The Graphic Novel and Beyond

What are some techniques you utilize when reading a literary text?

(From Josh and Shiv)

Why is it necessary to revise and how have you applied it to your own writing?

-From Erica and Precious

What are some techniques used in academic writing?

-From Paaras

(Post by Sunday at 11:59 p.m.)

Why is representation important in comics and literature? How is Satrapi successful in portraying women of Iran in the time of revolution?

-From Sofa and Yeatasmin

How does Persepolis being a graphic novel contribute to the way her character develops throughout the story? Without the graphic elements, how would the story be different?

-From Allayah

Why do you think that in the chapter ‘Time Flies’ Speigelman depicted the characters as people wearing animal masks?

(From Skylar and Ana)

How does the relationship between the present and the past start to operate differently in the second half of the book than in the first half? What types of techniques does Spiegelman use to produce tension, and to release tension?

What types of techniques do you notice Spiegelman using to arrange time and space in this graphic novel? (Note: there is no right answer. You may want to make one observation, or several: for example you could talk about the way chronology works within the storytelling, or the way images are used to locate different scenes of the story, or to shape characters, describe relationships, or establish tone.)

Course Syllabus • Fall 2017

Professor: Sofia Thanhauser, Department of English

Class Time & Location: 7:50-9:30 AM Tues/Thurs B Vert 5-175

Office Hours: Tues/Thurs 12-1

Email:  [email protected]

Office:  VC 7-290H / Phone: 646.312.4077

Welcome! Get ready to read, think, write, and engage.

I look forward to working and learning with you this semester.

Texts

• No textbook is required. See the weekly schedule on our course blog on Blogs@Baruch https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/thegraphicnovel for a detailed list of readings (mostly in pdf format or links to webtexts), which I’ll expect you to download and have available either digitally or in hard copy when we discuss in them in class.
• For style, editing, source citations, and grammar questions, I recommend the Purdue OWL.
• Also: check and use your Baruch email account for class announcements ([email protected])

Course Description & Goals

In this class, the first of a two-course sequence in the Pathways Required Core, you will develop your ability to read and think critically and to write well about issues you care about. 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. This course will ask that you think critically about the arguments of others and in turn to develop and communicate your own ideas and arguments.

The subject of the course, simply put, is writing. We will read and discuss a wide variety of texts—for example, creative non-fiction pieces, news articles, academic articles, and films—with careful attention to the role of rhetorical conventions such as style, tropes, genre, audience and purpose. Studying the writing styles and rhetorical moves of professional, published writers will inform your approaches to your own development as a writer within academic contexts and beyond.

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.

Learning Outcomes / Course Goals

After completing ENG 2100, 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.
• Compose within academic writing contexts: Apply rhetorical knowledge in your own composing using conventions appropriate for academic writing contexts.
• 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.

Assignments

Following are your assignments for the semester, along with the weight each carries toward your final course grade, using a 100% standard grading scale. See our course website for the daily schedule, which I update often and which may change depending on our needs. All major projects will include a series of drafts and review by your peers and instructor.

Part I: Creative Non-Fiction Essay

• 1,500-1,800 words / ~ 5-6 double-spaced pages
• 20% of course grade

Part II: Critical Analysis Essay

• 1,800-2,100 words / ~ 6-7 double-spaced pages
• 25% of course grade

Part III: Research-Based Argument Essay

• 2,400 words / ~ 8 double-spaced pages
• 40% of course grade

Weekly Reading/Writing:

• In addition to the major assignments above, I will ask you to respond to our course readings in writing (outside and during class) and through in-class discussion and to engage with your major projects through a series of low-stakes writing that scaffold into your drafts.
• Includes 1 class meeting in which you and a partner will help lead the class discussion on the day’s readings. A good discussion lead includes the following:
  • Prepare 2-3 questions on the reading that Prof. Thanhauser will post on the course blog the week before class.
  • Help lead the class in a discussion of the questions you’ve posed (as well as addressing a question you’ve asked the class to prepare about the text).
  • Bonus: Prepare an activity in class (writing, in-class reading, or other activity such as showing a film clip on YouTube, website about author or text, or other background or relevant info) that connects your text to other texts in the class or outside of class.
• 15% of course grade

Grading

I use a 100% grading scale to assess individual assignments and your final course grade. If at any time you have a question about your grade in the class, please bring it to my attention immediately. I take it as a point of honor to be open to your perspective.

Class Participation

Active Participation
Your physical and mental presence in the class is invaluable to the work we will do. I expect that you will attend each class and participate fully in discussing reading and course projects. Active participation also includes completing assignments for in-class discussion. Learning is a collaborative activity, and I expect that you will be attentive to, engaged with, and respectful of everyone in the class. I also want to remind you not to abuse our classroom space. You’re welcome and encouraged to bring a laptop to class, but please refrain from checking your email, Facebook, and other personal interests that are available through the web while we are in class. The web will be a great resource for our class, but make sure when you’re online that what you’re doing relates directly to what we’re doing in class.

