English Composition I, ENG 1101 / D377, Fall 2016: Tuesdays (N922) and Thursdays (N420C), 2:30-3:45 PM Writing lab (ENG 1101 / C377): Thursdays (G208), 4:00-4:50 PM

 

Professor Rebecca Devers (rdevers@citytech.cuny.edu – allow 24 hours for response)

Office hours: Tuesday 12:00-2:20 PM and by appointment

Office location: Namm 528 // Mailbox location: Namm 512 // Office phone: 718-260-5118

 

Prerequisites:  Students who enroll in this class must be CUNY certified in reading and writing.

 

Course description and objectives

Written language forms the foundation of human society:  it allows us to communicate with our neighbors and with societies across the globe.  It enables the sharing of scientific discoveries and it affords us an imaginative and creative outlet. It ranges from the lofty incantations of Shakespeare to the abbreviated language of text messages.  This course will give you the opportunity to experience different kinds of academic writing, and to engage with those texts through your own written responses.  Together, we will work to discover your strengths as a writer, and we’ll devise strategies to help you identify and address your weaknesses.  You’ll be expected to perform a large amount of both reading and writing, with the goal of preparing you to continue your academic career at the college level.  This course introduces you to academic inquiry, responsible scholarship, collegiate research techniques (including MLA guidelines), formal academic writing, and the importance of drafting and revising.

As you can see in the department’s list of expected outcomes for this class, you are expected to submit writing that is effectively organized, rhetorically sophisticated, proofread, revised, grammatically correct, varied at the sentence level, and that uses a vocabulary and language (literal or figurative) that is appropriate to the imagined audience.  You are also expected to read challenging texts, identify the main ideas and how they are supported, use resources like a dictionary when necessary, make inferences and summarize.  Please refer to the competencies handout for a full explanation of these goals, since they are key to our class and to each of our assignments. You will do a lot of work in this class.  College classes expect two hours of homework for every hour of class time; since we’re in class 3.5 hours a week, that means an average of seven hours of homework each week (for just this class!).  This may help to explain the phrase “full-time student.”  Factor this commitment into your schedule now.

This section of 1101 is part of a project funded by the Helmsley Foundation.  As part of this project, we’ll be working throughout the semester with students in math and chemistry classes here at City Tech.

 

Required course materials

Course materials handouts

Access to a reliable computer, with internet (email) access and a printer. Save all your work.

Open Lab course site

Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)

An up-to-date collegiate dictionary.

A three-ring binder devoted to this class.

 

 

Required assignments (please refer to department handout)

Three scaffolded essay projects

A one-paragraph summary of a reading

Library research

Participation

Revision and peer review

Midterm exam

Final exam (students must pass the final exam in order to pass the course)

 

Other requirements of the course

Regular attendance: This course is designed as a seminar-type class, which means that active participation is necessary if you and your peers are to succeed in this class.  I expect you to come to class prepared (which means you’ve read the assigned readings and you’ve completed any homework assignments).  I also expect you to come to class on time and stay for the duration of our meeting.  Arriving more than 10 minutes late, or leaving more than 10 minutes early will result in a “late” mark on your attendance record.  At your fourth “late,” you will lose five (5) points off your semester class participation grade; an additional five (5) points will be lost with every additional “late” mark.  Distracted and distracting behavior, which includes using cell phones or music devices, will also result in a reduced classroom participation grade, since it demonstrates to me that you are not, in fact, actually present and engaged mentally in our classroom.  If you do miss a class, please know that you are responsible for making up any missed work, and for the information we covered while you were gone. If your religion is not directly recognized by the school calendar, and you anticipate missing classes for religious reasons, please see me as soon as possible. Other than absences due to religious observances, absences will only be excused in the event of unforeseeable emergencies affecting you or your immediate family; documentation is required. If you stop attending class without officially withdrawing, you will receive a WU, which carries consequences beyond its effect on your GPA.

 

Writing Lab: On Thursdays (check the course calendar for specific dates), our class will meet for a lab hour.  This class time will be used for hands-on activities that contribute to the writing process, from active reading to peer review of completed drafts.  You must turn in written work at the end of each lab to get credit for that week’s activity; attendance will be taken at the start of the lab. Because of the nature of the writing lab, this work cannot be made up.

 

Responsible scholarship:  I expect you to complete all assignments on time, and to do so honestly.  We will discuss academic integrity and plagiarism early in the semester.  Know now, however, that I will not tolerate any academic dishonesty in my course.  The school’s statement on academic integrity is below; if you have any questions about plagiarism and how to avoid it, please ask me. In this class, an act of plagiarism will result in a zero for the affected assignment, as well as documentation of the offense with the school’s Academic Integrity officer. A second act of plagiarism in this class will result in additional sanctions.

