All assignments are due on Blackboard at 11:59pm on the day, unless otherwise specified
Weds Aug 30: Course Survey due: Google Forms
Tues, Sept 5: Assignment #1: Interviews
Sun, Sept 10: Reading Response #1: Defining My Identity Through Language: What I Learned about Literacy Narratives
JTC: “Defining My Identity Through Language: What I Learned about Literacy Narratives” by Kim Liao
Please respond to the following questions, in about 300 words total:
*How does Liao define metacognition, and how does this term apply to writing a literacy narrative?
*Do you identify as hapa, as Liao describes the term? If so, how so? If not, why not?
*Describe one discourse community that you consider yourself to be a part of, and why.
Mon Sept 18: Initial Draft of Literacy Narrative
Major Project 1 / Literacy Narrative
This project situates you within the context of the course theme and 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 what you know about a certain subject––and how you came to know it. The project focuses very broadly on how the questions raised by our course theme of games and society. Work in this assignment ideally will scaffold into (build up to or relate to) your final project, the research-based argument.
- 1200 words MAXIMUM (1000 words minimm / about 4 to 5 double-spaced pages
- Attached to the final draft, a short Writer’s Cover Letter about your writing process and to help contextualize your work for your reviewers/writing group in the class
- 20% of course grade
The Assignment: Write a personal essay – in other words, you can use the first-person “I” – that tells a story about how you define yourself. Ultimately, you want to inspire fellow Baruch students to pursue that valuable form of literacy and lay a foundation for yourself to build upon at Baruch.
Remember to use specific, sensory details and dialogue to help you tell your narrative.
There are three options for how you can focus this essay. You can also mix and match.
- You may choose to write about your personal history of how you acquired literacy: financial literacy, business literacy, technological literacy, a combination of these or another form of literacy with which you may have had an interesting story.
- You may also choose to write about your experience of arriving at expertise in a particular discourse community. That might be a game community, a neighborhood community, the community of the people on your commute – the way you define your discourse community will be a part of the essay.
- You may choose to write about your experience of toggling among many identities, or juggling senses of self. Consider the idea of code-switching: taking on multiple identities in different scenarios.
In the spirit of concentrating on games and society, I recommend that you think about how you acquired literacy in a particular game, or a game that you created, or a way of viewing the world as a game. You might also think about how you acquired expertise in a game’s discourse community. Or, you might consider how games have require code-switching in your life.
- Note that this focus on games is optional. Whether or not you ultimately write about a game will not impact your grade.
You may aim to publish your essay in a Baruch student magazine such as Refract. See our Course Website for examples for essays in Refract that might serve as models.
Weds Sept 20 BEFORE CLASS: Post Literacy Narrative Draft (or excerpt) + Questions for Feedback to Discussion Board
DIRECTIONS:
- Title your post by your name and assignment name (e.g., “Adrienne Raphel, Research Project, Draft 1”).
- Upload a copy of your in-progress draft.
- OR — you may choose to upload an EXCERPT of your draft (that is, not the whole thing), if you prefer to share just a part of it. You will not be penalized for sharing only a portion of your essay.
- In no more than 200 words, explain what you want feedback on, why you want feedback on it, and any questions you have about where to go next with the draft (for example, “please let me know if the second to last section makes sense in connection to my main narrative,” “please let me know if my claims seem well supported by the evidence I provide,” “please let me know if my narrative uses specific details,” “please let me know if my introduction and conclusion seem to connect to the rest of the essay,” “please let me know if I’m doing too many direct quotes in ways that make it hard to read,” “please let me know if I need more direct quotes to give a clearer sense of the discourse community I’m discussing,” “please let me know if my sentences are too long and it is hard to read”).
- Optional: Email the professor separately to indicate if you have any reservations about reading your draft aloud or participating in peer response with classmates. You can opt out of reading aloud or participating. I do find it valuable to do both, as we will talk about in class, but there are good reasons for opting out that I understand (e.g., speech issues, writing about something highly personal). We can find an alternative, if need be (e.g., reading silently, I can require the whole class reads silently to ensure anonymity, partnering with me for peer response instead of other classmates, making requests for classmates you would be comfortable working with).
(Adapted from Prof. Libertz, Baruch College)
Tues Sept 26: Reading Response #2: Feedback and Writing as a Process
Reading: JTC: “Suffer Less: On Writing as a Process” (p. 19); “Shitty First Drafts” (p. 24)
Please respond to the following questions, in about 300 words total:
*What, in your words, is a “shitty first draft,” and why is it beneficial to write one?
*What is your own writing process like? Do you identify as a procrastinator, and why or why not?
