Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: demonstrate mastery of clear and effective writing through carefully written analyses of exemplary models of literature; identify and apply various rhetorical modes in English Composition, focusing on the expository and argumentative approaches; identify elements of a theme and its evidence presented by the author throughout a piece of literature; effectively read and analyze a poem and its components, focusing on rhythm, how a poem sounds versus how it reads, and demonstrate improved mastery of word choice and poetic devices in the writing of poetry; actively engage literary works to develop creative interpretations through an individualized strong reading of classic short stories, poetry, and drama; compose a literary argument with appropriate documentation related to context from selected pieces of fiction; develop techniques for addressing opposing views to insure that the basic theme of a paper is adequately supported; recognize and assess the philosophical or analytic approaches that literary critics adopt as templates for understanding the meaning behind a piece of writing and identify potential bias of an author or critic; write an in-depth research paper demonstrating a discriminating focus upon what constitutes good literature and facility with MLA format and specific requirements for citing references; and recognize various forms of plagiarism, both benign and intentional.