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Course Description

Students develop skills in close critical reading comprehension, written composition, and argumentation through the exploration and evaluation of a variety of creative narrative texts. Students learn critically and creatively to articulate complexities of various perspectives, techniques and rhetorical strategies, and assumptions employed by writers to convey a given subject matter or social issue. They also practice critical reflection and clear, persuasive, and grammatically-correct communication by building on scholarly writing and documentation skills. Students develop critical reading and writing skills, which are keys to success in any academic discipline and transfer directly to the workplace. 

Learning outcomes

  • Perform close critical readings, demonstrating comprehension of course texts.
  • Critically and creatively evaluate a variety of narrative texts, making thematic and stylistic comparisons.
  • Critically interpret narrative texts, applying literary terminology and methodologies appropriately.
  • Critically reflect on and articulate the complexities of a literary topic, underlying assumptions, and biases.
  • Compose analytical essays, using an articulate thesis, scholarly argument, and academic citations.
  • Write with proficiency at a university-level, grammatical style. 

Course topics

  • Module 1: Close Reading
  • Module 2: Interpretation
  • Module 3: Critical Reading
  • Module 4: Writing

Required text and materials

The following Open Education Resources (OER) textbooks, free of charge, are required for this course:

Assessments

Please be aware that should your course have a final exam, you are responsible for the fee to the online proctoring service, ProctorU, or to the in-person approved Testing Centre. Please contact exams@tru.ca with any questions about this.

To successfully complete this course, students must achieve a passing grade of 50% or higher on the overall course, and 50% or higher on the final mandatory exam.

Assignment 1: Annotation and Explication 15%
Assignment 2: Applying Literary Terminology to Make Comparative Judgments15%
Assignment 3: Identifying and Unpacking Assumptions and Biases Video    15%
Assignment 4: Reflective Journal Entries 10%
Assessment 5: Final Analytic Essay    20%
Mandatory Final Exam25%
Total100%

Prerequisites

English Studies 12 or English First Peoples 12 with a minimum of 73% (within the last 5 years) or equivalent.

Exclusions

  • ENGL 1110
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Enrol now - select a section to enrol in

Section Title
Critical Reading and Writing
Section Schedule
Any Time (30 weeks duration)
Delivery
Online, self-paced  
Course Fee(s)
Canadian in BC/YT non-credit $837.62 Click here to get more information
Canadian outside BC/YT non-credit $946.70 Click here to get more information
International Student non-credit $1,661.15 Click here to get more information
Available for Credit
3 credits
Section Title
Critical Reading and Writing
Duration
16 weeks
Dates
Sep 09, 2026 to Dec 29, 2026
Delivery
Online, paced  
Course Fee(s)
Canadian in BC/YT non-credit $853.78 Click here to get more information
Canadian outside BC/YT non-credit $965.02 Click here to get more information
International Student non-credit $1,708.78 Click here to get more information
Available for Credit
3 credits

Section Notes

Note: Online paced delivery method requires approval due to class size as the minimum number of students registered must be met in order for the course to run. We will contact you via email with more details upon registration.

Open Learning faculty member information

An Open Learning faculty member is available to assist students. Students will receive the necessary contact information at the start of the course.

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