At the end of instruction in ENGL 201, students will be able to analyze a literary text with attention to its literary devices.
At the end of instruction in ENGL 201, students will be able to compose an original, logical, articulate, organized analysis of a work of literature.
At the end of instruction in ENGL 201, students will be able to evaluate and draw sound inferences from literary sources, incorporating relevant, validated evidence into a researched argument documented according to MLA standards.
Additional Student Learning Outcome:
At the end of instruction of English 201, students will be able to articulate critical thinking questions about literature and their own writing.
This class asks us to use literature as a tool for critical thinking and composition. We will take the skills and ideas discussed and practiced in English 100, and we will use them to look at literature, including short stories, poetry, and a novel. We will look in particular at the literary canon, including its history and its current condition. This class builds upon the knowledge received and skills practiced in English 100, assuming you have a good grasp of writing purposeful argument and a clear understanding of effective research using credible and/or scholarly sources. If you need help with either of these issues, please see the writing center and/or the library.
Every course on writing must have a focus. In this class, by using a vast array of fictional texts and intense discussion of our current place and time, we will look at the Western Literary Canon through a critical 2022 lens. We will think about, research, and ultimately take a position on the authors who deserve a spot in our Western Literary Canon.
TL;DR: This semester, we will read a lot, write a lot, and think a lot.
1). Analyze literary texts written by and for diverse authors and audiences and evaluate them critically from a variety of perspectives, such as formalist, deconstruction, feminist, and/or new historical criticism.
2). Analyze and evaluate writers’ use of literature as a persuasive tool and the function of imagination in the reasoning process.
3). Recognize and use effective style characterized by rhetorical techniques, such as variety and complexity of syntax, appropriateness and maturity of diction, organizational methods of emphasis, and figurative language.
4). Use the writing process to compose critical essays characterized by logical and rhetorical effectiveness and an advanced understanding of audience, voice, purpose, and multiple perspectives.
5). Incorporate relevant, validated evidence into critical essays.
6). Evaluate and draw sound inferences from data gathered from literary and professional sources as well as from personal experience.
7). Identify key elements of major genres in order to analyze and interpret texts.
8). Find, analyze, interpret, and evaluate primary and secondary sources, incorporating them into written work using appropriate documentation format without plagiarism.
9). Analyze and employ logical and structural methods of reasoning, such as inductive and deductive, cause and effect, and compare and contrast.
10). Interpret and critique writers’ use of deductive and inductive reasoning, logical fallacies, claims, support, and warrants in written texts.
11). Identify and counter fallacies and propagandistic and deceptive use of language.