Author Archives: JSylvor

1. Symposium Sessions – On Monday, December 7th and Wednesday, December 9th at 12:30pm, we will be holding our Symposium Sessions.  Please be sure that your group is ready to go.  Each group will have 15-20 minutes to share what they have prepared.  Attendance at both sessions is mandatory.
2. Research Based Project Reflection – Once your group has completed its Symposium Session, please fill out this Research Based Project Reflection Form and return it to me.  You will not receive a grade for your project until I get your form.  Please complete this form by Friday, December 11th.
3. Peer Review – As we discussed, you will be providing peer review feedback to the other members of your Research Groups.  You can find your partners’ drafts in our shared “Writing and Democracy” folder, or if your draft is not in that folder, you can share your file with the other members of the group.  If you are in a four person group, please arrange things so that each of you reviews two drafts.  (If you find yourself in a situation in which your partners’ have not shared drafts, so you don’t have anything to review, please let me know, so that I can monitor the situation.)   Use this Peer Review Form to guide your response, keeping in mind that these essays should be written for an audience of your peers.  The Peer Review Form is in our shared folder, so you can access it there as well.  Copy and paste your form at the bottom of the essay you are reviewing.  Please complete your peer review by Friday, December 11th.
4. Op-Ed Essays: Your final essays are due on Monday, December 14th, uploaded to turnitin.com.  I am happy to give feedback or to meet with you about your drafts; December 12th is the last day you can share any work with me to get feedback.
5. Deadline to Withdraw from Course;  Just a gentle reminder that December 13th is the last day to withdraw from the course with a grade of “W”.  If you find yourself in a situation in which you are unlikely to pass the class, this option allows you to avoid having an “F” on your transcript.  If you are not sure about your status in the course, please reach out to me so that we can discuss your situation directly.

We are in the home stretch of the semester!  Most of your work this week is simply about moving forward on all your final assignments.  The end is in sight!

–Office Hours:  I will be holding my regular office hours on Monday, November 30th at 12:30pm.  Feel free to stop by if you want to discuss any aspect of your final project or anything else that is on your mind.

–Resource Guides: As you know, your research guides are due on Monday, November 30th.  Please review the instructions for the project and be sure you have included all the required parts, identified the author of each RefAnnBib entry by including his/her initials in parentheses at the end of the entry, and compiled all the entries into one alphabetically organized bibliography.  If you do NOT have your completed Resource Guide ready to submit, you need to reach out to me to discuss a plan for getting the work done.

–Symposium Sessions:  See my post from last week if you need a reminder about when your group is scheduled to share its work and about what forms your Symposium Session might take.  You will have some time with your group on Wednesday during our Zoom.  At that session, I will expect each group to be ready to share with me orally its plan for the session, so be prepared.  Our sessions will take place on Monday, December 7th and Wednesday, December 9th at 12:30pm.  Both sessions are mandatory for all students.

–Op-Ed Essays:. Please read carefully the separate post that describes this assignment in detail.  Last week I asked you to share with me your idea for the Op-Ed.  (This means what topic are you addressing and what argument are you making.) If I haven’t yet seen your proposed idea for the Op-Ed, please get it to me immediately.  You can either share your thoughts in a Google Doc or send me an email explaining what you are thinking about.  In class on Wednesday, you will be asked to share your idea.  Give some thought to how you can express your point clearly and succinctly.  Drafts of the Op-Ed Essay are due on Friday, December 4th.  Please upload your draft to our shared Google Doc folder, and give it a title whose format is:  YOUR NAME /OP-ED DRAFT

–Peer Review:  We will be going through a peer review process for the Op-Ed assignment.  Please check the blog on Friday for instructions about the peer review process.  Remember that, if you are slow to review your peer’s draft, you are effectively delaying his/her progress on the assignment.   Please be sure that you complete your peer review within the time framework that is assigned.

Again, your work for the week is primarily to continue to move forward on all aspects of your Research Based Project.

—Group Meetings: As described below, each group will be meeting with me on Monday, Nov. 23rd to discuss your progress on the Research Based Project.  We will be checking in about the Resource Guide, Symposium Session, and Op-Ed Essay.  This is a mandatory session.  We will NOT be having class on Wednesday, November 25th.

