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ENG 2150: Writing II

Section S2CA (1180) |  Summer 2020 | Online

Professor:  Seth Graves, Department of English

Office Hours:  Thursdays 1-3 and by appointment

Email: [email protected]

Slack Member ID: U016JJX00M8

Click here to make a conference appointment.

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Table of Contents

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About This Course

Introduction

The purpose of this course is to improve your critical thinking and writing skills. One of the most important abilities you’ll develop over the course of your studies (and hopefully throughout your life) is the ability to discern how the way we think is shaped by language and other semiotic codes such as sound and image. This course will ask that you think critically about the arguments of others and in turn develop and communicate your own ideas and arguments.

To do so, we will make our way through a series of assignments that build on each other, quite quickly, over the course of five weeks. I must stress the course’s short timeframe at the outset, and emphasize that, although primarily asynchronous, this course is extremely fast-paced and requires an almost daily investment from July 13th to August 13th. Consider this: If we were still meeting face-to-face in a classroom at Baruch College, we would meet for 2.5 hours M-Th for five weeks, and you would have work to do outside of the classroom as well. That said, prepare to encounter the feeling that this course is tapping on your shoulder for at least two hours per day, and that you will need to write upwards of 5-6 pages of material per week.

At the outset of this course, I believe it good advice to remind you that there is no end to the process of bettering your own personal writing technique. That said, this course will stress the editing of your writing by both me and your peers. For each of the assignments you will receive feedback from me, and along the way towards those assignments you’ll receive feedback from peers on Blogs and in discussion.

Additionally, for each of the three major written assignments, you will have an opportunity to resubmit them for grade reconsideration in an end-of-term portfolio.

The guiding questions and focus of this course are: How does art imitate life, and how does life imitate art? How do the things people make—from paintings to products—comment on the places, times, and feelings around them? How does persuasion happen? How can rhetoric be used to divide and also to bring people together? How do rhetorical elements such as language, images, emotional, and logic work to shape our identity, our beliefs, and our everyday realities?

We will explore these questions under the thematic umbrella of searching for the “microcosms” in our lives, cultures, and societies: little worlds that mean more than themselves, little events that function as metaphors for something larger. You’ll explore the representation of microcosms in a variety of textual genres that attempt to capture them: web-based texts and videos, film, fiction and nonfiction, and academic articles. You’ll first write an analysis of some of these works. You’ll conduct research on one of your own. Finally, you will remix or remediate your own work into a creative, multimedia project.

This course is designed to be a gateway of exploration for further writing and research you will do in your courses at Baruch. I invite you to open your mind, be ready to engage with me and your classmates, and expand your thinking about what it means to be a good writer this semester.

Weekly Modules

Modules are subsections of the Blogs @ Baruch site (if you are viewing this syllabus in your browser, then this site is where you currently are) that contain all of the interactive material for each week of the course.  Each week has its own module, and each module will launch on Monday morning at 8am during the five weeks of this course.

Complete (1) each module, including its short writing or exercise activities by 5pm on Tuesday and (2) a blog post by 12pm noon on Wednesday each week.

Quick tip:
Pace yourself to meet your deadlines. You cannot complete the modules if you wait too late to begin.

Course Objectives

After completing ENG 2150, you should be able to:

1. Critically analyze texts in a variety of genres: Analyze and interpret key ideas in various discursive genres (e.g. essays, short stories, films, speeches, journal articles, news articles, documentaries, speeches) with careful attention to the role of rhetorical conventions such as style, tropes, genre, audience and purpose.
   
2. 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.
   
3. Identify and engage with credible resources 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.
   
4. Compose as a process: Experience writing as a creative way of thinking and generating knowledge and as a process involving multiple d rafts, 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 way.
   
5. 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.
   
6. Foster classroom culture in an online environment: meet new people, maybe make friends, get to know one another, and provide each other with a helping hand as the course progress.

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Course Organization

This course is taking on a mostly asynchronous model (as in, not meeting live very often as a class; students choose their own times to work towards class deadlines). It will include some synchronous moments, including class-wide and one-on-one Zoom meetings to discuss coursework. Class-wide Zoom meetings will be recorded and posted on the course website. If you have any concerns about Zoom recordings and your consenting to them, please contact me ASAP and we can discuss your options.

If you miss a Zoom session, you will need to view the session recording and type up a session review response (linked in each week’s module).

Quick Tip: Attending the Zoom meetings will mean that you don’t have to worry about typing up a session review response. That’s an ideal situation for us all, so please try to make it to them!

Schedule

Find the schedule in the top menu or click here to access is directly. Use the schedule to keep track of your deadlines for progress on modules and assignments.

Quick tip:
Monitor the schedule very closely, and keep track of your deadlines. This class will move quickly in its condensed five-week form.

Weekly Rhythm

Mondays

• New modules go live at 8am.
• Assignments 1, 2, and 3 are due at noon on Mondays (of weeks 3, 4, and 5).
• Use Mondays to begin each week’s module, ask questions, and communicate with the class.

Tuesdays

• Modules are due by 5pm.
• Work on your Blog, due tomorrow by noon.

