Instructor: Julia Brown
E-mail: jbrown1@ccny.cuny.edu
Office: NAC 6/333C, NAC 4/220A

Office Hours: 8:30am-9:30am Tuesdays, and by appointment

Tuesday/Thursday 9:30-10:45, NAC 7/313A

Course Description: This is an advanced and specialized English composition course designed for students who are interested in pursuing careers in the humanities, such as literature, linguistics, foreign languages, history, classics, philosophy, art history, gender studies, music, and dramatic arts. In this course, you will be exposed to academic writing, as well as writing that you may encounter in other professional settings. We will study and practice several genres associated with these areas to understand the standard conventions of humanities composition, vocabulary, and style, and acquire the necessary research and communication skills that will help you in future projects outside of this class.

Keys to Success:

1.The most successful students in a general education English/Humanities course accept that they have much to gain from the course, stay on top of the reading, think critically about the reading and actively participate in class discussions.

2.Successful students, furthermore, see writing as more than the means of completing required assignments. They think of writing as not only a means of communication, but also an opportunity for reflection and a mode of personal expression. Finally, successful students see writing as a means of discovering their ideas on the subject at hand through revision.

3.This section is hybrid, meaning approximately 50% of the class will be completed online and the other 50% will be completed face to face. The online portion of this course still has due dates, as the work you do online builds into the work we will complete in our face-to-face classes. The course schedule outlines when to be on campus and when to complete activities online. It is your responsibility to keep track of this.

Required Course Materials:

Other: Active CCNY email account and Blackboard page.

EN-21001 Learning Outcomes:

Over the course of the semester, you will

1. acknowledge your and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources, and draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility
2. enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment
3. negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation
4. develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes
5. engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond
6. formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing
7. practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects
8. strengthen your source use practices (including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources)

 

Academic Requirements:

Beyond keeping up with weekly assignments and continued course participation, there are a few additional requirements:

Shared Writing. Writing is not a solitary process. Great feedback stems from having as many eyes as possible read and evaluate your writing. Nearly every piece of writing you do for this class will be shared with your classmates as well as myself. Make sure you are writing things you are okay with sharing.

Citations and Formatting. All assignments should be written in Times New Roman, 12-point font, double-spaced. All citations should be in MLA formatting. All papers must be submitted via Blackboard as a Word document or a PDF.

Drafting. Great writing doesn’t start out great. Similarly, an “A” paper isn’t conceived in one 8-hour-long keyboard mashing session. Drafting and revising are an extremely important part of the writing process and is required for this course. Your grade will suffer if you don’t turn in the required drafts for your papers.

Expectations:

* Be on time, be early, just don’t be late. If you miss more than four full classes, your final grade will be reduced by a quarter grade.  If you are more than 10 minutes late, or tardy, twice it will also count as one absence.

* Participate! In face-to-face classes this means being engaged in the discussion, asking questions of your classmates, and me, and remaining on task whether you are attentively listening to a full-class discussion, or working in small groups to complete an activity. In the online classes, this means checking the digital classroom regularly (aim for daily), completing work, such as reading quizzes and discussion board posts, on time.

*Ask me questions! If you’re struggling with the class (even if you aren’t), I’m the best resource you have and I love to help my students; if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be in this profession. There are multiple means for communicating with me: email, Blackboard Q&A forum, and office hours. I will hold office hours both as digital conferencing and face-to-face. I can give you the best advice if you ask me face-to-face (or in a digital conference), but if you email me or use the forum, I will try to get back to you in a timely fashion (typically between 24-48 hours as I will be checking digital communication daily on weekdays). Please, though, try to remember that even though I check my emails frequently, I also have a personal life… If you email me late at night, right before a deadline, chances are I won’t respond.

* We will be using various forms of electronic communication in class, and forms of electronic communication are welcome as long as they address the collective class goals. However, each usage of electronic communication that is not directly related to class will result in lowering your participation grade. Cell phones are rarely (if ever) relevant to class goals, this means that if your cell phone rings in class, you lose full participation points for the day. If you text message anyone in class, you lose full participation points for the day. Please keep in mind that I will not interrupt the learning of the rest of the class to ask you to refrain from cell phone use, unless it is excessively loud, in which case I may ask you to leave.

* Students must read all assignments and come to class prepared to discuss them, which means bringing your texts to class. Either a printed or a digital copy is fine. Class can get very boring if I am the only one talking. Interact with the texts as you read them: underline key passages, take notes, write down your thoughts and questions and ideas and any aspects that you don’t understand.

*In professional settings, a late submission can have grave consequences. In this class, the stakes are lower, but I will impose penalties with the goal of helping you to develop good habits. I will accept writing assignments for one week after they are due. If a paper is late, within the first four days you will be docked 5% of the grade, within the next three days you will be docked 10% of the grade. After 1 week, I will not accept late papers and you will receive a zero for the assignment.

Should you experience an extraordinary hardship, you may request a deadline extension. I will grant these on a case-by-case basis.

To request an extension, please do the following:

1. Contact me in writing to request the extension prior to the deadline (the same day will not suffice)
2. Describe the status of your assignment and the reason you feel you deserve an extension
3. Propose a new deadline date
4. Wait to hear back from me, as I will grant extensions at my discretion

As I expect you to meet deadlines, I will also get you feedback in a timely manner. You can expect to have feedback on major assignment rough drafts within a week, and grades on final drafts within two weeks—though I generally try to get things back earlier within these timeframes rather than later. Try to remember there is only one of me, and many of you.

*RESPECT IS A MUST. Because of the personal nature of writing, sharing writing can be an intimidating and scary experience for some. Respect is key in creating an environment that fosters the ability to share writing and ideas, and to accept feedback constructively. This is equally as important in the online classroom. Check out this resource on netiquette for guidelines for online behavior.

 

The Writing Center

The CCNY Writing Center offers a supportive learning environment where students can have one-on-one tutoring sessions with writing consultants.  It is a great resource for you to obtain extra help as you write and revise your papers.  They DO NOT proofread your papers, but offer assistance on improving certain aspects of them.  They also offer ESL tutoring.  To set up an appointment or semester-long sessions, contact them in person at the Writing Center, which is located in the NAC, 3^rd floor plaza or call (212) 650-8104.  They will be partially open starting 9/8, and fully operational starting 9/15.  I strongly advise you contact them as soon as possible, even if you don’t have anything specific you need assistance with yet.

AccessAbility Center Tutoring Services, NAC 1/218

Provides one-on-one tutoring and workshops to all registered students with learning or physical disabilities.

 SEEK Peer Academic Learning Center, NAC 4/224

Phone: 212-650-5786; Email: seekpals@ccny.cuny.edu

Offers counseling and peer tutoring for students in need of academic and financial support who have registered for the SEEK Program.

Student Code of Conduct

All student members of the College community are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that demonstrates mutual respect for the rights and personal/academic well-being of others, preserves the integrity of the social and academic environment, and supports the mission of the College.  The College has an inherent right to address behavior that impedes, obstructs, or threatens the maintenance of order and attainment of the aforementioned goals by violating the standards of conduct set forth in the University student conduct policies noted below as well as other policies that may established by the respective Schools, Global Sites, and administrative offices of the University.  

The goals of the CCNY Community Standards are:

1. To promote a campus environment that supports the overall educational mission of the University
2. To protect the University community from disruption and harm
3. To encourage appropriate standards of individual and group behavior
4. To foster ethical values and civic virtues
5. To foster personal learning and growth while at the same time holding individuals and groups accountable to the standards of expectations established by the Code of Conduct

Plagiarism and Academic Integrity

Plagiarism is copying and using other people’s words without proper acknowledgment or citation as it is indicated in the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity.  All writing submitted for this course is understood to be your original work written.  Plagiarism is unacceptable and has serious consequences that can include a failing grade.  In cases where I detect academic dishonesty (the fraudulent submission of another’s work, in whole or part, as your own), you may be subject to a failing grade for the project or the course, and in the worst case, to academic probation or expulsion. You are expected to read, understand, and adhere to CCNY’s Policy on Academic Integrity.

Grading Policy:
Your final grade will consist of the following:

Resume and Cover Letter: 5%
Memos #1 and #2: 5%
General Audience Project: 15%
Writing for Academia- Conference Project: 20%
Grant Proposal: 20%
Class Participation (online and face to face) 20%

• Informal writing assignments (in-class writing activities, online discussion board posts and quizzes, and rough drafts) are included in this portion of your grade along with your in-class participation in discussions.

Final Portfolio and Reflection: 15%

Each of the three large projects units will also have smaller “feeder” assignments that act as stepping stones in completing the project as a whole. These feeder assignments will be counted as part of the unit grade, though their due dates will be different than the completed project.

Syllabus PDF