Course Information

Course Number: ENG 1101

Course Title: English Composition 1

Credits / Hours: 3 credits/ 4 hours

Section Number: LC07

Prerequisite: CUNY proficiency in reading and writing 

Class Location

Faculty Information

Professor Name:

  •  Jody R. Rosen

Online Office Hours/Information:

  •  Day/time to be announced after availability survey
  • Conducted via video conferencing or phone, as available.

Contact Information

  • Email: jrrosen AT citytech.cuny.edu
  • Phone: by request

Course Description: 

English Composition 1 is a course in effective essay writing and basic research techniques, including use of the library. College-level readings are assigned for class-wide discussion and as a basis for writing projects. This section of ENG 1101 (LC07) is part of a First Year Learning Community, paired with ARCH 1101 (LC55).

Course Meetings:

This course is designated as fully online and asynchronous. That means that we will not meet in person, and we will not have regular weekly online meetings. In place of class meetings, students will contribute to online discussions on the course site, generate topics, and exchange ideas according to the course schedule to create a lively community that works toward achieving the Learning Outcomes for the course.

Course Website: 

This course will take place online on City Tech’s OpenLab. It is a shared site for both courses in this First Year Learning Community. At the beginning of the semester, you will create an OpenLab account, join this site, familiarize yourself with our course site, and begin to learn to share your ideas in comments and posts, with words, images, and videos. This site is where you will find your assignment instructions and post your weekly work as well as finished units.  This is the main place where we will keep in touch, so please check back throughout each week. You will also receive emails when there is new activity on the site. You are responsible for being up-to-date and following along with what is on our course site.  Please contact me if you are having trouble.

Learning Outcomes

It is expected that at a minimum, students in ENG 1101 will:

Read and listen critically and analytically in a variety of genres and rhetorical situations: Identify and evaluate exigencies, purposes, claims, supporting evidence, and underlying assumptions in a variety of texts, genres, and media.

Adapt to and compose in a variety of genres: Adapt writing conventions in ways that are suitable to different exigencies and purposes in a variety of contexts, including academic, workplace, and civic audiences. When appropriate, repurpose prior work to new genres, audiences, and media by adjusting delivery, design, tone, organization, and language.

Use research as a process of inquiry and engagement with multiple perspectives: Learn to focus on a topic and develop research questions that lead to propositions and claims that can be supported with well-reasoned arguments. Persuasively communicate and repurpose research projects across a variety of contexts, purposes, audiences, and media. Demonstrate research skills through attribution and citation gathering, evaluating, and synthesizing both primary and secondary sources. Learn how to use appropriate citation styles depending on disciplinary and situational requirements (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.).

Use reflection and other metacognitive processes to revise prior assumptions about reading and writing and transfer acquired knowledge into new writing situations. Students write reflections of their own reading and writing process from the beginning and throughout the semester with the intention to transfer their acquired knowledge about genre and composing practices into new writing situations.

Demonstrate the social and ethical responsibilities and consequences of writing: Recognize that first-year writing includes academic, workplace, and civic contexts, all of which require careful deliberation concerning the ethical and social ramifications concerning fairness, inclusivity, and respect for diversity. Write and revise for academic and broader, public audiences accordingly.

Compose in 21st Century Environments: Learn to choose among the most current and effective delivery methods for different composing situations. Students learn to compose in new media environments, including alphabetic texts, still and moving images, sonic, and mixed media compositions. Use digital media platforms appropriate to audience and purpose.

Self-Care Statement: 

Being a college student is stressful enough, and starting at a new school, and working entirely online. All of this in the midst of a pandemic is certainly challenging. I am sharing with you my intention to conduct this semester with humanity, compassion, flexibility, and maybe a little bit of humor, and I hope you will, too. I invite you to challenge yourself, to explore, to learn and grow, to establish yourselves as college students with futures in architecture, but also to know when you need to step back, or step away, and to know when you’re ready to come back. I’m here to talk, to listen, to accommodate and understand.

If you are experiencing extreme financial hardship, City Tech’s Student Emergency Relief Fund may be able to help.

Readings / Texts: 

All course readings are OER/ZTC (see below) and can be found on the course website in the schedule and the weekly agendas. A list of readings is also available in the Course Resources.

Open Educational Resources/Zero Textbook Costs (OER/ZTC):

This course uses OER/ZTC materials, which means instead of buying a textbook, students will use materials that are freely or openly available. These OER/ZTC materials are available at no cost to students not only throughout the semester but after the end of the semester, and can include:

  • Open educational resources that are Creative Commons (openly) licensed, including open textbooks
  • Freely available web resources that do not violate copyright
  • Library licensed digital resources
  • Materials in the public domain.

Interested in learning more about OER/ZTC? Let’s talk!

Core Books at CUNY

Some of the books we’ll read in this course are part of Core Books at CUNY, a CUNY-wide Teagle Foundation grant. Reading these texts will help us engage with broad humanistic questions that we will use to inspire our writing.

