4 Course Objectives

ENGL 1010: Expository Writing, ENGL 1020: Research and Argumentative Writing, ENGL 2020: Themes in Literature, and ENGL 2030: The Experience of Literature are all approved True Blue Core courses. The student learning outcomes are articulated below, along with the course objectives for each class.

Overview of the True Blue Core
Distinctive to MTSU, the True Blue Core keeps the best of our current program while encouraging
faculty innovation and student exploration. With 41 hours of lower division courses and 8 student learning outcomes distributed over 5 categories, it is transfer friendly and aligns with our values. The True Blue Core is designed to evolve with the campus community. The student learning outcomes are listed below:

● Foundational Skills (12 hours)
● Written Communication (6 hours)
● Non-Written Communication (3 hours)
● Quantitative Literacy (3 hours)
● Human Society and Social Relationships (6 hours)
● Scientific Literacy (8 hours)
● Creativity and Cultural Expression (9 hours)
● History & Civic Learning (6 hours)

Objective A: Communication: Written and Non-Written

A1: Students will communicate effectively through writing in terms of context and purpose, content development, genre and disciplinary conventions, sources and evidence, and syntax and mechanics.

A2: Students will communicate effectively through oral, embodied, or other mediated formats, considering organization, language (or other forms of expression), delivery, supporting material, a cogent central message, and audience.

Objective B: Critical Thinking, Inquiry, and Analysis 

B1: Students will think critically by explaining issues/problems, selecting and using evidence, considering context and assumptions, and representing their position and conclusions logically and effectively.

B2: Students will systematically explore
issues, problems, objects, and works through the collection and analysis of evidence, identification of informed conclusions, and analysis of complex topics by breaking them down.

Objective C: Intercultural Understanding and Civic Learning 

C1: Students will demonstrate intercultural understanding by building knowledge, self-awareness, and conceptions of global and intercultural perspectives, values, systems, and attitudes.

C2: Students will demonstrate civic learning by using knowledge, information, and understanding to comprehend civic identity and civic obligations in local and global contexts.

Objective D: Quantitative and Information Literacy

D1: Students will demonstrate the ability to interpret, represent, calculate, apply, and analyze numerical data in a variety of settings, and will make assumptions and communicate those assumptions based on quantitative information.

D2: Students will demonstrate competence in information literacy by determining what information they need, where to access it, how to evaluate information they encounter, and how to use information effectively and ethically.

First-Year Writing at MTSU

The First-Year Writing sequence includes ENGL 1010: Expository Writing and ENGL 1020: Research and Argumentative Writing. ENGL 1020 builds on the knowledge and skills students build in ENGL 1010.

ENGL 1010 True Blue Course Objectives

• Examine multimodal literacies across contexts, cultures, and communities, including academic disciplines and public audiences (Reading Processes)
• Reflect on literacy in student lives and across learning experiences (Integrative Thinking)
• Compose writing tasks that demonstrate understanding of the rhetorical situation (Rhetorical Knowledge)
• Revise writing assignments based on iterative feedback and make appropriate decisions about content, form, and presentation (Composing Processes)
• Demonstrate understanding of ethical primary research practices (Genre Conventions)
• Practice genre analysis of various types of text—print, digital, and audio (Information Literacy)

ENGL 1020 True Blue Course Objectives

• Conduct secondary research that relies on recursive relationships between reading, writing, and reflection (Composing Processes)
• Practice flexibility and awareness of effective delivery across different audiences, contexts, and genres (Rhetorical Knowledge)
• Locate sources and analyze their relevance and credibility (Genre Conventions)
• Demonstrate rhetorical understanding of source attribution (Information Literacy)
• Interpret and respond to complex ideas in secondary sources (Reading Processes)
• Identify connections between coursework and other academic and external contexts (Integrative Thinking)

Sophomore Literature at MTSU

English 2020/ENGL 2030 Course Objectives

• Explore how literature reflects, informs, and shapes both personal and collective experience
• Articulate cogent responses to literature that demonstrate cultural awareness and understanding
• Reflect on how reading, writing, and interpreting literature initiates and contributes to cultural and social conversations
• Examine how the production and interpretation of literature is shaped by historical, social, and cultural contexts
• Analyze how literature from different cultures, movements, and time periods employs narrative and stylistic strategies to convey complex ideas and meanings
• Compose projects (written, digital, or audio) that utilize critical thinking, analysis, and research to situate literature within diverse cultural and conceptual frameworks
• Identify connections between literature and values, experiences, and practices of multiple cultures
• Develop an approach to reading, writing, and interpretation that demonstrates an understanding of human experience from multiple cultural vantage points