—Resource Guide:. Many, but not all of you, submitted sample entries of the RefAnnBib.  I have provided important feedback, so please be sure to read carefully any comments I’ve left on your documents and be sure you understand what you will need to do to bring your RefAnnBib up to the standards required by the assignment.  Some important (and fairly obvious) things to keep in mind:

• You need to actually read every source you write a RefAnnBib.  If I’m not sure.you actually read the text, you will get no credit for that entry.
• You need to select sources that directly address the questions your group has identified for its research.  We are looking for the best sources, not the ones that simply come up at the top of your search.
• A summary tells us what the article actually says.  This is not the same thing as telling us what it’s about.  In order to receive credit, your summary must lay out the main idea or argument that the author is making.  This means that you have to dive deeply into each source and work to understand its main points.
• Your bibliographic entry (section 1 of the RefAnnBib) must adhere to MLA 8 guidelines.  You can find these guidelines online or under the tab at the top of the blog.  These guidelines tell you what information you must include in your entry and how it should be formatted.
• Once each member of the group has completed his/her five entries, the entire guide must be assembled.  The sources need to be compiled in alphabetical order, according to authors’ last names (or titles, in cases where a source has no author).  Your group’s RefAnnBib should have either 15 or 20 entries.  To get credit for your work, place your initials in parentheses at the end of each of your five RefAnnBib entries.  In addition to the RefAnnBib, your group’s completed Resource Guide will included your Research Questions and a final section in which you offer Additional Resources.  The Resource Guides are due on Monday, November 30th.

—Symposium Sessions – Please see my separate post about your Symposium Sessions.  These will happen on December 7th and December 9th.  All students must attend BOTH of these Zoom sessions!!!  We will talk about the sessions during our conferences on Monday, Nov. 23rd.  I am also available by email throughout the Thanksgiving Break as questions arise.

—Op-Ed Essay – Stay tuned for more details about your Op-Ed Essay assignment.  This is a short (approx. 750 word) opinion based writing assignment in which you will be making the case for a strongly held view about some aspect of your research subject.  An op-ed essay is written for a general audience and attempts to persuade readers to accept a particular point of view.  Please be ready to share with me (either on our calls on Monday, 11/23 or via email) the issue you intend to write about.  This means not just identifying the problem you are concerned about, but also spelling out the point of view you want to convey in your essay.  This is a chance for you to make the case for something you genuinely care about.  I can’t wait to read your essays!  Drafts of the Op-Ed are due by December 4th,.

—Office Hours – I will be having regular office hours on Monday, November 30th at 12:30.  This is a great opportunity to confer with me about your Op-Ed idea, your Symposium Session plans, or last minute questions about your Research Based Project.  You can drop-in to speak with me spontaneously, or you can email me to make an appointment.  Either way, I will be happy to see you.

Finally, I hope that, despite all the work that remains ahead of you, you find time over the Thanksgiving Break to take a deep breath, go for a (socially distanced, masked) walk, spend time with family, eat something delicious, and give yourself some credit for making it through this challenging first semester of college.  I know that it hasn’t been easy, and I am grateful to you for sticking with it and for showing so much resilience and focus! Happy Thanksgiving!

In ancient Greece, the symposium was a part of the banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was accompanied by music, dance, and conversation.  In modern usage, a symposium is a meeting, discussion, or conference about a particular topic.

For our purposes, your symposium session is your group’s opportunity to discuss its research with the class.  Please note that this is NOT a standard presentation in which you present slides while the rest of the class listens.  Your job is to find a way to engage the class in a lively discussion about some aspect of your topic.  This means thinking first about what question or issue you want to highlight, and then figuring out a format or structure for your session that will be participatory.  You can hold the symposium with the whole class, or we can break into breakout rooms.   But if we use breakout rooms, you will need to have a careful plan that will guide the groups through their activity in the breakout rooms.  Although we are not looking for powerpoint presentations, you certainly can use audio-visual aids like slides or video during your session.  I would encourage you to think about creative strategies to engage your classmates (i.e. games, quizzes, contests, hypothetical situations, role playing, etc….)

Each group has 15-20 minutes, including any discussion or question and answer period.  Every member of the group must be an active participant in the session.

Sessions will be judged for:

Content (Is the session clearly related to your research material and informed by your research findings?  Does it show that you have a deep and substantive understanding of your topic?)

Preparation (Does it reflect careful thought, planning, and preparation?)

Engagement (Are you able to create an active, participatory experience for the class?)

Schedule

December 7th:  Immigration, Police Reform, Climate Change

December 9th: Criminal Justice, Health Care, Poverty

Anyone who is absent for his/her group’s symposium session will earn a “zero” for that part of the Research Based Assignment.  Group members who are present, but non-participatory will see that reflected in their grades as well.

This week’s work is focused on moving forward with your Research Guide.  Here are the steps you ought to be taking this week:

1.Research Questions – Your research group should have narrowed its focus and submitted a short list of the questions you will be trying to answer through your research.  If you submitted your question, you will receive feedback from me.  Please use that feedback to revise and finalize your questions.  You may find that, as you start looking for sources, you decide to eliminate some of your questions and focus your research more narrowly.  If your group hasn’t submitted questions, share them with me ASAP as a Google Doc.  You can do this simply by putting them in our shared folder and labelling the file with the name of your group plus “Research Questions.”

2. Office Hours – I will be holding regular office hours from 12:30 – 1:30 on Monday.  Please stop by if you would like to chat one-on-one or if your group needs some extra guidance.  No appointment necessary.

