ENG 1121-D???/C???—English Composition II

Days, Times, Room

Professor Ruth Garcia

Email: RGarcia@citytech.cuny.edu

Office Hours:

Office/Mailbox Location: Namm 503

Phone Number: (718) 260-5117

Course Description and Learning Outcomes

This is an advanced course in effective essay writing that includes a library paper and further development of research and MLA style documentation skills. Literary and expository readings are assigned as the basis for classroom discussion and for essay writing.

Students in this course will do the following:

• Read and listen critically and analytically in a variety of genres and rhetorical situations.
• Write in a variety of genres, including adapting writing conventions in ways that are suitable to different situations and purposes in a variety of contexts.
• Develop rhetorical awareness by understanding and responding appropriately to different kinds of rhetorical situations.
• Use research as a process of inquiry and engagement with multiple perspectives,
• 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.).
• When appropriate, repurpose prior work, including research, to new genres, audiences, and media by adjusting delivery, design, tone, organization, and language.
• Use reflection and other metacognitive processes to revise prior assumptions about reading and writing and transfer acquired knowledge into new writing situations.
• Compose in 21^st Century Environments.

Required Texts/Materials

– An OpenLab Account

– Readings provided on the OpenLab site

– An online writing guide such as the Online Writing Lab: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

– A College-level English Dictionary.  You can use reliable dictionaries on the web, e.g., Merriam Webster (http://www.merriam-webster.com), Oxford, and/or a dictionary that you already own.

***Note: I will post our readings on the OpenLab. You are responsible for reading these at home and printing them for class. Because annotating and interacting with the text is an important part of what we will do this semester, you will be marked unprepared for the day if you do not have the reading in class and in a hard copy format. Please note: the college provides free printing at the library and computer labs.

OpenLab

This course will use OpenLab. For this reason, you need to sign up for an OpenLab account and become a member of our class site. It is your responsibility to check the site regularly and access the readings in advance of class. Also, instructions for assignments, as well as class announcements, will appear there.

In order to set up your OpenLab account, you must activate your City Tech email. Notices from me will go to your City Tech email address, so make sure you set it up early and check it regularly.

Other Materials 

A notebook or folder that is dedicated to this class and where you can keep notes, handouts, and assignments. You must devise a system to record, store, and organize the course materials. It is very important that you save all of your work for this class, including prior drafts and final copies of all major assignments, as well as your research notes, outlines, and written evaluations. Additionally, save all final drafts of assignments on a stable format such as a remote hard drive/server such as Dropbox. Never throw away or delete drafts, notes, or graded assignments until after you have received your final grade.

Grading

Your course grade will be calculated according to the following breakdown:

• Discourse Community Assignment: 10%
• Inquiry Based Research Assignment: 10%
• Multimodal Repurposing Assignment: 10%
• Final Reflection and Portfolio: 50 %
• Participation: 20%

Assignments and Essays

There will be three major writing assignments throughout the course of the semester. You will be required to submit a hard copy of the paper.

• All essay assignments should follow MLA format. This means that all rough and final drafts must be typed, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins all around, in 12-point Times New Roman font. The first page must display student’s name, your teacher’s name (Professor Ruth Garcia), the class you are in, and the date the paper is due. Every paper should have an original title. I recommend that you obtain a writing handbook for the purposes of formatting and editing your work. You may have one from an earlier writing course, or you can use the Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
• Since writing is a process, you should draft and revise your essay before submitting the final draft. While I will not review an entire essay via email, I’m happy to conference with you about your essay drafts and ideas during my office hours. I am also happy to respond to specific questions via email. Feel free to consult with me at any stage in your writing process.
• Your writing should be grammatically correct and free of spelling errors, and it should demonstrate increasingly complex critical thinking and analysis as the semester progresses. If this is a challenge for you, I encourage you to visit my office hours.
• All essays must be submitted as a hardcopy, by the start of class on the day they are due or you will get no credit for them. In general, I do not accept late work or give make-ups for in-class essays. However, if you have a personal emergency or other circumstances that prohibit you from finishing your assignment on time or turning in an essay as scheduled, email or see me as soon as possible so we can discuss your situation.
• All homework assignments are due by the start of class, and there will be no make-ups on quizzes, in-class work, or OpenLab assignments.

Informal writing: In addition to the graded essay assignments that you will have to complete to do well in this class, you will also be required to complete a variety of informal, non-graded assignments throughout the semester. Examples of these assignments may include, but are not limited to, any in-class writing such as reflections, free-writing, and group projects. These exercises are designed to ensure your understanding of the main points of each topic. They will also push you to think critically about the ideas and issues raised over the course of the semester, thereby making you an active participant in the learning process. Though all the writing that you do in this course is not collected or graded, I do randomly collect these and they do contribute to your final grade. If you consistently fail to hand in the informal writing assignments, you will receive an “F” for class participation.

Class Participation, Attendance, and Lateness

Attendance:

This class depends heavily on in-class discussion and in-class writing. In other words, the class is a collaborative effort, and your attendance is required in order for the course to be worthwhile to you and for you to succeed! In addition, we do a fair amount of “in the moment” writing, which cannot be made up and which figures significantly into your class participation grade. Therefore, after three absences, we will meet to discuss whether you should proceed with the class or if you should drop it. Likewise, if you are chronically late, we will meet to discuss whether or not you should drop the class.

Part of your class participation grade is based on being prepared for class: 

• Be ready to discuss the day’s reading.
• Submit assignments on time.
• Check the syllabus to see if we are meeting in a location other than the classroom that day (for example, the library).
• Pay attention to announcements that are sent to you via OpenLab.
• Follow basic classroom etiquette (see below).

Etiquette in and out of the classroom:

• Respect your classmates: listen to them when they are talking. And make an effort to learn their names.
• If you bring beverages into the classroom, be sure to take bottles, cans, and cups with you when you leave.
• Do not sleep or put your head down during class. If you are not feeling well, please inform me that you need to leave due to illness.
• Please turn off all electronic devices (and stow in bags) when class starts. You may not text, browse the internet, or record or photograph anything in the classroom.
• Remove earbuds, Airpods, or other headphones before class starts.
• When emailing me, use standard letter-writing etiquette (“Dear Prof. Garcia…” not “Hey…”)
• If you are absent, check OpenLab for announcements and check in with me after class or during office hours. It is a good idea to email a fellow student for notes. Please do not email me to find out what you missed. While I am happy to talk to you in person about what you missed in class, I will not send you a summary via email. I will however send handout and other materials I may have given out in class.

Electronic Devices in Class:

Cell phones, tablets, and laptops are an incredibly wonderful and useful tools, and intrinsic to our daily lives… but in a classroom setting, they are distracting and disruptive. Therefore, we will decide as a group how to best manage electronic devices in our classroom.

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/.

 

Nondiscrimination Policy

This class does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, marital status, disability, or status as a veteran.

Finally, please keep in mind throughout the semester, if ever any type of question, problem, or confusion should arise contact me so that we can address whatever may prevent you from successfully completing this course

New York City College of Technology Policy on Academic Integrity

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 citing 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 at New York City College of Technology and is punishable by penalties, including failing grades, suspension, and expulsion. The complete text of the College policy on Academic Integrity may be found in the catalog. Students are expected to be familiar with the accepted academic principles regarding plagiarism. If ANY section, no matter how small, of your work is plagiarized, you will get a ZERO for that paper, with no rewrites.