Writing II:
Setting the Table
ENGLISH 2150 JMWB
Spring 2024
Professor: Jennifer Sylvor
Contact: jennifer.sylvor@baruch.cuny.edu
COURSE BLOG: https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/eng2150sp24sylvor
CLASS SESSIONS: Mondays and Wednesdays, 12:25 – 2:05 C- Newman 108
OFFICE HOURS: Mondays 11-12 and by appointment, NVC 7-290, cubicle “O”
Welcome to English 2150. I am looking forward to getting to know you and working together over the next several months as we continue to develop your skills and confidence as a reader and writer. This syllabus is a document designed to let you know how our course will work, what you can expect from me, and what I will be expecting from you in English 2150. It contains important information that you may want to refer back to, so please hold on to this document. You can also find the syllabus on our course blog (under the tab marked “syllabus” at the top of the screen).
As you know, English 2150 is the second semester of Baruch’s two-semester First Year Writing sequence. This semester you will continue to develop and expand many of the skills and practices you established in English 2100. 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 THEME:
The theme of our work together this semester is “Setting the Table.” Our reading, writing, and research will all be related in one way or another to the subject of FOOD. Food is at once the most universal theme (we all need food to survive) and the most personal and complex. Some of the questions we will be considering this semester include:
- What role does food play in the construction of our identities?
- How are food and memory intertwined?
- What ethical or moral issues does our consumption of certain foods raise?
- What is the future of food?
- What kinds of foods are representative of our own families, neighborhoods, or communities?
- What does hunger look like in our communities?
- How do cultures distinguish between foods that are allowed and those that are taboo?
- What messages does our culture send about food and morality through its messaging around nutrition, body image, and appetite?
- What are the environmental implications of our 21st century food production?
- What do we make of some of the food media that are particularly popular right now?
- Where does our food come from? What is its history?
These questions just scratch the surface. My hope is that, as we delve more deeply into these issues, you will find food-related topics that speak directly to you and questions that will guide your own research and learning.
MAJOR PROJECTS
The following are your major formal assignments for English 2150. I will be providing you with detailed instructions for each of them over the course of the semester.
Project 1: Personal Narrative
This project situates you within the context of the course theme by asking you to explore your own identity through the prism of food. This might involve sharing a story in which food figures prominently, describing your own culinary identity, or using food to understand a central relationship in your own life.
Project 2: Review
For this assignment, you will be crafting a review of a restaurant, food purveyor, or other dining experience. This will be an opportunity to think about audience, purpose, tone, and other important aspects of your writing.
Project 3: Research-Based Writing
This project will involve a “deep dive” into a food-related topic or question that you personally find compelling. This might mean delving into the political, historical, or cultural implications of a particular food, trying to comprehend a contentious or controversial issue more fully, or seeking a deeper understanding of some aspect of our own food world or experience. The most important thing is to find something that you truly connect to as a researcher – whether it’s the history of school lunches, the meaning of “food tik tok”, or the labor conditions of food delivery workers.
Project 4: Digital Re-Mix
This final project of the semester will involve multi-modal composition. This means that it will be a project designed for a digital space, rather than a traditional essay. Your project will probably involve some writing, but it also might include audio, video, photography, or other modes of composition. Your task here is to take something that you have worked on earlier in the semester, take it off the page, and translate it into a multi-modal, digital context. You will use one of your first three projects as the jumping off point for this Digital Re-Mix.
Additional Work:
In addition to the major projects, you will have informal assignments each week. These assignments will be discussed in class and posted to our class blog. These may include:
–posting to our course blog
–planning and facilitating parts of class discussion
–collecting sources to enrich our exploration of our topic
–offering feedback to your peers
–reading and annotating assigned texts
Your sustained effort in all of these areas is just as important as the major projects!
Attendance: The film director Woody Allen is credited with saying, “80% of success is showing up!” I’m not sure about the precise percentage, but I do agree with him that consistent attendance is a necessary part of academic success. Your presence at each class session is the most vital component of our work together. Please leave yourself plenty of time to get to class. If, for some reason, you are unable to attend class due to illness or a family emergency, please reach out to me before class to let me know you will be absent. You are responsible for all work assigned for the course. If you are absent on a day that an assignment is due, you must submit the work electronically on the due date in order for it to be considered “on time”. I will frequently give short term assignments in class (reading or writing due the following session) that may not appear on your syllabus or course blog. Therefore, at the beginning of the semester, identify a classmate whom you can contact to find out what you’ve missed in the event of an absence, and exchange contact information with him/her.
Preparedness: It is your responsibility to come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings. Please come to class either with a hard copy of the assigned text or the ability to access it electronically. Additionally, you should come to each class with a pen and paper, prepared to complete in-class writing assignments.
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 that we all commit to creating an open-minded, respectful space in our classroom community, so that we can all feel comfortable participating.
Technology: I understand that some of you may choose to use laptops or tablets to take notes or to access assigned texts in class. However, there is absolutely no texting, no cell phone usage, and no extra-curricular 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.
Housekeeping: You are welcome to eat lunch 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.
Blog: We will be making ample use of our class blog. (This course does not rely on Blackboard at all!) I will upload all handouts and assignments to the site, so please get in the habit of checking the blog regularly for announcements and assignments. We will also be using the blog to share and comment on outside sources related to our theme. You have been added as a co-author of this site; I hope you will use the platform to share ideas and resources.
Essays: Our formal essays and other written assignments will be submitted electronically using Google Docs. Please be sure that you can access Google Docs.
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; using an AI platform like ChatGPT to generate writing for you. 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. Individuals with disabilities have a right to request accommodations. Students with disabilities who may need some accommodation in order to fully participate in this class should contact Student Disability Services as soon as possible at disability.services@baruch.cuny.edu or call 646/312-4590.
If you require any special assistance or accommodation, regardless of whether or not you have been in touch with Student Disability Services, please let me know as soon as possible, so that we can discuss how best to help you be comfortable and successful in our course.
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.
Grading: Grading for this course will happen in a somewhat non-traditional way. Over the course of the semester, I will be keeping track of your attendance, class preparation and participation, and homework and in-class assignments, and I will be giving you detailed feedback on your written work. However, I will not be assigning grades to your essays or other work. At the end of the semester, as part of a broader process of reflection, you and I will agree on a final grade for the course that reflects your effort, learning, and overall performance over the course of the semester.
I am embracing this approach in an effort to de-emphasize grades and keep our focus where it belongs – on learning. You will be my partners in this effort. This approach (sometimes called “ungrading” or “collaborative grading”) doesn’t mean that this course will be “easy” or that you don’t need to take it seriously, but it does mean that you have full control over the grade you will earn in this course. Your grade will reflect the seriousness and attention you give to the course, including factors like attendance, participation, and the consistency and quality of your effort. Please feel free to reach out with any questions you have about this policy or the thinking behind it. This policy should lessen your stress, not add to it; if you feel anxious about how you are doing in the class, you can always reach out to me to discuss your progress! You will also have an opportunity to assess your work for the class in a mid-semester reflection; this will give you a chance to check in and plan for any “course corrections” you might want to make during the second half of the semester to achieve your goals for the course.
If you are curious about the research behind this approach, I have shared some links on the blog that may be of interest to you. You can find them at the top of our home page, under the “Grading” tab.
In order to pass English 2150, you MUST complete all four of the Major Assignments (Personal Narrative, Review, Research Project, and Creative Re-Mix).