Wednesdays

• Post your Blog by noon.
• Post Comments on at least 5 of your peers’ Blog posts by noon Thursdays. Prioritize blog posts that have not received feedback.
• Use Wednesdays to work on your core assignments (weeks 2-5).

Thursdays

• Blog Comments are due by noon.
• Join class Zoom meetings from 4:30 to 5:30pm
  • Note: if you cannot attend, view the meeting recording and submit a session review response.

Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays

Remember that you will have a core assignment due on Monday at noon at the start of weeks 3, 4, and 5.

Conferences

During weeks 2-5, you will be required to meet with me for one-on-one conferences for a total of twice during the course period. You can go to this Calendly scheduling page to make conference appointments. We will use this scheduling program to find a time that works for both of us to meet online, either on Zoom or Google Meet.

Quick Tip:
These one-on-one conferences are very important moments in the class, where we get the chance to connect and talk about your work. It is absolutely essential that you sign up for them and show up to them on time. To those ends, punctual attendance counts as 5% of your total grade.

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Grades

Grading Breakdown

Conferences (2)	5% course grade
Week 1
Completion of Module 1	5% course grade
Blog and Comments for Week 1	5% course grade
Week 2
Completion of Module 2	5% course grade
Blog and Comments for Week 2	5% course grade
Core Assignment 1: Rhetorical Analysis	15% course grade
Week 3
Completion of Module 3	5% course grade
Blog and Comments for Week 3	5% course grade
Core Assignment 2: Inquiry Paper	15% course grade
Week 4
Completion of Module 4	5% course grade
Blog and Comments for Week 4	5% course grade
Core Assignment 3: Multimodal Remix Project	10% course grade
Week 5
Completion of Module 5	5% course grade
Blog and Comments for Week 5	5% course grade
Final Portfolio Cover Letter	5% course grade

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Web Platforms

Blogs @ Baruch

That’s where we are now. This is the main site for viewing course modules and information.

Google Docs (for writing)

You’ll write and submit drafts of your core assignments in Google Docs, keep them in Google Drive folders, and submit them by sharing a link with me and/or your classmates.

Assignment submission: Please submit assignments by “sharing” them with me on Google Docs and making sure the share settings are on “can comment” or “can edit” (and not just “can view”).

Email (for emailing me or each other)

You can email me at any time—but I’m not likely to get back to you after 7pm most days, and will be delayed in returning your emails on weekends. If you email me in the evening or on the weekends, please do not send me a reminder to get back to you until at least 24 hours after your first email. My email address is [email protected].

Slack

Slack is basically fancy texting, for messaging the whole class, select peers, or me—or for discussing ongoing topics.

Click here to access the course Slack group. You can use Slack to join conversation topics organized by hashtags and post to the whole class, individually message people in the class, and message me. The Slack app is available for both desktop (PC and Mac) and smartphone/tablet (MacOS and Android) (click here to download—the link should automatically detect what system you are using). Communicating via Slack is a requirement of this course.

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Reading

• Much of the reading for this course will be the writing of your classmates, such of viewing Blog posts.
• Other readings will be posted in modules on this Blogs @ Baruch website.
• For information about grammar, style, editing, and citations, use the Purdue OWL website as your reference. It is the industry standard for these concerns.

Quick Tip:
Much of the reading will be based on what you encounter as you explore your topic. Assignments and activities will ask you to search and discover writing in conversation with your ideas. Just always remember that it is essential that you cite that work properly are clear about where information and ideas came from.

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Assignments

Core Assignments

• Core Assignment 1: Rhetorical Analysis of a Cultural Artifact (min 2,000 words, 15% course grade)
• Core Assignment 2: Inquiry Paper (min 2,000 words, 15% course grade)
• Core Assignment 3: Multimodal Remix Project (10% course grade)

These assignments will form a large bulk of your intellectual work in the course. It’ll be where you use and hone your writing skills, and participate in the writing process. Expect to spend a significant amount of your overall time in this course on these projects, starting in Week 2.

Completing Modules

On each page a week’s module, you’ll often be asked to Comment at the bottom of the page before moving on. This is how I will mark you as having completed the module for your grade.

• In order to get counted for completing a Module, you must have responded to all Comment prompts in the module.
  
• To count, Comments must be: 
  • (1) on topic, and 
  • (2) at least three coherent sentences long (unless the prompt specifically asks you to do something else).
    
• Please write your Comments in complete sentences (don’t spit out short comments like “yep”).
  
• Comments should offer meaningful participation—an attempt to engage with what’s being asked and/or what’s been said so far in the Comments.
  
• Comments that offer no meaningful participation (i.e. are not on topic, are not complete or readable ideas) will not count, and will negatively impact your grade.

Blogs and Comments

Each week you’ll receive a new Blog prompt. Blog entires are due each Wednesday at noon. Post them on our class Blogs @ Baruch site (this site) after you’ve logged in. Make sure to select under “Category” the Blog number (1-3) you are writing.

Then each week by the next day, Thursday at noon, you’ll need to write Comments on at least 5 peers’ blogs.

