ENGL G110: Critical Thinking, Reading And Writing Through Literature

Course Outline of Record
Item	Value
Curriculum Committee Approval Date	05/05/2020
Top Code	150100 - English
Units	4 Total Units
Hours	72 Total Hours (Lecture Hours 72)
Total Outside of Class Hours	0
Course Credit Status	Credit: Degree Applicable (D)
Material Fee	No
Basic Skills	Not Basic Skills (N)
Repeatable	No
Grading Policy	Standard Letter (S)
Local General Education (GE)	GWC Critical Thinking (GA3) GWC Arts, Lit, Phil, Lang (GC)
California General Education Transfer Curriculum (Cal-GETC)	Cal-GETC 1B Critical Thinking (1B)
Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC)	IGETC 1B Critical Thinking (1B)
California State University General Education Breadth (CSU GE-Breadth)	CSU A3 Critical Thinking (A3) CSU C2 Humanities (C2)

Course Description

This course offers instruction in analytical, critical, and argumentative writing, critical thinking, research strategies, information literacy, and proper documentation through the study of literary works from major genres, while developing students’ close reading skills and promoting an appreciation for the aesthetic qualities of literature. PREREQUISITE: ENGL C1000, ENGL C1000E, or achieve qualifying score on English Placement. Transfer Credit: CSU; UC: Credit Limitation: ENGL G110 and ENGL G110H combined: maximum credit, 1 course. C-ID: ENGL 110. C-ID: ENGL 110.

Course Level Student Learning Outcome(s)

Course Outcomes
Generate critical arguments through the synthesis of material from various sources, including researched secondary sources.
Evaluate the major literary genres (both fiction and related non-fiction) through comparison, analysis and interpretation.
Construct arguments that employ literary terminology, that exemplify analytical control of language, that exhibit no disruptive errors in English grammar, usage, and punctuation, and that are free of formal and informal fallacies.

Course Objectives

1. Write five or more essays (6,000 to 8,000 words in total), applying the principles of summary, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, exposition, and argumentation.
2. Read, summarize, interpret, evaluate, and synthesize literary texts from major genres.
3. Analyze literature from particular social, historical, moral, psychological, and philosophical assumptions.
4. Explain how literary criticism reflects specific theoretical assumptions.
5. Define common literary terms and apply these to analysis of specific texts
6. Write strong arguments by developing an argumentative thesis or claim, offering reliable support, and employing logical reasoning, appropriate organizational patterns, and suitable lines of argument.
7. Find, analyze, interpret, and evaluate primary and secondary sources, incorporating them into written work using appropriate documentation format.
8. Analyze and employ logical and structural methods such as inductive and deductive reasoning, cause and effect, and logos, ethos, and pathos.
9. Evaluate formal and informal fallacies in language and thought
10. Write with clarity and precision, demonstrating a mastery of standard English grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
11. Employ the processes of writing: planning, pre-writing, editing and polishing.

Lecture Content

Writing Skills: In response to literary works, students will be able to accomplish the following in essays of 750 or more words: Organize ideas to develop a specific thesis with a clear purpose—such as to argue, analyze, or define. Support a thesis in discussion paragraphs with examples and textual evidence. Maintain unity and coherence, while developing adequate content in paragraphs. Arrange paragraphs effectively and link them with transitional devices. Summarize and paraphrase readings accurately using appropriate documentation. Integrate quotations that advance the discussion. Employ, when appropriate, rhetorical modes—such as illustration, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, classification—to support a thesis. Apply common literary terms and devices when analyzing, interpreting, and synthesizing information embodied in course readings. Employ expressive, expository, and argument strategies skillfully to support a thesis. Use a variety of argument strategies skillfully, such as the following: arranging evidence from abstract to concrete, and specific to general, and using concession, one-sided argumentation, and multi-sided argumentation. Interpret literature from various theoretical approaches such as formalist, post-colonial, Marxist, and gender criticism. Recognize and correct logical fallacies. Writing Conventions: In planning, writing, and revising a variety of extended essays, such as expository, argument, analytical, and research essays, students will demonstrate the ability to do the following: Construct sentences that are grammatically correct, syntactically logical, comprehensible, varied, and concise, that show appropriate style, diction, and tone while rarely, if ever, committing sentence errors, such as comma splice, run-on (fused sentence), fragment, misplaced modifier, faulty agreement, and faulty reference; incorrect parallel structure; punctuation mistakes, such as the misuse of comma, semicolon, colon, apostrophe, and quotation marks; spelling errors, not only when using contractions and homonyms, but also when using common and college-level vocabulary, including critical terminology. Use appropriate diction that is sustained consistently throughout an essay and that demonstrates the ability to move coherently from abstract to concrete, and from general to specific language; the accurate use of metaphorical language, such as simile, metaphor, analogy, and the control of connotation and denotation. Reading Skills - Literature: When reading, analyzing, and annotating complex, primarily imaginative literature, students will be able to do the following: Read complex literary texts from the different genres including poetry, prose fiction, essay, and drama. Identify key elements of major genres in order to analyze and interpret texts. Identify details in support of explicit and implicit themes. Develop hypotheses inductively by recognizing and comprehending patterns, themes and structures. Identify paradoxes and ambiguities in literary texts and include them in developing hypotheses. Suspend judgments for a length of time sufficient to draw reasonable conclusions about literary texts. Evaluate the quality of evidence in support of explicit or implicit themes in literary texts. Evaluate different hypotheses about texts Identify a texts premises and underlying assumptions in various psychological, sociological, cultural, historical, philosophical, and aesthetic contexts. Identify literary fallacies, including the affective fallacy (the error of judging a literary work in terms of its resul ts, especially emotional effect) the intentional fallacy (the error of judging a work by an authors expressed intention or ostensible reason in producing it.) Identify symbolic, ironic, figurative, connotative and denotative language. Reading Skills Non-Literary: When reading non-literary texts, including the expository and argumentative essays of fellow class members, students will be able to do the following: Analyze basic reasoning patterns, distinguishing among inductive and deductive constructions; cause and effect; logos, ethos, and pathos. Distinguish fact, inference, and opinion expressed. Distinguish between evidence and conclusions. Evaluate diction, style, and tone. Evaluate arrangement strategies of arguments, according to the following: stated and unstated assumptions; denotative and connotative meaning and biased language; informal and formal logical fallacies and propagandistic devices; slanted and euphemistic language; relevant and irrelevant evidence and appeals to authority. Recognize and synthesize related ideas, arguments, and evidence in different texts on the same related issues and themes. Research Skills: In planning, writing, and revising expository and argumentative essays, students will be able to demonstrate the ability to find primary and secondary sources, evaluate the quality and relevance of these published texts, and interpret and analyze them. incorporate information from multiple texts to support, contrast, or clarify a thesis or claim. introduce and appropriately quote, summarize, and paraphrase material from sources. document sources accurately and appropriately according to MLA standards.

