LITR11043 - The Short Story

General Information

Unit Synopsis

A short story contains multiple points of view and myriad narrative strategies. Moreover, as Patricia Hampl notes, the short story is 'acknowledged to be the most exquisite kind of prose fiction, requiring the perfect craft, the form in which the smallest slip can bring the whole contraption—plot, character, narration—down in a crash. A delicate business'. The aim of this unit is to provide students with an opportunity to explore the complexity and delicacy of the short story while developing their text-based interpretative and analytical techniques.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 1
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 1
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites There are no pre-requisites for the unit.

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 3 - 2024

Term 2 - 2025 Profile
Online
Rockhampton
Term 2 - 2026 Profile
Online
Rockhampton

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Written Assessment 20%
2. Written Assessment 40%
3. Written Assessment 40%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 2 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 14.55% response rate.

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Source: SUTE UNIT COMMENTS
Feedback
Some students feel that the unit could be condensed down and added to another unit.
Recommendation
Review whether it is appropriate to condense the unit to add the content to another unit.
Action Taken
This was reviewed by the discipline staff and it was decided to keep the unit in its present form.
Source: SUTE UNIT COMMENTS
Feedback
Some students feel there is too much literature to closely examine. Some students feel that to anyalse text you are averse to is difficult. They also suggest looking at current literature, authors from recent decades who convey powerful messages that impact our lives.
Recommendation
Rewrite or reorganise modules where appropriate, to incorporate a thematic approach to literature analysis.
Action Taken
The process of streamlining the readings and making the unit content relevant to contemporary students continues to be a priority of the unit coordinator.
Source: SUTE UNIT COMMENTS
Feedback
Students identified a lack of set talkings regarding the points for assignments (such as methods of identifying theme, genre discussion etc).
Recommendation
Conduct a how-to session/video on the assessments, and make this available in the assessment tab. Consider wording of assessments so that ambiguity in topics is removed as much as possible, and specify formatting.
Action Taken
Assessments have been modified and rewritten to minimize ambiguity and maximize development of skills.
Source: SUTE UNIT COMMENTS
Feedback
Some students felt it may be beneficial to deliver information in a different way or provide transcripts to read.
Recommendation
The unit content will be more explicitly sign-posted in relation to what section of text/resource is under discussion and emphasize how it links to unit learning outcomes and development of skills.
Action Taken
The learning resources have been modified to provide a more scaffolded learning process ensuring student success.
Source: Student discussions
Feedback
Clarity of learning materials
Recommendation
Ensure learning materials remain up to date and aligned with the assessment strategies in this unit.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. interpret, analyse and evaluate selected short stories from the nineteenth and twentieth century using a variety of advanced text-based interpretative and analytical techniques;
  2. analyse and compare selected short stories within a framework of issues such as ideology, gender, race and the politics of literature;

N/A

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2
1 - Written Assessment • •
2 - Written Assessment • •
3 - Written Assessment • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2
1 - Communication • •
2 - Problem Solving •
3 - Critical Thinking • •
4 - Information Literacy • •
7 - Cross Cultural Competence •
8 - Ethical practice •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 - Written Assessment • • • • •
3 - Written Assessment • • • •
1 - Written Assessment • •