Grading: 

Your work will be graded throughout the semester. I will reevaluate your work at the end of the semester when you submit your final reflection and portfolio. The work you do will factor into your final grade based on the following breakdown:

  • Final Portfolio: 60%, made up of:
    • Project One: 15%
    • Project Two: 15%
    • Project Three: 15%
    • Final Reflection: 15%
  • Participation/Coursework: 40%

Attendance and Participation: 

Unlike in a face-to-face class or a synchronous online class, I can’t take attendance just by checking that your body is in a seat at a given time of day on certain days of the week. That means that your work shows that you are present. If I see that you haven’t submitted work, that tells me that something is keeping you from attending to and participating in our class. I will take note of your presence or absence from our site to help you stay on track, and to make sure you get the support and feedback you need to succeed in this course. If you need to step away from our course for any reason, health, family, work, etc, and you are able to be in touch with me (easiest way is via email, jrrosen AT citytech.cuny.edu), please keep in contact. It is much easier for me to help you if I know your intentions for completing the course, or if I can help you develop a plan for completing the course. You are welcome to talk to me about anything, but please know that you can reach out and get my help to make a plan even without disclosing what you’re going through.

Writing Center: 

For one-on-one help with your writing assignments, tutors in the Writing Center are available for virtual sessions. To learn more, and to request an appointment, send an email to CityTechWritingCenter@gmail.com. You will receive an automatic reply with information about available tutoring sessions.

 

Teaching and Learning Methods

This is course is discussion-based. Students share their writing, both informal and formal, and use feedback from me and from classmates to revise work. We will use a portfolio system, meaning you will compile and revise all work when it is initially due and again at the end of the semester drawing on what you have learned throughout the semester.

Since this course relies on students’ collaboration and provide feedback to each other, it is important that everyone share ideas in the spirit of helping and learning from classmates. I provide feedback, both in writing and speaking (when available), on your work in the spirit of supporting your writing development. Respect, consideration, and shared responsibility are central to this approach, individually, between students, and between instructor and students.

Technology Requirements

  • The Student Survey will help me understand your access to technologies we will use in the course.
  • To complete your coursework, you will need a reliable internet connection and a computer to access our OpenLab site to to share your work. You will also need to access your readings online. Although a printer is not required, you should consider how you read and compose best and decide if you would benefit from purchasing a printer.
  • You may be able to complete some of your work using your phone, such as shorter readings and writing assignments. You will likely find it difficult to conduct all of your work on your phone. If your phone is the only device you have regular access to, please consider requesting a loaned computer or wifi hotspot from City Tech.
  • You’ll need storage space for your work. I strongly recommend cloud storage, such as a Dropbox or Google Drive account.
  • Even though this course is online, you may still want to use pen or pencil on paper! I recommend having a notebook to keep ideas, freewrites, sketches, etc, together throughout the semester.
  • The camera on your phone or tablet can be very useful for quickly digitizing non-digital materials, such as work in your notebook, or written comments on drafts, that you can then share on the OpenLab. You can also download a free program that lets you use your phone’s camera to create PDFs, such as CamScanner.
  • Microsoft Office: The City University of New York provides Microsoft Office 365 for Education to students at participating colleges, including City Tech via the Microsoft Office in Education program. You sign in using your CUNYFirst/Blackboard credentials (this is different than your regular CityTech email) and have online access to MS Word, Powerpoint, Excel and other programs in the MS Office Suite. You may also be eligible to download the Suite to your computer.  For more information, see THIS LINK .

Schedule

Find a detailed schedule for this course on the Schedule page.

UNIVERSITY POLICIES: 

Accessibility Statement:

Accessibility Statement

Your success in this class is important to me. We all need different accommodations because we all come to this class with different experiences and needs. If there are aspects of this course that prevent you from learning or exclude you, please let me know as soon as possible. Together we’ll develop strategies to meet both your needs and the requirements of the course. Additionally, if you need official accommodations, you can contact the Center for Student Accessibility. Here is the college’s official accessibility statement:

City Tech is committed to supporting the educational goals of enrolled students with disabilities in the areas of enrollment, academic advisement, tutoring, assistive technologies and testing accommodations. If you have or think you may have a disability, you may be eligible for reasonable accommodations or academic adjustments as provided under applicable federal, state and city laws. You may also request services for temporary conditions or medical issues under certain circumstances. If you have questions about your eligibility or would like to seek accommodation services or academic adjustments, please contact the Center for Student Accessibility at 300 Jay Street room L-237, 718 260 5143 or http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/accessibility/.  Email: accessibility@citytech.cuny.edu

Academic Integrity Policy

Students and all others who work with information, ideas, texts, images, music, inventions and other intellectual property owe their audience and sources accuracy and honesty in using, crediting and citation of sources. As a community of intellectual and professional workers, the college recognizes its responsibility for providing instruction in information literacy and academic integrity, offering models of good practice, and responding vigilantly and appropriately to infractions of academic integrity. Accordingly, academic dishonesty is prohibited in The City University of New York and is punishable by penalties, including failing grades, suspension and expulsion. More information about the College’s policy on Academic Integrity may be found in the College Catalog.