At the conclusion of this course, the student should be able to:

1. Critically read, analyze, compare, and evaluate diverse complex literary texts.
2. Reflect critically on one's own thought processes to identify and avoid cognitive biases and common fallacies of language and thought.
3. Compose thesis-driven arguments to suit a variety of rhetorical situations, including interpretation, evaluation, and literary analysis, supporting them with a variety of appropriate textual evidence and examples.
4. Identify a text's premise(s) and/or assumptions in various social, historical, cultural, psychological, or aesthetic contexts.
5. Analyze and employ logical and structural methods such as inductive and deductive reasoning, causation, and supporting claims with reasons, evidence, and responding to diverse perspectives and values.
6. Find, analyze, interpret, and evaluate primary and secondary sources, incorporating them into written work using appropriate documentation format without plagiarism.
7. Draft and revise writing for style, diction, and tone showing awareness of audience and social context, and the purpose of the specific writing task; engage in a revision process so that language use does not impede clarity or disrupt meaning.
8. Identify key elements of major genres (including poetry, drama, fiction) in order to analyze and interpret texts.
9. Define common literary terms and apply these to analysis of specific texts.

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. (Honors) Apply theoretical models or schema (such as sociological or historical criticism) to a text.

1. Writing and active reading skills for logical reasoning and argumentation.
2. A minimum of 3 literary genres, including poetry, drama, and fiction (novel and/or short story) from diverse authors representing a wide range of cultures, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
3. Critical approaches to literature and effective use of literary terms and devices.
4. Explication, interpretation, and literary analysis.
5. Writing critically about literature.
6. Minimum 5,000 words of revised formal writing.
7. (Honors) Honors section requires 6,000 words of revised formal writing.

Reading:

1. (Honors) Read and analyze literature totaling at least three 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
2. Comprehend and evaluate a text's main themes
3. Draw reasoned inferences based on careful reading of a text
4. Analyze varieties in voice, rhetorical style and purpose, genre
5. Identify and analyze literary devices in connection with a text's main themes
6. Establish cultural and historical contexts for a text and determine how those contexts shape that literature
7. Draw connections that synthesize two or more texts, and the student's individual experiences and ideas
8. Read and analyze texts to demonstrate critical thinking skills
9. Distinguish denotation from connotation, the abstract from the concrete, and the literal from the inferential (including analogy, extended metaphor, and symbol)
10. Identify logic and logical fallacies such as syllogistic reasoning, abstractions, undefined terms, name-calling, false analogy, ad hominem, and ad populum arguments
11. Recognize and evaluate assumptions underlying an argument
12. Draw and assess inferences and recognize distinctions among assumptions, inferences, facts, and opinions

Writing:

1. Written work totaling 6,000 words or more in 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
3. Writing as process (discovery and synthesis) including: invention, generation, collection of ideas
4. Formulation of arguable thesis
5. Organization, development, proper use of textual evidence
6. Drafting, revision, editing
7. Synthesis of texts and student ideas
8. Writing as product with attention to technical detail
9. Rhetorical features (structure, analysis, insight)
10. Research methods including proper use of quotations and documentation
11. Focus on variety of sources (print/audio/video/digital) with evaluation of credibility and relevance of same
12. Critical thinking and writing which demonstrates an awareness of logic and logical fallacies, assumptions, inferences, and opinions
13. Application of literary theories and critical schools (gender studies, reader-response, new historicism, psychoanalytic criticism, etc.)

Not applicable.

Methods of evaluation used to observe or measure students' achievement of course outcomes are at the discretion of local faculty but must include primarily written assignments and a minimum of 5,000 words of revised formal writing.
Formal writing (including essays) that receives instructor feedback and that goes through a revision process.
Informal writing (examples include journals, discussions, annotations, reader responses, in-class writing, and responses to questions).
Other evaluation methods may include assignments such as essay exams, quizzes, projects, presentations, and portfolios.
Written or verbal discussions in class or online regarding assigned readings and the writing process.
(Honors) Write an additional 1,000 words totaling at least 6,000 words in the honors section: 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

Note: Multiple texts may be necessary to fulfill the purposes of this course. Any individual text listed below may not stand alone as sufficient. Text selection should include a diverse set of authorial voices that may include a range of cultures, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Open Educational Resources (OER) may be used in place of any type of text.

Sample Textbooks, Manuals, or Other Support Materials (most recent edition):

• Texts containing culturally diverse college-level fiction, poetry, drama texts.

• A college-level handbook on writing about literature and documentation.

• A writing handbook must be included.

List of possible textbooks, not comprehensive or exclusive:

Representative Literature Textbooks:

• Schilb, John, and John Clifford. Making Arguments about Literature. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 4th edition, 2024.

• James, Missy, and Alan P. Merickel, Reading Literature and Writing Argument. New York: Longman, 7th edition, 2021.

• Morgan, Meg, et al. Strategies for Reading and Arguing About Literature. Longman.

• Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Writing, Thinking. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.

• Barnet, Sylvan, et al. An Introduction to Literature. New York: Longman.

Representative Writing Handbook:

• Gardner, Janet E. Writing About Literature: A Portable Guide. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins (also available with MLA insert), 6th, 2025.

• Bullock, Richard, et al. The Little Seagull Handbook, 5th edition. W.W. Norton & Company. 2024.

• Harmon, William, and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Texts used by individual institutions and even individual sections will vary.

Textbooks older than 7 years must be clearly labeled as classic or legacy.

Where possible, it is recommended that OER options be noted.

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.

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. We've included legacy texts in the following list:

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.

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