Dear Students,

Welcome to English 2850.  I want to say hello and to alert you to an important change to the structure of our course.  Because of unusually high enrollment at Baruch this semester, there is simply not enough classroom space to accommodate all the courses that have been scheduled.  As a result, our class (and many others) has been shifted from a fully face to face modality to a hybrid modality.  What does this mean?  In practical terms, this means that, instead of meeting in person twice a week, we will only be meeting in person once a week, on Wednesdays from 2:55 – 4:35 in VC 6-118.   What will happen on Mondays?  On Mondays, rather than meeting in the classroom or having a regular 100 minute class over Zoom, you will be doing work independently.  This portion of the course will be asynchronous, meaning you can do it when it’s convenient for you, as long as you meet the assigned deadline.  Additionally, on Mondays between 2:55 and 4:35,  I will be holding drop-in sessions in my on-campus office and will be meeting with you individually and in small groups at various times over the course of the semester.  We will discuss this plan more at our first class, but for now, here are a few important things to know:

• Our first in-person class will take place on Wednesday, August 31st, 2:55 – 4:35 in VC 6-118.
• On Monday, August 29th, you can log-on to our class blog.   Once you log on to the blog, you will see instructions from me about your first assignment.  We will be using our blogs@baruch website rather than Blackboard for most of our communication over the course of the semester.
• The required textbook for our course is The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Martin Puchner, Ed.,  Third Edition,  Volumes D, E, F.   These three volumes are sold together as a package.  It is crucial that you buy or rent the Third Edition – which is not the most recent one available.  It is much cheaper than the fourth edition, available both new and used,  and contains the readings that you will need for our course.  Please get the books as soon as possible.  You will have reading assignments in the Norton Anthology every week.  I am pasting some additional information about the book at the bottom of this post.

If you have any questions at all about any of this, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected].   Feel free to respond to this email, just letting me know that you have received it and understand the plan.  I hope that you are finding ways to enjoy this last week of summer break and am really looking forward to our work together this semester!

See you soon!

Warmly,

Professor Sylvor