EL1100:03
Critical Reading
Townsville
HECS Band 1
26 hours lectures, 10 hours tutorials. Semester 1.
Staff: Dr G Manning, Mr J Gray.
This subject provides both a conceptual introduction to, and practical training in, the generic reading skills necessary to the study of literary and other complex texts at tertiary level and instruction on how to organise an essay about such reading. In the first half of the subject students are introduced to such concepts as story and plot, metaphor and symbol, analogy and allegory, first and third person narration, reliable and unreliable narration and modes of irony and to ways of placing texts in cultural contexts, with reference to a selection of short prose pieces and poems. In the second half of the subject these skills are put into practice with reference to a sequence of texts.
Learning Objectives:
- develop the skills of comprehension, informed interpretation and critical evaluation in students new to the university;
- develop the capacity to plan, organise and articulate an argument grounded in accurate critical reading;
- develop the capacity to plan, articulate and explain a reasoned critical argument in a limited timeframe;
- develop an understanding of the concepts of plot, metaphor, analogy, reliable and unreliable narration and irony and of how they relate to each other in the reading of texts;
- learn to explore ideas in small group discussion;
- acquire a detailed knowledge of each of the texts set for study.
Assessment by assignments (20%); essay (20%); tutorial contribution (20%); examination (40%).