What kinds of readings are appropriate for the Freshman English courses?
Presumably instructors choose texts that they feel will offer students complex reading experiences and will in turn inspire complex ideas for writing. While some texts might be brief (a poem or an excerpt of a few pages), the key texts will usually need to be of substantial length (15 pages and more) for the students to have the opportunity for deep engagement with a range of issues and problems. In some situations, particularly with 110, instructors may offer some class readings as stylistic models for students. Whatever the text, the students should understand that their development as writers directly relates to their development as readers.