*What are three specific aspects you found helpful from the peer feedback process in class? What did you learn when you responded to your classmates’ writing? What did you learn when you heard other people respond to your own writing?
Weds Oct 4: Final Literacy Narrative
Tues Oct 10: Media Representation
Please upload your response by the beginning of class on Tuesday, Oct. 10.
Find two different media representations of the same story. Some examples might include:
–An Instagram story and a TIME magazine article about a protest
–An article with lots of numbers and statistics in The Economist and an op-ed in The New York Times about the same election
–A professional photo in a newspaper and a TikTok meme depicting the same image
–An article about a boxing match in a sports section and the live footage of that same match
–A courtroom illustration versus a photograph
…. the choice is yours!
Give the links / text / video / URL / image.
Write at least a paragraph – or six to ten bullet points:
–What are the similarities? What are the differences?
–Use at least three of the key words we discussed in class: ethos / pathos / logos / audience / purpose / genre / media / constraints / exigence / kairos
READING:
*The terms we discussed are from our textbook, Join the Conversation, “Tools for Analyzing Texts” (p. 101)
*Teju Cole, “The Superhero Images of the Black Lives Matter Movement,” The New York Times Magazine, July 29, 2016
Mon Oct 23: Initial Draft of Analysis Essay
ENG 2100: Writing I
Fall 2023 | Prof. Raphel
ENG 2100: Writing I
Fall 2023 | Prof. Raphel
Major Project 2 / Analysis (note: this paper is 3-4 pages long, not 5-6pp, as originally noted)
Analyzing texts is a key skill for being a good reader and writer and forms one of the core goals of this course. It involves a number of processes that we do all the time intuitively but which you may never have thought of or which you may not be able to name. Such naming (and learning new ways to name) may be the most valuable part of education, and certainly vital to being able to maneuver within various discourse communities.
· 3-4 double-spaced pages (plus a Writer’s Cover Letter)
· 20% of course grade
Option #1: Choose one cultural artifact and write a 3-4 page essay that examines and analyzes that artifact’s rhetorical elements. Your essay should feature a central argument about how that artifact “works” in the world and influences people to think and act.
Option #2: Choose two cultural artifacts of the same medium and genre, but different content, and write a 3-4 page essay analyzing, comparing, and contrasting those artifacts’ rhetorical elements. Your essay should feature a central argument about the similarities and/or differences between the ways that the artifacts “work” in the world and influence people to think and act in certain ways.
Option #3: Choose two cultural artifacts of different media and genre, but similar content, and write a 3-4 page essay analyzing, comparing, and contrasting those artifacts’ rhetorical elements. Your essay should feature a central argument about the similarities and/or differences between the ways that the artifacts “work” in the world and influence people to think and act in certain ways.
Close reading:
You can (and should!) consider the cultural contexts of your artifact and you’re welcome to explore other perspectives on the issues you identify, but you should base your arguments primarily on your own thorough analysis of the artifact’s rhetorical elements, rather than relying on research. The next major assignment will involve more research.
Your essay must:
§ Articulate a main thesis
§ Consider the artifact’s medium, genre, and style
§ Analyze the artifact’s intended and actual audience, purpose, and subtext
§ Examine the techniques the artifact deploys to achieve that purpose, such as logos, ethos, and pathos
§ Evaluate the artifact’s evocation of and interaction with tropes, cultural metaphors, symbols, and stereotypes
§ Use at least one theoretical lens to evaluate the artifact. For examples – and these are not comprehensive! –– economic or social class, race studies, gender studies, sexual orientation/expression, ableism, posthumanism, ecocriticism, postcolonialism, deconstructionism, affect theory, psychological criticism, etc. You don’t need to explicitly reference a lens in your thesis, but you can.
Choosing a cultural artifact:
You should choose a cultural artifact that genuinely interests you and catches your attention. You can choose something you like, something you dislike and want to critique, or something you feel conflicted about.
Possible realms of cultural artifacts:
Advertisements or advertising campaigns
A clothing or furniture line or catalogue
Children’s books or toys
Photographs, paintings, or tattoos
Art – mural, sculpture, painting, ceramics, etc.
Photography
News articles
Political speeches
Songs or music videos
Video games
Board games, card games, word games, jigsaw puzzles
Films or television shows
Short stories, essays, or poems
Social media feeds
Weds Nov 8: Final Analysis Essay
Mon Dec 4: Initial Draft of Research Essay
Friday, Dec 15: Major Project 3 / Research Essay
Friday, Dec 15: Final Reflective / Writer’s Letter