Students in this course are expected to lay a foundation for the development of critical and analytical reading skills by studying a variety of print and non-print texts, including short stories, popular non-fiction, a book-length work of fiction or nonfiction, poetry, and film. Students are expected to develop strategies to improve sentence construction skills and be able to detect and correct common sentence faults while responding personally and critically to literary texts. The goal of the course is to foster “an appreciation of the significance and artistry of literature” and to facilitate a student’s ability to “understand and appreciate language and to use it confidently for a variety of purposes and in a variety of situations for communication, personal satisfaction and learning.”