3. Gathering Sources – By the end of this week, you should have gathered the sources you plan to use for your Reflective Annotated Bibliography.  I recommend gathering more sources than you will need, so that you can eliminate any sources that end up not being quite right for the project.  Remember that all of your sources must address one or more of your Research Questions.  The three search modes I suggest are:

–Google  (Use this for finding sources aimed at general audiences.)

–Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/schhp?hl=en-US ).  You can use this to find scholarly sources.  However, you may encounter a paywall that will prevent you from accessing some of the documents that interest you.

–OneSearch This is the search system used at Baruch’s Newman Library.  I recommend that you use this tool to locate scholarly and other sources for your research.  Because CUNY is a subscriber to thousands of journals and other publications, you will almost always be able to access the full text of any sources that interest you.  Here is a very short tutorial that will help you get started with OneSearch.  You can also find lots of other information about how to find scholarly sources using OneSearch here.

***Please take a screenshot of your search results using OneSearch and email it to me at [email protected] before class on Wed., Nov. 18th.  Jot down any questions that arise during this process, and I will answer them during Wednesday’s class.

4. Reflective Annotated Bibliography (RefAnnBib). Select one of your sources to use to produce the first entry in your RefAnnBib.  It should be one that seems well-aligned with your research questions and fairly easy to understand.  Produce all five sections of the entry, and share it with me as a Google Doc by Friday, Nov. 20th.

5. Group Meeting. This week your groups should be moving ahead with plans for your project.

–Create a sub-folder inside our English 2100: Writing and Democracy folder that you can use to collect your bibliographic materials and other documents.

–Start brainstorming ideas for your symposium session.  What aspect of your topic do you want to focus on with the class?  What format will you use to make sure that your session is participatory?  (These are NOT lecture style presentations!!!). Your group will need to submit its idea to me before Thanksgiving.

–Make sure everyone is on track with finding sources and compiling RefAnnBib entries.

–Plan to meet with me if your group seems stuck or needs some help moving forward.

6. Op-Ed. Looking ahead to your Op-Ed assignment, take a look at these opinion pieces to get a better sense of the genre.  In a short (200 word) post, comment on either one of these articles or on another op-ed piece that you locate yourself (as long as it is something contemporary – from the last few weeks.). In your post, identify the central idea of the op-ed and discuss what you did or did not find effective about the piece.  Please share your post by Friday, November 20th.

1.Office Hours:  Those of you whose conferences were cancelled last Wednesday have the option of either visiting my office hours on Monday, November 9th between 12:30 and 1:30, when I will be meeting with people on a drop-in, first come-first served basis or emailing me ([email protected]) to schedule an appointment for an alternate date.   Those of you who simply didn’t show up for your scheduled appointments received zeroes for that portion of last week’s work, but are still welcome to meet with me.

2. Research Groups:  Here are the groups that you will be working with for your next major assignment.  If you submitted your preferences, you have been placed in one of your top choices.  If you failed to submit preferences, I have assigned you at random.  During our Zoom call on Wednesday, you will be receiving more information about this project!

CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Emely Aguero, Elijah Gonzales Viera, Asha Ighodaro, Rasheed Hall

POLICE REFORM:  Tachmia Hasham, Joel Batz, Rosalia Flores, Nevontae McDowell

CLIMATE CHANGE:  Joseph Hamed, Devrani Brahmanand, Oumar Diakrite, Brenda Cortes

IMMIGRATION:  Aamina Mohammed, Gabriela Aguilar Castillo, Guadalupe Perez, Cyrus Cruz

POVERTY:  Jose Perez, Thierno Diallo, Shamima Tahaminah

HEALTHCARE:. Kemara Gopeesingh, Jesus Medina, Anupa Gulab, Cheyenne Martinez

3. Research Project – First Step:  Now that. you have received your group assignment, your next step is to take an inventory of what you already know about your topic and what you hope to learn about your topic.  In a  400-500 word document shared as a Google Doc and placed in our shared folder (English 2100: Writing and Democracy), please respond to the following prompts.  Your answers should be composed in complete paragraphs (not in list form) and must be posted before class on Wednesday, November 11th in order to receive credit.  Please include your name and your topic in the name of your file!

–Why do you think this is an interesting and important topic?

–Please summarize what you already know about this topic.

–What are the three or four most significant aspects of this issue, in your opinion?

–What is your personal experience with or investment in this topic?  Why does it matter specifically to you?

–What are 3-5 important questions about your topic you’d like to see answered by your research? What would you personally like to learn?

4. Blog Post– This has been a momentous week for American democracy.  Please share a brief post to the blog reflecting on one major takeaway that you have had from watching the election and its aftermath unfold.  This could be an observation about the process, a report on your own feelings and thoughts, an image or headline that has stood out for you.  Has something surprised, moved, or angered you?  What do you think you will remember most about the 2020 elections?  Please share your post by Friday, November 13th.