The course emphasizes argumentation by developing a position of advocacy through reading, writing, speaking, listening, and using media. They will also express reflections and reactions to texts, explain principles inspired by the curriculum, interpret and qualify texts, research and address issues of public or personal concern, and create products and presentations which maintain standard conventions of written and spoken language. The course further includes composition with emphasis on refining skills of narration, description, exposition and persuasion. Students also embrace a study of British language and literature, including poetry, novels, drama, and short stories, each of which requires the refining of research skills. This course surpasses the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.
Emphasis is placed on extensive parallel reading, evaluative writing and research.
This course will engage students in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. It will include intensive study of representative works from various genres and periods. These readings will include in-depth discussions in which students will absorb its richness and analyze how that meaning is embodied in literary form. Emphasis will be placed on helping students develop stylistic maturity. The focus will be a wide-ranging vocabulary used with denotative accuracy and connotative resourcefulness, a variety of sentence structures, a logical organization of specific techniques of coherence, a balance of generalization with specific detail, and an effective use of rhetoric which includes controlling tone, maintaining a consistent voice and achieving emphasis through parallelism and antithesis.