 

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.

 

Another aspect of responsible scholarship is doing your best to meet course requirements. If you find you are having trouble keeping up with your assignments, please see me during office hours so we can arrange a make-up schedule. Formal papers are due at the start of class on the days indicated on the course calendar, and must adhere to MLA guidelines. Late papers will be accepted within 24 hours of the original due date with a 10 point penalty; after this grace period, no late papers will be accepted.

 

Revision:  You will be asked to work on assignments in stages, turning in outlines, early paragraphs, or complete drafts as the assignment warrants.  You will also be asked to participate in peer review sessions and in-class writing workshops.  These processes are key components of the course, and are not negotiable.  If, for any formal paper assignment, you do not submit a draft and participate in peer review, you will not be allowed to submit that assignment for a grade.  You will also be asked to revise “finished” pieces which have already been graded; this is because writing is a process, not a product.  To this end, you will often be asked to write about your own writing, evaluating your strengths and outlining your own goals for future assignments.

 

Please refer to the handout “Grading Guidelines for ENG 1101 and ENG 1121” (attached). This document provides specific information about how your papers will be graded, describing the characteristics of papers earning each possible letter grade.

Grading

Your semester grade will be calculated according to the following formula:

Paper 1:                                   10%

Paper 2:                                   15%

Paper 3:                                   20%

Writing Lab Assignments:       5%

Research Packet:                                10%

Midterm exam:                        10%

Blog posts and comments       5%

Final exam:                             10% (students must pass the final exam in order to pass the course)

Participation:                           15% (this category includes classroom participation, informal and in-class assignments,

unannounced notebook reviews, and quizzes)

Students with disabilities

If you have a disability that requires accommodation, please see me as soon as possible so I can accommodate you.  If you think you may have a disability that requires accommodation, see the Student Support Services Program in Room A237, or call them at 718-260-5143.

Emailing your professor

By 2/2, please send me one paragraph to introduce yourself to me.  Use this opportunity to practice appropriate email etiquette:

• Use your official school email address (or an address that uses your name or a professional title; avoid using personal accounts with screen names that might be considered offensive or that contain a long series of numbers.
• In the subject line, indicate which class and section you’re in, and the general topic of your message.
• Use an appropriate greeting, and address your audience respectfully. In this case, “Dear Professor Devers” would be appropriate.
• The content of your message should be clearly organized, free of grammatical and typographical mistakes, and direct.
• Sign your name to your email. You should always do this, but it is especially important if your name is not in your email address.

 

These guidelines should be used any time you email any of your professors.  Failure to follow these guidelines could mean a delay in getting a response.  If I can’t identify you in your email, I may not respond at all.

 

Open Lab Instructions

This semester, we’ll use City Tech’s Open Lab to coordinate our class activities with those of other students enrolled in specific math and chemistry classes.  Via Open Lab, we’ll foster a virtual learning community, where we can continue our classroom discussions and generate a resource hub for course materials.  One of your required assignments this semester is participation in the class blog on Open Lab, so it is essential that you activate your membership and check the page regularly. As you can see in the grade breakdown for this class, your participation in this blog constitutes 5% of your semester grade.

First, you’ll need to sign up for Open Lab and request membership to our project.  Here’s how you can do that.

1. You must activate your City Tech email account. You must be able to log into your account and read emails. I cannot help you with this.  If you have problems with your account, visit the Welcome Center on the first floor of the Atrium building.

1. Sign up for Open Lab at https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/register/

1. After you sign up, you’ll need to log on to your City Tech email account and click on the registration link you receive from Open Lab.

1. Log on to Open Lab at https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/

1. In the search box at the top right of the page, search for your professor’s last name:  Devers.

1. In your professor’s list of projects, choose the one titled Helmsley SENCER Project.

1. Select “Request Membership” to gain access to our blog. After your professor has added you to the class, you’ll have access to the course material.

1. When viewing our course on Open Lab, make sure you click “Project Site” to see the full site. The URL is https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/helmsley/.

 

Here’s what’s expected of you:

1. Each week, you’ll comment on a post to the blog.  These blog posts will be authored by the professors participating in the project (Prof. Devers, Prof. Benakli, and Prof. Medialdea), and occasionally by the students enrolled in those professors’ classes.  To receive credit for a comment, the comment must be around 100 words, and should be a thoughtful response to the ideas, issues, or problem contained within the original post.  You can also respond thoughtfully to the comments other students have posted to the original item.  By the end of the semester, you should have at least 13 comments, at least one a week.  Multiple comments in a single week will be considered 1 comment (in other words, don’t leave all 13 for the final week of the semester!).

