Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to: write essays, including expository essays, which go beyond summary to the analysis and interpretation of texts; compose essays that incorporate research and documentation in preparation for the assignments of other college courses; apply grammatical and rhetorical skills to a variety of complex writing tasks in preparation for writing across the curriculum; conduct research and assess information from a variety of sources in order to understand the research topic; read intellectually challenging texts with increased comprehension and enriched aesthetic response; incorporate the vocabulary of literary analysis into class discussion and writing in order to facilitate thinking about texts from various literary genres; express in discussion and in writing an awareness of diverse voices found in literature; build a context for understanding literature by linking class readings to other academic disciplines and to universal human experiences.