This course refines and enhances the skills of writing developed in English 101 and English 102 using a selection of representative works of important English writers. (Prerequisite: English 102)

Course Description
As its title indicates, Writing about World Literature is a course with two primary aims: 1) to discuss and exercise the practice of writing critical essays and 2) to introduce and examine the literature produced in Western and Non-Western Cultures. To perform these two functions, the course will ask students to engage in discussions about assigned texts, and to produce a number of different written essays in response to teacher prompts.

Assignments
Students must write approximately 20 pages of graded work (drafts do not figure into that number), and they must be given written assignments for each of the essays they are to write. These assignments must clearly articulate a question for students to consider and answer, and the question must relate to a specified reading which will be discussed in class. It is preferable to give out the assignment question before the students do the reading - and, in fact, even more preferable to give students thought-provoking questions which can help them become "strong readers" of the text.

Essays
The essays written for 205 will be done according to the writing process. This means that students will write drafts of each essay and bring them - typed and completed - to class on a designated due day. They should work on these rough drafts in class in some way - on their own, in peer groups, in review pairs - to learn how to revise and edit another writer's work, and eventually their own. Papers will be typed and double-spaced, and will have appropriate margins and fonts. There should be one in-class essay.
Essays should begin with a clear, coherent statement of purpose which is then developed into a logical, clearly organized essay.

By the end of English 205, students should be able to:

• Think critically, and rely on their inferential skills as a way of making meaning from written texts
• Use language in correct and appropriate ways
• Understand that writing is a process that begins with the comprehension of an idea, and moves through a number of revised drafts toward a completed product
• Produce summaries and paraphrases and understand how and why those are useful skills
• Understand that, more than a cultural product, literature reflects moments in history as well as themes that can be relevant to them in their own lives and times
• Appreciate that works of literature can offer many opportunities to compare and/or contrast ideas and concepts from a variety of cultures and backgrounds
• Write coherent essays that demonstrate an awareness of the rules of English, and quote from external texts for support of their point in appropriate and analytical ways