 

“Thoughtful responses” include specific academic maneuvers, like the following:

1. comparing/contrasting the ideas in the blog post to the ideas you’re discussing in class;
2. offering a solution to a potential problem;
3. identifying complications to potential solutions;
4. selecting a quotation from the original text with which you agree or disagree, and using interpretation and analysis to defend your position;
5. providing a solution to a problem and explaining your work; and
6. applying the ideas in the reading to a real world problem.

 

2. Once this semester, you’ll be asked to post to the blog yourself, so that others can comment on your post.  Your post could be an article you’ve found in recent news media, or a problem you’d like help solving.  Your professor can help you brainstorm the types of material that would be appropriate for a blog post.

 

3. A word about online etiquette:  write as though you’re face-to-face with other students and faculty.  Present your ideas with confidence, while maintaining respect for the ideas of others.  Check your work for grammar and typos before posting it.  And have fun!  This project will allow us to discuss big issues with students in multiple classes across disciplinary boundaries.

 

 

Course calendar (subject to revision if necessary): all readings will be distributed in class or are available on our Open Lab site

 

Mtg #	Date	Reading to be completed before class	Written work due today	Classroom activity (lab work in gray)
1	1/31			Course introduction
2	2/2	Reading #1: “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan	Email to Prof. Devers	Discuss reading #1.  Assign scavenger hunt.
Lab 1	2/2			Note-taking workshop
3	2/7		Sign up for Open Lab	Continue discussing reading #1
4	2/9			Paper 1 assigned and discussed today
Lab 2	2/9			Plagiarism quiz
5	2/14		Scavenger hunt results	Presentations of scavenger hunt results
6	2/16	Rdg #2: “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldúa	Summary paragraph
Lab 3	2/16			Synthesis activity
7	2/21			Discuss incorporating reading #2 into current project
8	2/23		Paper 1 outline and thesis	Instruction on thesis statements
Lab 4	2/23			Thesis statement workshop
9	2/28		Paper 1 draft due at the start of class, stapled	Peer review
10	3/2		Second draft of Paper 1 due at the start of class	Quotation analysis strategies
Lab 5	3/2			Quotation workshop
11	3/7		Paper 1 due at the start of class	Reflective writing and goal-setting; MLA Formatting
12	3/9	Reading #3 (handout distributed in class)		How to write an effective summary
Lab 6	3/9			Active reading exercise
13	3/14			Midterm Exam
14	3/16			Paper 2 assigned and discussed today
Lab 7	3/16			Editing and proofreading workshop
15	3/21	Review Reading #4 (Midterm Exam reading)	Paper 2 revised summary	Discuss readings #2 and #3
16	3/23		Paper 2 outline and thesis statement	Continue to discuss readings #2 and #3
Lab 8	3/23			Quotation workshop
Mtg #	Date	Reading to be completed before class	Written work due today	Classroom activity
17	3/28	Reading #5: (to be distributed in class)	Paper 2 IQIAA paragraph	Quotation analysis activity
18	3/30		Paper 2 draft	Continue discussing reading  #4 and IQIAA method for quotations. Paper 3 assigned and discussed today
Lab 9	3/30			Peer Review
19	4/4		Paper 2 due at the start of class, stapled.	Library Workshop.  Meet in front of the library, Atrium Building 4th floor.
20	4/6		First two sections of research packet	Conducting academic research
Lab 10	4/6			Organizing a research paper
21	4/25		Summary #1	Interdisciplinary approaches to civic problems
22	4/27		Summary #2	Interdisciplinary approaches to civic problems
Lab 11	4/27			Audience awareness and communicating across disciplines
23	5/2	Library sources of your choice	Annotated bibliography	Identifying and evaluating various strategies in writing
24	5/4	Library sources of your choice		Identifying and evaluating various strategies in writing
Lab 12	5/4			Research workshop: Presentations on research project and sharing sources
25	5/9			Discuss Paper 2 (returned today) and revision / editing strategies
26	5/11		Paper 3 draft	Using source material effectively (bring all library sources to class today)
Lab 13	5/11			Peer Review:  Global Concerns
27	5/16*	In class:  read New York Times restaurant review (handout)		Audience awareness exercise and active reading
28	5/18*			Using multiple rhetorical strategies to persuade your reader
Lab 14	5/18*			Peer Review:  Editing and Polishing
29	5/23		Paper 3 due at the start of class, stapled.	Final Exam
30	5/25			Presentations
Lab 15	5/25			Presentations