FALL 2021 ENGLISH 1101–LC08

English Composition I

Professor: Jody R. Rosen (she/her/hers)

Email: jrrosen@citytech.cuny.edu

Course Site: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/hmgt-eng-fylc-f2021/

Course meeting times: Tuesdays 12:00-1:40, and asynchronously

Weekly student support hours (also called office hours): Tuesdays 11:30am-12:00pm, 1:40-2:30pm; Thursdays 11:00-11:45 am; and by appointment

Zoom link:

Welcome

Welcome to City Tech and English 1101. Being a college student is an exciting but stressful time, as is starting at a new school, and working entirely online. All of this at this difficult time in our communities, city, country, and world is certainly challenging. I am sharing with you my intention to conduct this semester with humanity, compassion, flexibility, grace, 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 the hospitality field, 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 work with you, to accommodate and support, not to penalize or judge.

Course Description

A course in effective essay writing and basic research techniques including use of the library. Demanding readings assigned for classroom discussion and as a basis for essay writing. See the ENG 1101 Learning Outcomes below.

Every City Tech (and CUNY) student takes English Composition I, which features reading and writing assignments that will help prepare you for college and beyond. Together we will work on communicating effectively, building an argument, adapting your writing for different needs and situations, interpreting and responding to a text, incorporating and citing secondary source material. We will be reading pieces both for their inherent literary and informational value and also as models for our own writing projects. Sharing your own ideas and experiences and adding your voice (spoken, written, or otherwise) to our discussions will enrich our class community.

Prerequisite

To enroll in ENG 1101, students must already have CUNY proficiency in reading and writing.

Course Meetings

This course traditionally meets for 100 minutes twice a week. Our online format is hybrid, which means that we will have one synchronous online session via Zoom for 100 minutes (Tuesdays 12:00-1:40pm) and will do work asynchronously to account for the other 100 minutes of class time, in addition to the online work you will do for homework.

You will have asynchronous classwork as well as homework due by posted due-dates. I will post all the work for each week in a weekly agenda on Wednesdays. Many times, I will ask you to respond to each other’s writing.  We will work on developing community both in our Zoom class sessions and in our online spaces.

Teaching and Learning Methods

This 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 written and spoken (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.

Course Website 

We will share our work on this OpenLab site—and will link out to other helpful resources and platforms–and will meet weekly in our class on Zoom. There will also be optional student support hours (also called Office Hours) via Zoom where you can talk with me on-on-one or with a group of your classmates if you prefer. That means that it’s important to familiarize yourself with our OpenLab site and with Zoom. Spend time exploring, and ask questions to get comfortable with any of the tools and spaces we use for this course. Our OpenLab site is where you will find weekly agendas and discussion questions, homework instructions, and project instructions, as well as where you will respond, share ideas, and respond to other members of this course, and post your final work and reflections. As content gets added to this site, you will get a notification email to your City Tech email account. Please check your City Tech email regularly. Please ask for help if you have any concerns!

Course Tools and Materials

Course Texts

  • All readings for our course are Open Educational Resources/Zero Textbook Costs (OER/ZTC), which means instead of buying a textbook, students will use materials that are freely or openly available–at no cost to students–not only throughout the semester but after the end of the semester. These materials are linked from our OpenLab course site in the schedule and the weekly agendas.
  • Several of the texts we’ll read in this course are part of Core Books at CUNY, a CUNY-wide initiative funded by a Teagle Foundation grant. Reading these texts will help us engage with broad humanistic questions that we will use to inspire our writing.
  • Recommended: The New York Times (create a free Academic Pass account with your City Tech email)

Technology

  • The Student Technology 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 device to access our shared spaces (Zoom, OpenLab site, etc) to share your work.
  • 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. You can get a CUNY Dropbox account for free.
  • 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 Adobe Scan or CamScanner.
  • A word-processing program can be helpful if you don’t exclusively write in OpenLab posts. You might use Google Docs or, if you’re interested, 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 .

Grading Breakdown

Project 1: 15%

Project 2: 15%

Project 3: 15%

Final Reflection and Portfolio: 15%

Informal writing (homework, discussions, shared notes, other in-class writing activities, and Glossary) and other participation: 40%

Participation

Unlike in a face-to-face class or a fully synchronous online class, I can’t always see that you’re present just by checking that your body is in a seat or a square on the screen at a given time of day on certain days of the week. More importantly, I’m interested in your engagement with our course activities, meaning that your work shows that you are present and participating. In this class, you’re not learning how to write one particular paper, or how to do one particular thing, you are learning about the process of writing (and reading—and researching) and all of those small pieces are as important as the formal work.

If I see that you aren’t present and active in our shared spaces (eg Zoom, OpenLab, etc), 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 to help you stay on track, and to make sure you get the support and feedback you need to succeed in this course. Completing the course becomes more difficult if you fall behind of the work; we can develop a plan for time management if this is helpful. 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@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.

Revision Policy

In this course, you can—and will!—revise all major units for your final portfolio (see Unit 4: Final Portfolio). Your new grade entirely replaces your old grade. You can also revise your units sooner than that if you feel you’d like more feedback. Please come see me during student support hours if you want to talk about about your work, learn more about my comments, or get additional feedback.

College Writing Center

For one-on-one help with your writing assignments, you are welcome to meet with me during my student support/office hours. Additionally, tutors in the Writing Center at City Tech are available for virtual sessions. I encourage you to use their services. Keep in mind you’ll need to make an appointment ahead of time, especially during busy times of the semester!

English 1101 Learning Outcomes  

Departmental 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.

CUNY Pathways Learning Outcomes

A course in this area must meet all of the following learning outcomes. A student will:

  • Read and listen critically and analytically, including identifying an argument’s major assumptions and assertions and evaluating its supporting evidence.
  • Write clearly and coherently in varied, academic formats (such as formal essays, research papers, and reports) using standard English and appropriate technology to critique and improve one’s own and others’ texts.
  • Demonstrate research skills using appropriate technology, including gathering, evaluating, and synthesizing primary and secondary sources.
  • Support a thesis with well-reasoned arguments, and communicate persuasively across a variety of contexts, purposes, audiences, and media.
  • Formulate original ideas and relate them to the ideas of others by employing the conventions of ethical attribution and citation.

Accessibility

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:

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, you can leave a voicemail at 718-260-5143, send an email to:  Accessibility@citytech.cuny.edu, or visit the Center’s website at  http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/accessibility/ for more information.

Academic Integrity

Our goal this semester is for you to develop your writing according to the ENG 1101 Learning Outcomes. I expect you will do this with integrity, and will meet with me when you need support to do so. The college has an official statement about academic integrity here:

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.

Schedule

Find a detailed schedule for this course on the ENG 1101 Schedule page.

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