Writing and Displacement
ENGLISH 2150 HMWS
Spring 2020
Professor Jennifer Sylvor
MW 9:55 – 12:00
VC 13-160
Office: VC 7-290, cubicle O
Office Hours: W 1-2:30pm and by appointment
Email: [email protected] (the best way to reach me)
Course Blog: https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/eng2150sp20sylvor
Welcome to English 2150! This course will be at once a continuation of English 2100’s introduction to college writing, research, and analytical practices AND an exploration of the concept of “displacement” through literature, journalism, photography, film, and our own lived experiences. What happens when we move from the places we are most rooted and most comfortable into places that are new, strange, and unfamiliar? We will be reading, writing, and thinking about “displacement” as both a literal phenomenon AND a metaphoric one.
Central to this course is the difficult, yet satisfying and stimulating work of writing. Formal assignments include personal narrative, textual analysis, analytical research, and multi-modal composition. 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. While the schedule below includes due dates for your formal essays, expect that you will be working on your writing in and out of class, in an ongoing way, all semester long.
After completing ENG 2150 you should be able to:
- Analyze texts critically 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.
Course Policies:
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.
Lateness: Coming to class late is disruptive and disrespectful. Three late arrivals will be treated at an unexcused absence. Please leave yourself plenty of time to get to class!
Preparedness: It is your responsibility to come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings. Please come to class with a hard copy of any material we will be discussing that day. 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.
Participation: This class cannot succeed without your participation. I will do my best to foster an atmosphere of respect, support, and open-mindedness in the classroom and expect you to do the same. 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.
Technology: While class is in session, we will generally not be using cell phones, laptops, or tablets. When we are discussing readings or working on our own drafts, we will be working with hard copies. If, for some reason, you need to access your phone during class time, you can do so during our break. If you fail to adhere to the “no cell phones” policy, you will be asked to leave the room, and you will be considered absent for that session.
Blog: Please bookmark our blog address: https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/eng2150sp20sylvor
We will be making ample use of our class blog. I will upload all handouts and assignments to the site. You have already been registered as an “author” on the blog and will be creating posts of your own as well as commenting on your classmates’ posts. We will also be using the blog to share and comment on outside sources related to our theme. Please get in the habit of checking the blog regularly. If you have ideas about how we might make better use of this or other technology, please let me know.
Texts: You do not have to purchase any books for this course. Links to readings are available under the “readings” tab on our course blog. You will need to download and print all required reading.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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 send an e-mail to [email protected].
Grading:
Your grade will be calculated as follows:
Preparation and Participation (including homework, group work, and in-class writing) 25%
Project #1 Personal Narrative 15%
Project #2 Textual Analysis 20%
Project #3 Analytical Research Project 25%
Project #4 Creative Re-Mix 15%
Schedule:
What follows is a tentative schedule for the semester. Expect that we will be modifying the schedule as the semester progresses.
M 1/27 Introductions, Diagnostic Essay
W 1/29 Amy Tan, “Mother Tongue”, Richard Rodriguez, “The Hunger of Memory” (excerpt)
M 2/3 Andre Aciman, “Shadow Cities”
W 2/5 Andre Aciman, “Shadow Cities”, Mohja Kahe, “My Grandmother Washes Her Feet in the Sink of the Bathroom at Sears”
M 2/10 Writers’ Workshop
W 2/12 College Closed – No Class
M 2/17 College Closed – No Class – Essay #1 Due by Midnight (electronic submission) W 2/19 Jhumpa Lahiri, “The Third and Final Continent”
M 2/24 Mohsin Hamid, “Of Windows and Doors”
W 2/26 Mohsin Hamid, “Of Windows and Doors”
M 3/2 Z.Z. Packer, “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere”
W 3/4 Z.Z. Packer, “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere”
M 3/9 Writers’ Workshop
W 3/11 Brock Dethier, “Revising Attitudes”
Su 3/15 Essay #2 due by Midnight (electronic submission)
M 3/16 Introduction of Analytical Research Project/ Displacement in Popular Culture
W 3/18 Displacement in Popular Culture
M 3/23 Displacement in American History – 1619 Project (New York Times)
W 3/25 1619 Project (New York Times)
M 3/30 Research Session – location tba
W 4/1 Conferences
M 4/6 Drafts Due – Analytical Research Project- Writers’ Workshop
W 4/8 Spring Break
M 4/13 Spring Break
W 4/15 Spring Break
M 4/20 Introduction to Creative Re-Mix
W 4/22 Writers’ Workshop
Su 4/26 Essay #3 Due by Midnight (electronic submission)
M 4/27 Creative Re-Mix Proposals Due – Film (tbd)
W 4/29 Global Migration – What does it mean to be a refugee?
M 5/4 Conferences
W 5/6
M 5/11
W 5/13 Creative Re-Mix Presentations
