Objective One Summarize, analyze and evaluate fictional and non-fictional texts. Rationale: My essay summarizing and evaluating Elie Wiesel's The Gates of the Forest does just that. It describes what happens in the text and then offers my opinion on its cathartic and spiritual nature. Original Word Document     Web Version

Objective Two Differentiate deductive and inductive reasoning processes. Rationale: The goal of my final paper for World Literature (ENGL 212) was to research a historical event that tied in with a book we read. I chose Simon Ortiz's From Sand Creek, a book of poetry about Native Americans' trials and tribulations since Anglo-Americans began desecrating their lands. My thesis required me to correlate external sources about massacres and migrations with Ortiz's oral history using both deductive and inductive reasoning. Original Word Document     Web Version

Objective Three Acquire and analyze information to determine its quality and utility. Rationale: My final paper for World Literature, beside requiring me to utilize both deductive and inductive reasoning, also required me to dig through large piles of information to find basis for my thesis. Some of the statistics referenced in my paper were found in obscure government databases that took me weeks of looking to discover. Other sources were on tribal (Native American) web sites and though the authors may have had the best intentions they may have exaggerated, stretched and otherwise massaged the truth. Sometimes the line between fact and fiction was blurry, but by cross-referencing multiple sources of information I was able to determine with some accuracy what was truthful. Original Word Document     Web Version

Objective Four Recognize parallels between and among disciplines, and apply knowledge, skills or abilities learned in one discipline to another. Rationale: One of the assignments in my Creative Writing About Literature class (ENGL 310) involved dissecting the literary theories of a French philosopher (Pierre Machery). Upon reading his treatise closely I realized he was approaching the extraction of the "true meaning" of a work of literature from a mathematical angle - he was using recursive induction, a proving technique I learned in Discrete Mathematics (MTHSC 119). The problem was that Machery didn't quite understand how recursion works, and so his proof was substantially flawed. I was able to use my knowledge of mathematics in analyzing and refuting his position. Original Word Document     Web Version