Syllabus

Writing I:

Identity and Representation

ENGLISH 2100 HMWB

Fall 2018

 

 

Professor Jennifer Sylvor

MW 9:55 – 11:35

17 Lex 1224

Office: VC 7-290, cubicle O

Office Hours: M 2:30 – 4:00 and by appointment

Email: [email protected] (the best way to reach me)

 

Course Blog: https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/eng2100hmwbfall18

 

Welcome to English 2100! This course is, first and foremost, an introduction to college writing. We will work together over the course of the semester to equip you with the skills you will need to be a successful writer in college and beyond. The theme of our work together this semester is “Identity and Representation.” This means that we will both be looking inward to gain a better sense of our own complex and multifaceted identities and looking outward to explore some of ways in which the elements of identity (gender, race, sexual orientation, class, nationality, ethnicity, religion, et al) find representation in cultural texts.

 

Central to this course is the difficult, yet satisfying and stimulating work of writing. There is no magic secret to becoming a more skilled writer; the only way to improve your writing is to write more.  Expect that you will be engaging in writing of one sort or another for the duration of the semester: either thinking about a writing project, composing drafts, responding to your peers’ writing, writing about things you’ve read or seen, exploring your own life experience through writing, posting to our class blog, and more….  Formal assignments include personal narrative, , rhetorical analysis, and research-based writing. The course will emphasize both the process and the product of essay writing. Every piece of good, successful writing undergoes an evolution and develops over time through reading, questioning, and careful editing. For this reason, you will learn how to develop, organize, draft, and revise your essays through the processes of critical reading, informal writing assignments, in-class workshops, self-analysis, peer review, and individual conferences with me.

 

This course is designed with the English Department’s learning objectives in mind. After completing ENG 2100, you should be able to:

  • Read and analyze texts critically.
  • Write your own texts critically, with an awareness of context, audience, and rhetorical conventions.
  • Identify and engage with credible sources and multiple perspectives.
  • Experience writing as a process involving multiple drafts, review by your writing community, revision, editing, and reflection.
  • Use conventions appropriate to audience, genre, and purpose. Adapt writing and composing conventions (including style, content, organization, document design, word choice, syntax, and grammar) to your rhetorical context. Join the Conversation – required  (available at the Baruch College Barnes and Noble bookstore)              Writing Center:  I will always be available to work with you on developing and executing ideas for your essays, reviewing writing mechanics, and revising and refining your work.  For additional support, you are encouraged to visit the Baruch College Writing Center in VC 8-185.  You can call 646-312-4012 to make an appointment or schedule an appointment at https://bc.mywconline.com. Your grade will be calculated as follows:Attendance and participation (including homework, blog posts, student-led discussion, and in-class writing)                                                                                                                                    20%Project #2 – Personal Narrative                                                                                               20%Project #4 – Digital Remix                                                                                                     15% Schedule: W 8/29            What is “Rhetorical Analysis?  In Join the Conversation (JTC), read “Introduction to Analyzing Texts” (pg. 11)M 9/3               Labor Day (no class) W 9/12             Analyzing Advertisements (Jack Solomon, “Masters of Desire”) W 9/19             No Class (Yom Kippur)M 9/24             Writers WorkshopW 9/26            Introduction of Project #2 – Personal Narrative W 10/3            Language and IdentityM 10/8             No Class (Columbus Day)       W 10/17          What is Intersectionality and what does it have to do with me? W 10/24          Writers’ Workshop W 10/31          Crafting a Successful Research Proposal – Read JTC pp.49-52.M 11/5             Engaging with Sources  – Andrea Lunsford and John Ruszkiewicz, “Finding Evidence” (JTC, pp. 53-62) W 11/14          ConferencesM 11/19           Conferences W 11/28          Introduction of Project #4 – Digital Remix     W 12/5            PresentationsM 12/10           Presentations
  • W 12/12          Presentations and Reflections
  • M 12/3             Studo Time
  • F   11/30          Project #3 – Analytical Research Paper – due by 5pm via turnitin.com
  • M 11/26           Writers’ Workshop
  • W 11/21          NO CLASS
  • M 11/12           Developing Project Ideas and Crafting a Bibliography
  • W 11/7             Research Proposal Due in Class
  • M 10/29           Introduction of Project #3 – Analytical Research Paper
  • Su 10/28          Project #2: Personal Narrative – Due by 5 pm via turnitin.com                    
  • M 10/22           More Intersectionality: Hari Ziyad, “My Gender is Black”, Latino Rebels, “Why I Chose Not to be Latinx”
  •                         Olena Hankivsky, “Intersectionality 101”
  • M 10/15           Identity and Affiliation: Nancy Mairs, “On Being a Cripple”
  • W 10/10          Identity and Affiliation: Eric Liu, “Notes of a Native Speaker”
  • M 10/1             Language and Identity            : Amy Tan, “Mother Tongue” and Gloria Andzaldua, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” (JTC)
  • F  9/28             Project #1: Rhetorical Analysis – Due by 5pm via turnitin.com
  • Richard Straub, “Responding – Really Responding – to Other Students’ Writing” (JTC, pp. 104-114)
  • M 9/17             Representation in Popular Culture, case study: “Master of None”
  •                         Anne Lamott, “Shitty First Drafts” (JTC, pp.94-96)
  • M 9/10             No Class (Rosh Hashanah)
  • W 9/5              Reading and Analyzing Images, Read “Tools for Analyzing Texts” (pp.17-33 in JTC), Introduction of Project #1 – Rhetorical Analysis
  • M 8/27            Introduction to Course
  • What follows is merely a preliminary schedule for the semester.  This schedule is intended to give you the broad parameters of our work over the course of the semester.  We will be adding readings and making changes as the semester progresses.  Please check the blog and our classroom whiteboard each day for changes and additions.
  • Project #3 – Analytical Research Paper                                                                                 25%
  • Project #1 – Rhetorical Analysis                                                                                             20%
  • Grading:
  • Accommodations Policy: Baruch College is committed to making individuals with disabilities full participants in its programs, services, and activities through compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990.  It is the policy of Baruch College that no otherwise qualified individual with a disability shall be denied access to or participation in any program, service, or activity offered by the university.  Individuals with disabilities have a right to request accommodations.  If you require any special assistance or accommodation, please let me know as soon as you can, ideally during the first three weeks of the semester.
  • Cheating is also a serious academic offense.   Examples of cheating include, but are not limited to: submitting essays or portions of essays written by other people, including friends and family; collaborating on an assignment without the explicit permission of the instructor; submitting an essay written for one course to another course without the explicit permission of both instructors; submitting work as one’s own that has been purchased or copied from a paper preparation service or website.  All work submitted in this course must be entirely your own!
  • Academic Integrity:  Plagiarism and cheating are serious academic offenses and will not be tolerated.  Plagiarism means presenting another author’s words or ideas without crediting them to their source.  When you include another author’s words in your work, whether from a printed source, from the internet, or from a live presentation, those words must appear in quotation marks and be properly cited.  When you include another person’s ideas in your work, you must indicate where you found those ideas, even if you are paraphrasing rather than quoting them.  If you have any questions at all about what constitutes plagiarism, please consult me.  Any work submitted for this course that has been plagiarized will receive a failing grade and be reported to the Dean.
  • Essays:  All written work will either be submitted at the beginning of class on its due date or submitted electronically via turnitin.com.  (I will be providing separate instructions for using turnitin.com.) Grades will be reduced at a rate of one half-grade a day for each day an essay is late.   Essays must be typewritten in 12 pt. type and double-spaced.   Informal writing assignments may be handwritten.  Late drafts will receive no feedback.   You will have opportunities to submit rewrites for most of our formal assignments, provided that you consult with me before embarking on the revision.
  • Blog: We will be making ample use of our class blog.  I will upload all handouts and assignments to the site.  We will be also be using the blog to share and comment on outside sources related to our theme.  If you have ideas about how we might make better use of this or other technology, please let me know.
  • Housekeeping:  You are welcome to eat breakfast in the classroom before our session begins, but once class starts, please limit yourself to beverages!  Be sure to take any trash with you when class is finished.  Should you need to leave the room during class for any reason, please try to minimize the disruption caused by your leaving and reentering the room.  If you take advantage of this “open door” policy (by taking a bathroom break during every class, for example), we will reevaluate and adjust the policy accordingly.
  • Technology:  I understand that some of you may choose to use laptops or other devices to take notes or to access assigned texts in class.  However, let me be clear:  there is absolutely no texting, no cell phone usage, and no internet use during class time.  If you fail to adhere to this policy, you will be asked to leave the room, and you will be considered absent for that session.
  • Participation:  This class cannot succeed without your participation.  I hope you will feel comfortable adding your voice to our classroom conversations on a regular basis.   Expect that you will periodically be asked to share your writing with the group and to offer feedback on your classmates’ writing.  Keep The Golden Rule in mind, and treat your classmates’ work with the same respect and consideration you’d like your own writing to receive.  We will undoubtedly be discussing sensitive issues in class; it’s important to we all commit to creating an open-minded, respectful space in our classroom community, so that we all feel comfortable participating.
  • Preparedness: It is your responsibility to come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings.   Please come to class with a hard copy of the text.  Additionally, you should come to each class with a pen and paper, prepared to complete in-class writing assignments.  On days when we’ve scheduled peer review, you will be asked to bring copies of your work to share with your peers.
  • Lateness:  Coming to class late is disruptive and disrespectful.  Three late arrivals will be treated at an unexcused absence.   Arriving more than 15 minutes late will be considered the same as an absence.
  • Students are responsible for all work covered in their absence.  To avoid being penalized for submitting late work, if you are absent on a day that something is due, you must submit the work electronically on the due date.  I will frequently give short term assignments in class (reading or writing due the following session) that will not appear on your syllabus or course blog.  Therefore, identify a classmate whom you can contact to find out what you’ve missed in the event of an absence.
  • Attendance:  Regular attendance and active participation are a critical part of this course and will affect your grade for the semester.  You are allowed two absences over the course of the semester, no questions asked.  Additionally, absences in observance of religious holidays are excused.   After two absences, each subsequent absence will result in a lowering of your final course grade by a “half step.”  (This means that an A becomes an A-, an A- becomes a B+ and so on.)  Students who accumulate 6 or more absences are subject to earning a grade of “F” for the course.  Students with perfect attendance will receive extra credit in the calculation of their final grade for the semester.
  • Course Policies:
  • Links to additional readings will be posted on our course blog.
  • Text: