Voices from the Crowd
Baruch College, Fall 2015
Instructor: Professor Largent
Course Number, Class Time, & Location: ENG 2100 HWFA 9:55-11:35 & ENG 2100 JWFB 12:25-2:05
Office hours: by appointment
Phone: 917-648-5361
E-mail: [email protected]
Course Description and Goals
“What men call love is very small, very restrained and very weak, compared to this ineffable orgy, to the sacred prostitution of the soul that gives itself entirely, poetry and charity, unexpectedly, to the unknown passer-by.”
Baudelaire- Les Foules (The Crowds)
Everyday an endless stream of faces passes before us. There are occasions when we feel as if the bustling crowd around us engulfs us and that it has overtaken us. We move with it on a seemingly singular path. However there are other moments where we feel far away, acting as an observer with a special experience of exteriority that only we can understand. This course focuses on what the concept of community can mean to an individual, how subjectivity is developed within or outside of a community, and the phenomenon of a crowd.
This course is first and foremost a writing course where you will learn how reading critically and thinking critically can help you to write well about things you find important and things about which you are passionate. Regardless of your profession or goal in life, being able to communicate your thoughts, arguments, and feelings will be an important skill and part of your future in many ways.
We will look at different conceptions of identity and community by examining literary texts, theoretical/philosophical texts, films, and articles.
Learning Outcomes:
Learning outcomes for ENG 2100 and 2150 are:
- Rhetorical knowledge: You will analyze and identify 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, and demonstrate an ability to apply such rhetorical knowledge in your own writing.
- Inquiry and research: You will identify credible sources for your research questions; engage with multiple perspectives 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.
- Well-developed thesis: You will develop your ideas into a focused, compelling argument, developed in unified and coherent paragraphs, and supported by, as applicable, evidence from your own experience, your research, and the texts you analyze.
- Composing process: You will 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.
- Style and editing: You will produce effectively organized writing that demonstrates sophistication in word choice, syntax, and sentence structure and that follows conventions of standard English grammar and usage.
Texts and Materials
With the exception of Open City, all of the following texts will be provided through Blackboard (or Blogs@Baruch). You can purchase Open City online or at a bookstore. You are expected to have each text available and ready either digitally or as a hard copy for each class. We will be a reading a combination of theoretical texts, pieces of literature, and essays that you can find on the course schedule. If there are any changes to the course schedule, you will be notified in advance.
Writing Guides
You are not required to purchase the following guides. However, we will use selections from the following texts in class.
Metaphors we live by – Lakoff and Johnson
Simple & Direct: A Rhetoric for Writers -Barzun, Jacques.
The Little Seagull Handbook
Other Resources:
Assignments:
- Creative Non-Fiction Essay
- 1,500-1,800 words/ 5-6 pages double-spaced
- 20% of course grade
- Critical Analysis Essay
- 2,000 words/ 6-7 pages double-spaced
- 25% of course grade
- Research Proposal and Final Project Presentation Presentation
- 500 Words and 5 Minute presentation
- 10% of course grade
- Final Research Project
- 2,500 words/ 8 Pages double spaced
- 30% of course grade
- Rhetorical Responses/ Reflections
- One page responses (One full page double spaced)
- 15% of course grade
Grading:
Your grades will be calculated using a 100% grading scale for all individual assignments and the final course grade. Assignments can be rewritten in extenuating circumstances. Please feel free to email or visit my office hours if you ever have any questions regarding a grade you have received. I am always open to discussion.
| B+ 87-89 | C+ 77-79 | D+ 67-69 | |
| A 93-100 | B 83-86 | C 73-76 | D 60-66 |
| A- 90-92 | B- 80-82 | C- 70-72 |
Participation:
Active participation is required for this course. It is important you attend each class prepared to discuss topics and themes relating to the texts. Preparation includes, finishing all writing assignments prior to the due date, having the text in front of you every single class, and entering the classroom with an open mind.
Our classroom is a safe space for learning and it is expected that everyone will participate in a considerate way, which means listening to, engaging with, and respecting every participant.
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
Classroom Policies:
Attendance:
- 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”].
Late Policy
- 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 late 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.
Technology in the classroom:
I prefer that you print out each text and but it into a binder so you can constantly reference the text itself every class. I understand that is old-fashioned- so feel free to use a laptop or tablet to access the readings or assignments for this course in class. However, you are required to respect the classroom space. This means you should only be working on directly related to the course and classroom discussion while you are present. If this becomes a problem, technology will no longer be an option for use in the classroom.
Cell phones are absolutely not permitted. Should you need to use your cell phone, excuse yourself from the classroom.
Deadlines:
Deadlines are fixed. Barring extenuating circumstances, all work needs to be completed on time. Please always feel free to talk to me about any problems that would prevent you from participating fully in the classroom or completing your coursework.
Expectations for coursework:
Over the course of the semester you will be required to invest a lot of time and energy into the work for this class. The goal is for you to find a topic about which you feel passionate and in which you are interested within the framework of the class. It is a four-hour course and the college standard is that students will spend about two hours working for every one hour spent in class. For our class, that amounts to about 8 hours per week outside of class. I don’t imagine you will always spend 8 full hours working outside of the classroom, but I do expect that you set aside this time for readings, rhetorical responses, analyses, writing, and preparation for class.
Writing Teams and Peer Editing:
This semester you will be put into a writing team. This is your support system in this classroom. You will together learn how to give feedback, help each other brainstorm and come up with ideas for both discussions and papers, and support each other in terms of outside work. Having your peers edit your work is an extremely beneficial way to analyze the way you write and the way you communicate. You will also receive a great deal of feedback from me but it is always nice to have different pairs of eyes reading over and responding to a text. The same rules for respectful classroom communication apply in the context of your writing teams.
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:
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.