ENG 2100: Writing I
Section HWFD • Fall 2021
3 credits
Professor:
Manon Hakem-Lemaire, Ph.D. Student in Comparative Literature at The Graduate Center
Email:
[email protected]
Class format:
Synchronous blended. You will do readings and complete some online activities on this site during the week. We will then debrief together every Friday at 10:30am EST.
Recurring Zoom link (meetings and office hours):
https://baruch.zoom.us/my/mhlemaire
Office Hours:
Fridays 11:30am EST (right after our meetings), or by appointment.
Textbook:
Join the Conversation, for purchase here ($25,99).
Course description
Required for all undergraduate degrees granted by Baruch College, Writing I is an intensive course introducing students to the conventions of academic writing and to writing as a means of discovery. The primary purpose of this course is to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. Students practice and share their written articulation of ideas as a community of writers and read a variety of intellectually challenging and thematically coherent texts in a range of genres. Throughout, the emphasis is on writing and communication skills as processes involving multiple steps, including drafting, discussion, revision, and re-thinking. The work of the class is conducted in classroom, small-group, and one-on-one sessions.
Learning outcomes
After completing ENG 2100 you should be able to:
- Critically analyze texts in a variety of genres: Analyze and interpret key ideas in various discursive genres (e.g. essays, news articles, speeches, documentaries, plays, poems, short stories), with careful attention to the role of rhetorical conventions such as style, tropes, genre, audience and purpose.
- Compose within academic writing contexts: Apply rhetorical knowledge in your own composing using conventions appropriate for academic writing contexts.
- Identify and engage with credible sources and multiple perspectives in your writing: Identify sources of information and evidence credible to your audience; incorporate multiple perspectives in your writing by summarizing, interpreting, critiquing, and synthesizing the arguments of others; and avoid plagiarism by ethically acknowledging the work of others when used in your own writing, using a citation style appropriate to your audience and purpose.
- Compose as a process: Experience writing as a creative way of thinking and generating knowledge and as a process involving multiple drafts, review of your work by members of your discourse community (e.g. instructor and peers), revision, and editing, reinforced by reflecting on your writing process in metacognitive ways.
- Use conventions appropriate to audience, genre, and purpose: Adapt writing and composing conventions (including your style, content, organization, document design, word choice, syntax, citation style, sentence structure, and grammar) to your rhetorical context.
Assessment
Weekly work
At the beginning of the semester, I create a spreadsheet with all my students’ names and all the requirements for the course (completing the Intro Survey, completing all the modules, completing both major assignments, communicating with me when you miss something). Every week, I will put check marks under your name as I see that you have completed the modules (I see this through your comments or participation in the Google Docs). I do not assess your weekly participation with a grade: I only acknowledge that you have participated. When you need to miss something, I will write it in my spreadsheet so that I do not count down your participation, as long as you tell me you’ll be missing (I don’t need to know why, no questions asked). When you miss a module, please make every effort to catch up on it later. They are very short but they do contain crucial information for your success in the mandatory Writing Program as well as in your academic career beyond this year. When you complete anything late, please let me know so I can put a check mark in my records.
Note: Baruch is a non-attendance taking institution, so I will not count your presence in the Friday meetings, but it is essential that you are present, as everyone will be asked to speak at least once per meeting and this is your weekly opportunity to hear me answer any questions and explain what is going on in the course.
Major assignments
There are three major assignments in this course:
1. Literacy Narrative, due Tuesday, October 12th
A literacy narrative is a personal narrative written in the first pronoun “I”. It allows you to approach course readings, and the questions that arise from them, from your own perspective and experiences. “Literacy” in this context means more than learning to read and write, it is your awareness: what you know about a certain subject and how you came to know it. Your narrative will focus on how the questions raised by our course readings relate to you and your life.
~ 1000 words
2. Rhetorical Analysis (builds into Assignment 3), due Monday, November 15th
A rhetorical analysis is a structured argument about a primary source (in this case, a text, but visual, auditive, and filmic analyses also exist) that breaks down its main rhetorical features and interpret their meaning. For example, you can critically analyze the use of language in a newspaper article and propose an interpretation of what that particular language does for the text. Is the language empathic, judgmental, or neutral? What meaning does it convey to the reader, and most importantly, how? A rhetorical analysis is often the first component of a full research paper, in which the opinions of scholars are added to your own. You are encouraged to pick a topic you are interested in enough to do further research on it for your final assignment. You will be given a list of texts to choose from and a choice of rhetorical organizers to help you build your rhetorical analysis.
~ 1000 words
3. Research-Based Argument Essay, due Monday, December 13th
The most important goal of the first-year writing program (and of college beyond that) is to make a shift from observation or summary to analysis and argument. To this end, you will need research and analytical skills that we will approach in this course. Building from your rhetorical analysis (Assignment 2), you’ll do further research and integrate two external sources into your essay, ultimately coming to a conclusion or claim (thesis) from your research and learning.
~ 2000 words
All assignments are to be sent to my email by 11:59pm on the date they’re due, saved as a Word document, using any template provided with the instructions. Please do not send a pdf. Extensions are not automatically granted and should be requested at least 48 hours before the due date.
I accept late assignments as long as you communicate with me to ask for an extension. I do not need to know why you need it, but please ask in advance of the due date.
Please bear in mind that extensions are more difficult to grant for the final assignment because of the due date for grades that we are given as instructors. This due date is not flexible, so we have to make sure that we can assess all students, of all courses, by that date. If you still need an extension in the last few days of the semester, please request it as soon as possible. Handing in “something,” even if it is not your best work or only partial work, is always better than not submitting.
