Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the 8 am Comp Class

So I've spent the last couple of days plugging away at my syllabi trying to come up with a fun (and not toooo dorky) way to keep first year college students interested in Composition Studies at 8am. Now I was a college student not all too long ago and I remember how absolutely painful early morning classes are- especially on Mondays and Fridays... and I know that a class has to be incredibly engaging/challenging/bizarre to keep people from passing out left, right and center. I've been having a difficult time, however, coming up with a hook that will both intrigue my students, and fulfill all the requirements of the strict First-Year Composition Program at my University. The funky thing about our Program is that the first semester's course has to focus on non-fiction. We can look at essays, articles, and criticism but absolutely no creative fiction, poetry, or film. That cramps my style a bit.. It's tough to be creative, inventive and slightly off-the-wall if you have to base everything in the real world! Where's the fun in a class without whimsy? Ehhhh?

I've decided to skirt around the rules a little bit by looking at non-fiction through the lens (through a magnifying glass perhaps?...) of a fiction. I want to focus the course around critical reading and analysis by using the character of Sherlock Holmes as a central, unifying trope.  We'll use quotes and scenes from the books to shape the way we discuss attention to detail, pattern recognition, audience awareness, and argument presentation. I think it could be a fun way to bring some silliness into what could otherwise be a pretty dull subject. Also.. it gives me the opportunity to periodically wear a tweed hat and a monocle and to pretend to smoke a pipe in class.

This is the quote that first got me thinking about Holmes as a Freshman Comp teacher...

"It seemed to me that a careful examination of the room and the lawn might possibly reveal some traces of this mysterious individual. You know my methods, Watson. There was not one of them which I did not apply to the inquiry. And it ended by my discovering traces, but very different ones from those which I had expected."
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1893)

I'm still working on coming up with ideas for class projects and paper topics that would deal primarily with current or historical events but that could also work with the detective theme we've got going on. If anybody has any suggestions for readings or project topics you think might work I'd LOVE to hear about them!