Method(s) of Instruction

Lecture (02)
DE Live Online Lecture (02S)
DE Online Lecture (02X)

Instructional Techniques

A. Scheduled lecture hours B. Discussion C. Readings D. Projects E. Individualized feedback on student work F. Student presentations G. Video H. Feedback/evaluation of skills practice I. Writing Workshops J. Revision Workshops

Reading Assignments

Textbook readings Various literary assigned works Literary criticism Literary terms, Critical theory

Writing Assignments

In-class and out-of-class essays clearly stating a purpose or argument and supporting it with logical and sound exemplification Revision of essays to improve persuasiveness based on precise use of examples and explanation of analysis Revision of written arguments to demonstrate progressive improvement and refinement of writing style, structure, coherence, and emphasis At least five essays (6000-8000 words total) Research-based essays sythesizing and analyzing a variety of texts.

Out-of-class Assignments

Library research Research on critical arguments Option to attend plays Poetry readings See Reading and Writing Assignments

Demonstration of Critical Thinking

Writing persuasive, expository, and argumentative essays (at least five essays totaling 6,000 to 8,000 words) Using inductive and deductive reasoning Avoiding logical fallacies; Identifying and commenting on the various social, historical, moral, cultural, gender-based, psychological, archetypal, or philosophical assumptions, perspectives, and themes depicted in the literature being analyzed Writing at least one research-based argument that synthesizes and evaluates a variety of written perspectives, both fiction and related non-fiction Revising weak arguments to logically and persuasively use examples to support a thesis using textual evidence and appropriate examples and to clearly explain the critical analysis Revising arguments to progressively improve and refine writing style, structure, coherence, and emphasis to demonstrate analytical control of the language

Required Writing, Problem Solving, Skills Demonstration

Eligible Disciplines

English: Masters degree in English, literature, comparative literature, or composition OR bachelors degree in any of the above AND masters degree in linguistics, TESL, speech, education with a specialization in reading, creative writing, or journalism OR the equivalent. Masters degree required.

Textbooks Resources

1. Required Mays, Kelly J. . The Norton Introduction to Literature , Portable 13th ed ed. W. W. Norton Company (Latest), 2019 2. Required Wolfe, Joanna and Laura Wilder . Digging into Literature, 2nd ed. Bedford/St. Martins (Latest), 2015 Rationale: TBD 3. Required ONeill, Eugene. Long Days Journey into Night, ed. Yale University Press (Classic), 2002 Rationale: TBD 4. Required Fitzgerald, Scott F. . The Great Gatsby, ed. Scribner (Classic), 2004 Rationale: TBD 5. Required Tyson, Lois. . Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide, 3rd ed. Routledge (Latest), 2014 Rationale: TBD 6. Required Smith, C. Alphonso . Short Stories Old and New, ed. Project Gutenburg OpenStax (OER) (Classic), 2003 Rationale: TBD 7. Required Bartleby.Com. Bartleby Poetry Anthologies, ed. OpenStax (OER), 2020 Rationale: TBD 8. Required Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper, ed. Project Gutenburg OpenStax (OER) (Classic), 2017 9. Required Cather, Willa. Youth and the Bright Medusa, ed. The Project Gutenberg eBook (Classic), 2004 Rationale: TBD

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