ENGL 1111: Critical Reading and Writing
Students develop skills in close critical reading comprehension, written composition, and argumentation through the exploration and evaluation of a variety of creative narrative texts. Students learn critically and creatively to articulate complexities of various perspectives, techniques and rhetorical strategies, and assumptions employed by writers to convey a given subject matter or social issue. They also practice critical reflection and clear, persuasive, and grammatically-correct communication by building on scholarly writing and documentation skills. Students develop critical reading and writing skills, which are keys to success in any academic discipline and transfer directly to the workplace.
Learning outcomes
- Perform close critical readings, demonstrating comprehension of course texts.
- Critically and creatively evaluate a variety of narrative texts, making thematic and stylistic comparisons.
- Critically interpret narrative texts, applying literary terminology and methodologies appropriately.
- Critically reflect on and articulate the complexities of a literary topic, underlying assumptions, and biases.
- Compose analytical essays, using an articulate thesis, scholarly argument, and academic citations.
- Write with proficiency at a university-level, grammatical style.
Course topics
- Module 1: Close Reading
- Module 2: Interpretation
- Module 3: Critical Reading
- Module 4: Writing
Required text and materials
The following Open Education Resources (OER) textbooks, free of charge, are required for this course:
- Horkoff, T. (2021). Writing for Success (1st Canadian H5P Edition). BCcampus.
- Palmer, K. (2020). The Worry-Free Writer: Taking the Stress out of Academic Writing. Pressbooks OER.
Assessments
Please be aware that should your course have a final exam, you are responsible for the fee to the online proctoring service, ProctorU, or to the in-person approved Testing Centre. Please contact exams@tru.ca with any questions about this.
To successfully complete this course, students must achieve a passing grade of 50% or higher on the overall course, and 50% or higher on the final mandatory exam.
| Assignment 1: Annotation and Explication | 15% |
| Assignment 2: Applying Literary Terminology to Make Comparative Judgments | 15% |
| Assignment 3: Identifying and Unpacking Assumptions and Biases Video | 15% |
| Assignment 4: Reflective Journal Entries | 10% |
| Assessment 5: Final Analytic Essay | 20% |
| Mandatory Final Exam | 25% |
| Total | 100% |
Open Learning Faculty Member Information
An Open Learning Faculty Member is available to assist students. Students will receive the necessary contact information at the start of the course.
