Course Description
In this course, the second semester required writing course at Baruch, you will develop your ability to read, write, and think critically. One of the most important abilities you’ll develop over the course of your studies (and hopefully throughout your life) is the ability to discern how the way we think is shaped by language and other semiotic codes such as sound and images. This course will ask that you think critically about the arguments of others and in turn develop and communicate your own ideas and arguments.

The guiding questions and focus of the course are: How does persuasion happen? What are the sources of persuasion? How can rhetoric be used to divide and also to bring people together? How do rhetorical elements such as language, images, emotion, and logic work to shape our identity, our beliefs, and our everyday realities, particularly involving race, language, and identity. We’ll explore, for example, questions such as: What does it mean to be “white,” to be “black,” to be “Asian”? Since only one “race” exists among humans—the human race—why do racial categories exist? How have they served the interests of certain groups and disempowered others? What is the relationship between race, language, and identity? How is the concept of race changing at the current moment in the U.S.?

We will explore these questions by engaging with a variety of textual genres: web-based texts and videos, film, fiction and non-fiction, and academic articles. We will analyze how others use rhetoric to make arguments and then we will engage in a research project in which we explore how the questions we raise during part I of the course apply to your and your family racial and ethnic identities and histories. Finally, you will remix or remediate your research project into a creative, multimedia project.

This course is designed to be a gateway of exploration for further writing and research you will do in your courses at Baruch. I invite you to open your mind, be ready to engage with me and your classmates, and expand your thinking about what it means to be a good writer this semester.

Course Goals

After completing ENG 2150, 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.
• Use a variety of media to compose in multiple rhetorical situations: Apply rhetorical knowledge in your own composing using the means of persuasion appropriate for each rhetorical context (alphabetic text, still and moving images, and sound), including academic writing and composing for a broader, public audience using digital platforms.
• 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.