In previous courses, the student has been introduced to the basics of Academic Writing, the importance of Critical Thinking, and the different literary genres. The focus of study for this course is two-fold: a thorough understanding of how one literary text works and the process required to write a clear and precise academic criticism. The literary object of your study is Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. While the text is relatively short – less than nine pages, the final work product for this study, your Course Paper, will be nearly as long. The study will consist of a number of steps to this conclusion; each one of them will be critical to submission of an academic criticism of the literature.

This course will promote the academic skills to allow the students to: 1. Write a greater variety of sentences; 2. Write more clearly and understandably; 3. Write clear thesis statements, introductions and conclusions; 4. Write organized paragraphs that use evidence; 5. Develop a variety of academic writing genres; 6. Understand the writing process; 7. Identify and correct specific grammar errors independently.