Write extended compositions based on class reading and demonstrate interpretive as well as critical thinking skills.
2. Formulate an arguable thesis and substantiate it through analysis, logical and systematic organization, supporting evidence, and clarity of expression.
3. Use diction and tone appropriate to the academic community and the purpose of the specific writing task; proofread for errors in language and mechanics to the degree that the nature and frequency of errors do not become distracting.
4. Use techniques of research, especially textual citations and proper documentation.
5. Demonstrate through extensive application in written assignments the ability to distinguish fundamental concepts of critical thinking.
6. Apply theoretical models or schema (such as sociological or historical criticism) to a text.

Reading:

1. Read and analyze literature totaling at least two book-length college-level texts in separate or anthology form, covering at minimum the major literary genres: poetry, drama, and fiction, but not excluding non-fiction
   1. Comprehend and evaluate a text's main themes
   2. Draw reasoned inferences based on careful reading of a text
2. Rhetorical analysis
   1. Analyze varieties in voice, rhetorical style and purpose, genre
   2. Identify and analyze literary devices in connection with a text's main themes
3. Establish cultural and historical contexts for a text and determine how those contexts shape that literature
4. Draw connections that synthesize:
   1. Two or more texts
   2. The text(s) and the student's individual experiences and ideas
5. Read and analyze texts to demonstrate critical thinking skills
   1. Distinguish denotation from connotation, the abstract from the concrete, and the literal from the inferential (including analogy, extended metaphor, and symbol)
   2. Identify logic and logical fallacies such as syllogistic reasoning, abstractions, undefined terms, name-calling, false analogy, ad hominem, and ad populum arguments
   3. Recognize and evaluate assumptions underlying an argument
   4. Draw and assess inferences and recognize distinctions among assumptions, inferences, facts, and opinions

Writing:

1. Written work totaling 7,000 words or more:
   1. Five or more text-based compositions of 1,000 words or more, requiring analysis of complex issues/situations, textual ambiguity, and multiple perspectives
   2. Responses to assigned reading
2. Writing as process (discovery and synthesis):
   1. Invention, generation, collection of ideas
   2. Formulation of arguable thesis
   3. Organization, development, proper use of textual evidence
   4. Drafting, revision, editing
   5. Synthesis of texts and student ideas
3. Writing as product
   1. Attention to technical detail
   2. Rhetorical features (structure, analysis, insight)
4. Research methods
   1. Proper use of quotations and documentation
   2. Focus on variety of sources (print/audio/video/digital) with evaluation of credibility and relevance of same
5. Critical thinking and writing
   1. Demonstrated awareness of logic and reasoning in course writing, including awareness of logic and logical fallacies, assumptions, inferences, and opinions
6. Application of literary theories and critical schools (gender studies, reader-response, new historicism, psychoanalytic criticism, etc.)

Not applicable.

Written or verbal discussions in class or online regarding assigned readings and the writing process
Write a total of at least 7,000 words: a minimum of three untimed, formal essays (in-class or online) and two timed, informal essay exams (in-class or online)
Final examination: a clearly reasoned composition within a limited period of time

Lectures
Projects
Discussions
Structured small-group exercises

James, Missy, and Alan Merickel. Reading, Literature, and Writing Argument, 7th ed.. 2021.

Barnet, Sylvan, and Hugo Bedau. From Critical Thinking to Argument, 7th ed.. 2023.

Carly-Miles, Claire, and Dorothy Todd. Surface and Subtext: Literature, Research, and Writing (OER). 2024.

Mays, Kelly. The Norton Introduction to Literature Portable, 14th ed.. 2022.

Orange, Tommy. Wandering Stars. 2024.

Límon, Ada. The Hurting Kind. 2022.

Brown, Jericho. The Tradition. 2019.

Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. 1961.

While we value timely, relevant content, particular works of literature written prior to the five year span of this course add value to the course.

Text choice guidelines: One critical thinking text and at least two additional book-length college level texts of imaginative and/or nonfiction literature presented in either separate or anthology form, covering at minimum the major genres. To be supplemented at the instructor's discretion with additional readings, handbook, and/or rhetoric. OR one literary Anthology with critical thinking embedded and at least two additional book-length college level texts of imaginative and/or nonfiction literature presented in either separate or anthology form.

1. Reading essays, poetry, short stories, drama, novels, screenplays, and/or nonfiction books and articles which focus on topics appropriate to the practice of critical thinking
2. Writing journal responses and discussion posts in response to readings
3. Writing formal analyses of readings in college academic essay format