About Course

This course develops your ability to read scholarly texts with critical insight and to produce analytical, evidence-based writing. You will learn to evaluate arguments, identify rhetorical strategies, and engage with sources in a reflective dialogue. Through close reading exercises and structured writing tasks, you’ll enhance your capacity to interrogate texts and articulate nuanced critiques in academic discourse.

What Will You Learn?

  • How to deconstruct and assess the structure of academic arguments
  • Techniques for annotating and synthesizing key ideas from complex texts
  • Strategies for integrating critique and counterargument in your writing
  • Methods for crafting thesis-driven analytical essays
  • Ways to maintain a critical, yet balanced, academic voice
  • Approaches to reflecting on your own assumptions and biases

Course Content

Analytical Reading Strategies

  • Deconstructing Scholarly Arguments
  • Annotating for Critical Insight

Crafting Critical Responses