Topic Proposal (mandatory before first conference)
During Unit 1 you’ll write a topic proposal to discuss with me in one-on-one conferences.
Assignment 1: Analysis (12% of course grade)
Three points (3%) each:
- Submit all writing on time (for Sept. 24-26 (proposal), Oct. 1 (750 words), and Oct. 10 (1,250 words) deadlines).
- Meet minimum length requirements.
- Directly analyze at least one piece of media.
- Complete and attend peer review.
Assignment 2: Literacy Narrative (15% of course grade)
Three points (3%) each:
- Provide a cover letter demonstrating how the draft has addressed revision tasks from Unit 1 and incorporated new material for Unit 2. Include in your cover letter a defense of your choices.
- Submit all writing on time (for Oct. 22-24 (500 new words), Oct. 1 (2,000 words), and Oct 10 (2,500 words) deadlines).
- Meet minimum length requirements.
- Incorporate auto-ethnographic narrative.
- Complete and attend peer review.
Assignment 3: Research-Based Argument (18% of course grade)
Three points (3%) each:
- Provide a cover letter demonstrating how the draft has addressed revision tasks from Unit 2 and incorporated new material for Unit 3. Include in your cover letter a defense of your choices.
- Submit all writing on time (for Nov. 12 (250 new words), Nov. 19-21 (annotated bibliography), Nov. 26 (3,500 words + abstract), Dec. 19 (final draft, 3,750 words) deadlines). Complete and attend peer review.
- Meet minimum length requirements. Off-topic writing or excessive quoting will reduce your grade.
- Incorporate substantive research, including at least four credible sources. The research is integrated with signal phrases as appropriate, using in-text citations and a work cited page. Write in MLA style.
- Have a controlling idea and/or central claim, developed from your research and writing from other units.
- Final draft is fully edited, proofread, and formatted. It is presented as a single document meant to be read in full—one that incorporates the genres of writing across units/assignments 1–3.
Annotated Bibliography (8% of course grade, completed during Unit 3/Assignment 3 process)
Four entries that contain the following:
- A full MLA-style bibliographic entry of the source.
- A set of key terms you have identified as most important from the source.
- A summary of the source’s content.
- A personal response to the material—what you think about it, its potential significance to your project, and what questions you’re left with after reading it.
- A collection of key quotations from the source.
- Borrowed sources: A list of the sources that THEY used (the author of the piece you’ve chosen) to write their work, taken from the essay and the sources it cites. Not ALL of them, just some key ones you might go to if you had more time and needed to make more connections.
Blogs (4% of course grade each, 28% total)
You’ll write seven short (min 250 words) blog entires during the semester. You can navigate to individual prompts for each blog on the course website.
One point (1%) each per blog:
- On time
- In full (beyond minimum length)
- On topic
- Responds with detail/specificity
Written Peer Review (4% each peer review session, 12% total)
In preparation for peer review, you’ll complete a response of at least 200 words per peer, including a brief online survey about their work.
Responses must make conscious efforts to help the peer, improve the assignment, and praise what works about it.
Multimedia Presentation of Your Research (7% of course grade)
In the spirit of the site Equality Archive (designed, curated, and edited by Professor Shelly Eversley of the Dept of English and Laurie Hurson of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Baruch) present your findings visually and multimodally on your course website/blog to the rest of the class at the end of the term. I also encourage you to submit your work for publication among the Baruch community and larger public in the intellectual and cultural journal Refract Mag (refractmag.com), a student publication at Baruch in the English Department.