Feedback and final grade
This course will focus on feedback rather than numbers. You will be given thorough feedback on both your assignments, consisting of margin comments, some line edits, and an overall assessment with advice on where to go next. In some occasions, you will also give and receive feedback in pairs.
A letter grade between A and F is required to qualify your overall work in the course and appear on your transcript. To determine this grade in collaboration with you, I will send you a self-assessment form to complete towards the end of the course in which you will tell me how you feel about your overall performance and the grade you believe you deserve. I will then compare your assessment with my records kept throughout the semester and award your final grade. Most of the time, students give a fair assessment of their own work and receive the grade they proposed, sometimes with a + or – (except for A+: A is the highest grade on CUNYFirst).
Ultimately, the goal to receive your desired grade is to be present in the course as much as possible, to hand in all your assignments, and to always communicate with me when you cannot be as present as you normally would or need support.
Mutual expectations
I expect you to participate as much as possible and always communicate with me when you have any impediments. Learning is a collaborative activity, and your participation is required to make class discussion as rich and diverse as possible. Please note that this section of the course requires you to have your camera on as the norm. Of course, you can momentarily turn it off if you need to leave during the meeting, or if you have technical issues, but please turn it back on as soon as possible so that we can have proper class interaction.
I want the class to be a safe space in which everyone feels comfortable contributing.
I ask that we all be respectful of one another and the wonderfully diverse opinions, ethnic backgrounds, gender expressions and sexual orientations, social classes, religious beliefs, and ethnicities among us. In the same spirit, written work in this course should employ inclusive language, which shows that the writer honors the diversity of the human race by not using language that would universalize one element of humanity to the exclusion of others. For example, use “men and women” or “people” instead of the generic “man”; use “they” or alternate “he” and “she” instead of the generic “he” to represent “all people.”
I will treat you with respect and will spend a good deal of time this semester giving you feedback on your writing for your major projects, commensurate to the amount of time you spend on your writing. I will read your weekly online posts, and while I may not respond to each one of them, I will assign each of them a participation/completion grade and will give you feedback on your posts at midterm and at the end of the semester, just like I’ll ask for your feedback over the semester.
Academic Integrity
I’ll expect you to compose your projects ethically, meaning that if you use the work of others you cite that work, and that all work in this course is original, composed for the first time for this course, and is entirely your own, to the degree that anything we write is entirely our own. All students enrolled at Baruch are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic honesty, as defined in the Baruch Student Handbook.
Plagiarism is presenting another’s ideas, research, or writing as your own, such as:
- Copying another person’s actual words without the use of quotation marks and footnotes (a functional limit is four or more words taken from another’s work);
- Presenting another person’s ideas or theories in your own words without acknowledgement;
- Using information that is not considered common knowledge without acknowledging the source;
- Plagiarism may result in a failing grade on a particular assignment, at the least, and, depending on the circumstances, a failing grade in the course. It is a serious offense that, if done knowingly and depending on the severity and other factors, can result in a failing grade (or worse) and a mark on your permanent academic record.
If you ever have any questions or concerns about plagiarism, please ask me. You can also check out the online plagiarism tutorial prepared by members of the Newman Library faculty at http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/help/plagiarism/default.htm and Baruch College’s academic integrity policy at http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/academic/academic_honesty.htm
Writing Support
As a writer you’ll want to seek feedback from many different readers. Writers at all levels of experience get feedback on their writing. Asking for and receiving feedback is not a sign of weakness and it does not equal weak writing; it’s actually a sign of wisdom and makes your writing much stronger. You’ll give feedback to and get feedback from your fellow writers in your writing groups in this class throughout the semester and at all stages of your projects. I also encourage you to get feedback on your writing from professional writing consultants (some of whom also teach first-year writing courses) at the Writing Center.
The Writing Center offers free, one-to-one (in-person and online) and small-group workshop writing support to all Baruch students. The Center’s consultants work collaboratively with you to deepen your writing and English language skills. At any step in the process, they’ll help you become a more confident and versatile writer. I encourage you to schedule your appointment well in advance of when your writing is due. You can schedule an appointment at: https://bc.mywconline.com/. Visit the Writing Center in NVC 8-185 or at the Newman Library Reference Desk, or log on to their website, writingcenter.baruch.cuny.edu, to learn more.
Accommodations
Baruch is committed to making individuals with disabilities full participants in the programs, services, and activities of the college community through compliance with Section 504 of the 8 Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. It is the policy of Baruch that no otherwise qualified individual with a disability will be denied access to any program, service, or activity offered by the university. Individuals with disabilities have a right to request accommodations.
If you require any accommodation, please contact the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities at [email protected], and let me know as soon as you can, ideally during the first two weeks of class. I encourage you to meet with me to co-design accommodations. For additional information check out the Student Disability Services webpage: https://studentaffairs.baruch.cuny.edu/student-disability-services/.
Withdrawing/Dropping the course
If you fall behind in the class for any reason, I encourage you to talk to me or consult an academic counselor. If you feel you must drop or withdraw from this course (and I hope you don’t find yourself in that situation), you must do so by the dates on the academic calendar: https://enrollmentmanagement.baruch.cuny.edu/registrar/academic-calendar/.
If you decide to withdraw/drop, please let me know. No questions asked. It just avoids me trying to get in touch with you and figuring out how to assess you, while in fact you may have left the course weeks earlier. As your instructor, it is my responsibility to care about your academic journey, so please just make sure I know about your decision and don’t wonder where you’ve been.