The student will be able to:
Reading:
A. Analyze literature from major genres: at minimum poetry, drama, and fiction (novel and short story). Nonfiction supplemented where necessary.
B. Identify and analyze literary and rhetorical devices in connection with a text's main themes.
C. Recognize differences in value systems based on culture in a given text.
D. Draw comparisons to other works and contexts.
E. Read and analyze texts to demonstrate critical thinking skills.
Writing:
A. Write extended compositions based on class reading and demonstrate interpretive as well as critical thinking skills.
B. Formulate an arguable thesis and substantiate it through analysis, logical and systematic organization, supporting evidence, and clarity of expression.
C. 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.
D. Use techniques of research, especially textual citations and proper documentation.
E. Demonstrate through extensive application in written assignments the ability to distinguish fundamental concepts of critical thinking.
F. Apply theoretical models or schema (such as sociological or historical criticism) to a text.

Reading:
A. 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
B. 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
C. Establish cultural and historical contexts for a text and determine how those contexts shape that literature
D. Draw connections that synthesize:
1. Two or more texts
2. The text(s) and the student's individual experiences and ideas
E. 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:
A. Written work totaling 8,000 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
B. 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
C. Writing as product
1. Attention to technical detail
2. Rhetorical features (structure, analysis, insight)
D. Research methods
1. Proper use of quotations and documentation
2. Focus on variety of sources (print/nonprint/electronic) with evaluation of credibility and relevance of same
E. 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
F. Application of literary theories and critical schools (gender studies, reader-response, new historicism, psychoanalytic criticism, etc.)

Not applicable.

A. Write a total of at least 8,000 words: a minimum of three untimed, formal essays (in-class or online) and two timed, informal essay exams (in-class or online).
B. Final examination: a clearly reasoned composition within a limited period of time.

The instructor may deliver course material via lectures, discussions, and structured small-group exercises.

One critical thinking text and at least two additional book-length college level texts of imaginative and/or nonfiction literature presented either in 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 either in separate or anthology form.
The following are suggested literary anthologies with critical thinking embedded in them:
James, Missy and Alan Merickel. Reading Literature and Writing Argument. New York: Longman, 2012.
Meyer, Michael, Sylvan Barnet, and Hugo Gedau. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 10th ed.
OR From Critical Thinking to Argument. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2013.
The following are suggested critical thinking books for the course:
Barnet, Sylvan and Hugo Bedau. From Critical Thinking to Argument. New York: Bedford, 2014.
Browne, Neil and Stuart M. Keeley. Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking. 10th ed. New York: Longman, 2011.
Cooper, Sheila and Rosemary Patton. Writing Logically, Thinking Critically. 7th ed. New York: Longman, 2011.
Elder, Linda and Richard Paul. Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning and Your Life. 3rd ed. New York: Prentice Hall, 2011.
Moore, Brooke and Richard Parker. Critical Thinking. New York: McGraw Hill, 2011.
The following are examples of texts to be assigned in addition to one of the critical thinking texts listed above:
Barnet, Sylvan, William Burton, and William Cain. An Introduction to Literature. 16th ed. New York: Longman, 2011.
Boothe, Allison and K.J. Mays. The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: Norton, 2011.
Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. New York: Mariner, 2003.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Everyman, 2006.
O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Mariner, 2009.
 

A. Reading essays, poetry, short stories, drama, novels, and/or nonfiction books and articles which focus on topics appropriate to the practice of critical thinking
B. Writing informal journal responses to readings
C. Writing formal analyses of readings in college academic essay format