• Just as above in the Module, to count, Comments must be: 
  • (1) on topic, and 
  • (2) at least three coherent sentences long.
    
• Please write your Comments in complete sentences (don’t spit out short comments like “yep”).
  
• Comments should offer meaningful participation—an attempt to engage with what’s being asked and/or what’s been said so far in the Comments.
  
• Comments that offer no meaningful participation (i.e. are not on topic, are not complete or readable ideas) will not count, and will negatively impact your grade.

The rubric for blogs is as follows (Blog Comments are included in this grade):

• Meet the length requirements (1 point)
• Answer the prompt/on topic (1 point)
• Utilize specificity in details and information (cited) (1 point)
• Leave meaningful Comments on peers’ Blogs (2 points)

Total: 5 points each week

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FAQ

Can you tell me a little bit about you and your expectations?

You can call me Seth. I wear a few hats here at Baruch College: I teach, I work as Writing and Great Works Program Manager (basically, I work with other faculty to explore teaching ideas); and I work at the Baruch Center for Teaching and Learning (I help faculty find resources for their classes). I am also a CUNY student just like you: I am currently working on a PhD in English Language and Literature at The Graduate Center, CUNY, where I write about the internet—what it is, how we use it, and what all that might mean. I learn just as much from my students as I hope they learn from me, and I am always open for a conversation.

I will typically reach out to the class via email on Sundays and Wednesdays this term (make sure to check your inbox regularly!) although you might hear from me on Slack every now and then. I’ll also make video or text announcements on the home page of our site, generally hoping to further explain a concept or talk through a problem.

I hope that you will come to know me as a resource for bettering your research, analysis, and writing strength over the next five weeks, as well as someone who wants to engage with and build upon the community here at CUNY.

Can you tell me more about these five blog entries we’ll be expected to write?

You will see on schedule that you have a blog entry due each Wednesday by noon. The blog prompt will be featured prominently in each Week’s front page and articulated in the weekly steps. Except for the first introduction entry, all entries scaffold into your major assignments—that is to say that each blog entry is meant to guide you in the direction of creating your next core assignment. I try my best to give you opportunities to reuse and then tweak/revise language you have already written.

What about accessible participation?

In an asynchronous environment different challenges arise that we might not have encountered previously in our learning experiences. If new challenges or new learning needs arise for you over the course of the 5-week term, I am here to work with you to figure out new avenues and methods for completing our coursework.

A note on platforms and accessibility: our Blogs @ Baruch website will include an accessibility toolbar, and accessibility features are available across the platforms we’ll be using. Let me know if I can help locate accessibility tools. Additionally, I will do my best to find, use, and make prominent captions on videos.

Additionally, here’s the whole college’s official policy on accessible participation: Baruch College is committed to making individuals with disabilities full participants in the programs, services, and activities of the college community 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 will be denied access to 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 accommodations, please contact the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities at (646) 312-4590, and inform me (as appropriate) as soon as you can, ideally during the few days of this summer semester.

For additional information see:
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/facultyhandbook/DisabilitiesInformation.html

Could you tell me a bit about academic integrity?

Plagiarism is a serious offense that, if done knowingly and depending on the severity and other factors, can result in a failing grade (or worse) and a mark on your permanent academic record. All students enrolled at Baruch are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic honesty, as defined in the Baruch Student Handbook. Cheating and plagiarism are serious offenses.

If you ever have any questions or concerns about plagiarism, please ask me. You can also check out the online plagiarism tutorial prepared by members of the Newman Library faculty at http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/help/plagiarism/default.htm and Baruch College’s academic integrity policy at http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/academic/academic_honesty.htm

Where can I go for more individualized help with my writing?

Answer: The Baruch Writing Center!
As a writer you’ll want to seek feedback from many different readers. Writers at all levels of experience get feedback on their writing. Asking for and receiving feedback is not a sign of weakness and it does not equal weak writing; it’s actually a sign of wisdom and makes your writing much stronger. You’ll give feedback to and get feedback from your fellow writers in your writing groups in this class throughout the semester and at all stages of your projects. I also encourage you to get feedback on your writing from professional writing consultants (some of whom also teach first-year writing courses) at the Writing Center.

The Writing Center offers free, one-to-one (online) and small-group workshop 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 and view more info on the Baruch Writing Center website.

Can I turn work in late? What if I have technology issues?

No. All work is due at the time specified within the assignment details. If you’re not already in the habit of turning your work in on time, I encourage you to develop the practice and will try to help you in that endeavor in this course. That said, if you are struggling with a work/life balance in the schedule, please reach out to me and be honest. That’s the best way we can have a discussion about your work.

Please note that technology issues, including files you turn in that I cannot open, do not constitute an excuse for late work. Double check your files before and after you submit them to make sure your peers and I who will be reviewing them can open them. As you may have learned the hard way in the past, it’s a good habit to save important files such as course work to a location aside from your laptop or whatever device you may use for your classes—for example, Google Drive. Hard drives crash, thumb drives get lost, and laptops, tablets, and phones can get stolen. While I’ll be sad along with you if this happens, it’s your responsibility to make sure you back up your work so that life—and your effective participation in this course—can go on.