4. Course Objectives

Any survey course has a particular set of meanings for students who are taking them in order to fulfill a general education area requirement, an education certification requirement, or purely as an elective.

The Seton Hill University Learning Objectives (found on page 2 of the 2008-1010 course catalog) lists several skills that this course is especially designed to help you develop:

• Use technological skills to access information, organize knowledge, and communicate.
  
• Express arguments or main points clearly, in written and oral communication.
  
• Assess privilige and oppression from the perspective of culture, race, class, and gender.
  
• Find, evaluate, and apply information.
  
• Locate and analyze expressive media to gain information or comprehend the significance of an issue or event.
  

A literature survey course has an additional meaning for English majors and minors, who will be expected, in their other courses, to demonstrate familiarity with the scholarly techniques (how to read and write about a literary text) and subject matter (major authors and themes of American literature since 1915).

These goals of the English program all apply directly to EL 266:

1. Examine a wide range of genres, styles and cultural literatures.
2. Examine the traditional canon and innovative nontraditional writers and writing.
3. Demonstrate analytical skills of reading literature.
4. Demonstrate a high level of research and writing skills.
5. Write and speak in a wide range of formats appropriate to major emphasis: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, critical essay, oral presentation.
6. Speak and write about issues in the discipline and how they interact with the culture at large.
7. Articulate the ongoing relation between personal habits of reading and writing and the evolving study of English.

1. Deeply and critically read literary texts
2. Demonstrate familiarity with the social and political forces shaping American culture during the time period
3. Use textual evidence to support your claims in oral and informal written discussion of assigned texts, without oversimplifying or ignoring views which differ from yours
4. Organize and develop your initial reactions to assigned texts, through informal writing, peer critiques, and discussion
5. Write two college-level papers (one supported by primary sources, another supported by both primary sources and secondary research)
6. Contribute actively to a positive learning environment
   

• read all assigned texts and reflect meaningfully on them (a process that includes re-reading parts of large texts or the whole of shorter texts) before class,
• complete exercises, quizzes, and exams in order to offer me opportunities to assess your achievements,
• write two papers (see section 6, Assignments)

At the end of this course, you should be able to demonstrate

1. Competence in interpretive, critical reading of literary texts
   
2. Intellectual engagement with your peers (in person and online)
   
3. Awareness of the historical, cultural, and formal issues that influence your developing responses to texts on the syllabus
   
4. Ability to plan, research, draft, revise, and polish college-level essays, using appropriate sources to explore and defend a non-obvious claim about your chosen text