Learning Goals and Expected Workload

Learning Goals

Creating and Supporting Analytical Claims

Students in the class will

• Regularly complete small tasks, in the classroom and in preparation for class, that provide opportunities for creating one’s own and responding to others’ analytical ideas about the text we encounter.
• Write analytical papers that include the basic formatting elements described in the assignment as well as the elements described in Start Small, Start Strange:
• a title that conveys the specific content and approach of the paper,
• a thesis that exhibits the qualities described in Five Ways of Looking at a Thesis, with the central claim especially clear in the paper’s introduction and conclusion,
• a transition at the beginning of each paragraph that exhibits the two qualities of analytical transitions described in the Transitions section, and
• evidence appropriate to the analysis, cited in Chicago NB Style (with a footnote and bibliography entry supporting each source).
• Create a video essay that meets all of the objectives of the analytical paper while also using video-editing software to create a visual presentation appropriate to the analytical content of the essay.

Content and Theory

Each students’ writing and discussion will use three kinds of evidence over the course of the semester:

• Primary evidence from poetry, fiction, and film;
• Technical language appropriate to the analysis of texts in each genre; and
• Analytical evidence from other scholars, whether secondary or theoretical.

Class Engagement

Each student will

• Attend class regularly and
• Contribute to the intellectual community of the class as a speaker, listener, and peer editor in small-group and whole-class dicussions.

Expected Workload

Grinnell College defines four credits of academic work as equivalent to an expected minimum of 12 hours of academic work per week, including the meetings times of the class.