Welcome to 2150! This is the second of a two-course sequence in the Pathways Required Core designed to equip you with critical thinking and analytical writing skills. The theme of our course will be writing and music.
Readings will come from a wide range of times, places, and situations, including creative nonfiction, magazine articles, podcasts, music videos, songs, and documentaries, and we will consider both who the intended audience might be and why the author chose the specific words in the specific order that they did. The different contexts of each assigned reading will bring to light a range of rhetorical choices, and by considering these, you will expand your ability to summarize, analyze, argue, research, and think critically. You will write your own critical analysis and research essay, and create your own multimedia remix of your research.
The main work of the course is to deepen your thinking and writing, and to learn revise your work effectively. Writing will be viewed as a process, so drafts will be submitted and worked on before each final essay is submitted.
Mode of Instruction:
We will meet on Zoom each Tuesday. On Thursdays, you will have readings and assignments due, and will sometimes need to meet with classmates for group work.
Students who enroll in this section should be aware that they will be expected to keep their Zoom videos on in every Tuesday class session to facilitate participation. Occasional technical glitches will be excused. Students who do not want to keep their Zoom videos on should enroll in a section of this course that does not require on-camera participation. Students who enroll in this section but do not participate on-camera will be advised to drop the course or change sections.
Each student will need to create a google drive folder for this class and to share access to the folder with me. This folder is where you will post all of your essays over the course of the semester. Please title the folder with your name and ENG2150.
Texts:
- This is a Zero Textbook Cost Course. All required readings will be posted on the course site with links in the weekly schedule. If you have trouble accessing any of the links, contact me promptly, before any related assignment is due.
- Please utilize this website for MLA citation and formatting guidelines: The Online Writing Lab from Purdue University: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
Grade Scale
This course follows the college-wide grading scale posted on the College website:
| A = 93 to 100 | B = 83 to 86 | C = 73 to 76 | D = 60 to 66 |
| A- =90 to 92 | B- = 80 to 82 | C- = 70 to 72 | F = below 60 |
| B+ = 87 to 89 | C+ = 77 to 79 | D+ = 67 to 69 |
Manners
Please always be respectful to your classmates when communicating either on video chat or in writing. Do not eat during synchronous class sessions, and raise your hand if you need to ask a question.
You are always welcome to email me with any questions or concerns, but please be advised that you can expect a reply within 24-48 hours, not immediately.
Accessible Participation
It is college policy to provide accommodations and academic adjustments for students with disabilities. Any student with a disability who may need accommodations in this class is requested to speak directly to Student Disability Services as early in the semester as possible. All discussions will remain confidential. Please email [email protected]
For additional information:
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/facultyhandbook/DisabilitiesInformation.htm
Writing Center
The Writing Center offers free, one-to-one writing support to all Baruch students. The Center’s consultants work collaboratively with you to deepen your writing and English language skills. At any step in the process, they’ll help you become a more confident and versatile writer. I encourage you to schedule your appointment well in advance of when your writing is due. You can schedule an appointment at: https://bc.mywconline.com/ or log on to their website, writingcenter.baruch.cuny.edu, to learn more.
***If you visit the writing center at any stage in the process of developing any of the three major essays, your grade will automatically be raised a step (a B becomes a B+, or a B+ becomes an A- for example). You may visit them for each and every essay if you wish, and you will receive this benefit each time.***
Major Assignments:
**All essays should be double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font, with 1” margins on the left and right.**
How do I submit? All essays should be placed in your google folder on or before the due date. If you wish to ask for an extension on an essay, you may do so once over the course of the semester; these requests must be made in advance of the due date. All weekly posts should be published directly to our course website.
Social Commentary Group Presentation
~ 500-800 words words; 2-3 pages double-spaced
10% of course grade
Analysis Essay
~800-1200 words, 3-5 pages double-spaced
15% of course grade
Research Project
Research-Based Argument Essay
~ 3500 words; 9-10 double spaced pages
30% of course grade
Creative Remix of Research Project
20% of course grade
Writing component: 4 double spaced pages
Weekly Reading/Writing
Weekly written responses to course readings; ~ 400 words each
15% of course grade
Participation
This includes engaging verbally in class, actively participating in group work during breakout sessions, emailing me proactively with questions, turning in your work on time, exerting effort in your peer reviews, and commenting on classmates’ blog posts. Not everyone is naturally talkative, and that’s fine—I have provided multiple ways to demonstrate active engagement, and everyone should be able to excel in at least a few of these.
10% of course grade
Course Outcomes
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.
What if I need to drop the course?
If you feel you must drop or withdraw from this course, you must do so by the dates on the Baruch College academic calendar. Merely ceasing to attend class is not the same as dropping or withdrawing; dropping and withdrawing are separate, formal administrative procedures. Dropping is officially removing the course from your schedule within the first three weeks of class with no grade of W appearing on your transcript; withdrawing is officially removing the course from your schedule any time between weeks 3 and 11, and as a result, receiving a permanent “W” on your transcript for the course. If you’re having difficulty in the class for any reason, I encourage you to let me know before withdrawing.
Plagiarism and Academic Integrity
Do not plagiarize or cheat.
As described on Baruch’s website, plagiarism is the act of presenting another person’s ideas, research or writing as your own, such as:
- Copying another person’s actual words without the use of quotation marks and footnotes (a functional limit is four or more words taken from the work of another)
- Presenting another person’s ideas or theories in your own words without acknowledging them
- Using information that is not considered common knowledge without acknowledging the source
Tutorial on plagiarism:
Newman Library Plagiarism Tutorial
Baruch College’s academic integrity policy: http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/academic/academic_honesty.html
Further resources:
For help with editing and citations, I recommend Purdue Owl: (owl.english.purdue.edu)
For grammar questions, I suggest the Grammerly blog: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/category/handbook/