Ethical Participation

I ask that we all be respectful of one another and the wonderfully diverse opinions, ethnic backgrounds, gender expressions and sexual orientations, social classes, religious beliefs, and ethnicities among us. In the same spirit, written work in this course should employ inclusive language, which shows that the writer honors the diversity of the human race by not using language that would universalize one element of humanity to the exclusion of others. For example, use men and women or people instead of the generic man; use they or alternate he and she instead of the generic he.

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 accommodation, please contact the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities at (646) 312-4590, and let me know as soon as you can, ideally during the first three weeks of the semester. I encourage persons with disabilities or particular needs that impact course performance to meet with me to co-design accommodations.

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

Feedback

Professor

You and I will meet (at least) two times in my office (VC 7-245) for a 20-minute conference about your writing. Your conference with me will be held in lieu of class, so missing your scheduled conference = missing class.

Peer and 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 (in-person and 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 at: https://bc.mywconline.com/. Visit the Writing Center in NVC 8-185 or at the Newman Library Reference Desk, or log on to their website, writingcenter.baruch.cuny.edu, to learn more.

Policies

What if I miss class?

• Much of the learning in this course happens through your engagement with me and your peers in class via class discussion and group interaction. Your course projects will be sequential and in-class activities will build toward larger assignments. Class time will be highly interactive, requiring frequent participation, discussion, in class composing, and responding to your classmates’ work. For this reason, I expect you to attend all class meetings.
• Having established this policy, note that you can miss class up to 2 times, no questions asked. Only religious holidays constitute excused absences; beyond that I do not have excused or unexcused absences. Any absence, up to your second one, is excused with no questions asked.
• If you have more than 2 absences, your final course grade will be lowered by a half letter for each additional absence (a B+ becomes a B)—and your grade likely will be otherwise affected simply because of the activities and work you’ll miss.
• If you miss class more than 4 times, you must arrange to meet with me privately and, according to Baruch College policy, you will be subject to a WU grade, which counts as an F on your transcript and your GPA.
• From the official Baruch College attendance policy: “If a freshman or sophomore is absent in excess of twice the number of class sessions per week, the instructor must give the student a WU grade, which counts as an F. The instructor may give a junior or senior a WU grade if he/she has excessive absences. Attendance and lateness clearly play a role in class participation. Instructors have the right to weigh attendance, lateness, and class participation in determining grades.”
• If you must miss class, let me know ahead of time if possible to make sure you stay caught up. If you miss unexpectedly, check the schedule on our course website and make friends with someone in class to see what you missed so you can stay up with your work. If you miss class, please do not email me asking what we did in class, or, worse, if we did anything in class you should know about.
• If an assignment is due on a day that you miss because of an unexcused absence, you are responsible for keeping up with the daily schedule and contacting someone in the class to see what you missed and for turning in your work at the same time it was due for those who were in class [see “Late Work”].

What if I’m late to class or leave early?

• Because showing up on time and respecting other people are important parts of being a good student (in your case), a good teacher (in my case), and ultimately a good human being, I’ll hold all of us to a standard of being on time to class and staying until class is over. Late arrivals and early departures are disruptive and ultimately disrespectful. Therefore, if you arrive to class late more than twice it will count as an absence. The same will hold true if you leave class early more than twice. If you do arrive late to class, please check with someone nearby to see what you may have missed.

What if I need to drop the course?
If you feel you must drop or withdraw from this course (and I hope you don’t find yourself in that situation), 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.

Can I turn work in late?

All work is due at the time specified within the assignment details. In my experience, deadlines in the world outside of college usually are taken quite seriously and literally; therefore, I’m not doing you any favors by accepting late work. 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. 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.

How much time will the class require?

The college standard is that students spend about two hours working outside of class for every hour spent in class. For this four-hour course, that equals approximately eight hours of time outside of class. That outside work includes reading course texts, writing blog responses to course readings, and drafting and revising your major projects. At times, you will also be asked to collaborate with some of your classmates on course reading responses outside of class. I try to assign larger amounts of homework between Thursday and Tuesday sessions and to keep outside work between Tuesday and Thursday lighter. However, you may want to look ahead on the course schedule and compare it to your other classes to see if there are certain weeks where a lot will be expected of you so you can manage your time accordingly.

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. I’ll expect you to compose your projects ethically, meaning that if you use the work of others you cite that work, and that all work in this course is original, composed for the first time for this course, and is entirely your own, to the degree that anything we write is entirely our own. 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. The following definitions are based on the College’s Academic Honesty 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

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.

Backing up Your Work 

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 computer you may use for your classes—for example, Google Drive and/or an external hard drive. Hard drives crash, thumb drives get lost, and unfortunately laptops can get stolen. While I’ll be sad along with you should this happen to you, 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.