YASAR AHSAN’s Profile Student Toggle navigation

This introductory course aims to engage and help you develop your creative voice through discussions of craft and technique, readings aimed to build critical reading and workshopping skills, writing exercises, and discussion of language and style.

This introductory course aims to engage and help you develop your creative voice through discussions of craft and technique, readings aimed to build critical reading and workshopping skills, writing exercises, and discussion of language and style.

English Composition I is a course designed to introduce you to college writing through an exploration of New York City and the rich and varied stories and perspectives of the people who have made it their home. Drawing on readings from a wide variety of genres—as well as your own experience and knowledge—we will investigate the physical space of New York City as well as it’s history, literature and visual culture to explore the relationship between place & identity. In doing so, we will also engage with current debates about gentrification, housing, transportation and public space as they impact people’s lives in the city. In doing so, we will explore the concept of the “right to the city” as it relates to New York City and our own (and others) lives within it. Through the various writing assignments you complete for this class, you will develop effective essay writing and basic research techniques, including the use of the library, digital media, ethnography, archives, oral histories, the streets and your imagination.

English Composition I is a course designed to introduce you to college writing through an exploration of New York City and the rich and varied stories and perspectives of the people who have made it their home. Drawing on readings from a wide variety of genres—as well as your own experience and knowledge—we will investigate the physical space of New York City as well as it’s history, literature and visual culture to explore the relationship between place & identity. In doing so, we will also engage with current debates about gentrification, housing, transportation and public space as they impact people’s lives in the city. In doing so, we will explore the concept of the “right to the city” as it relates to New York City and our own (and others) lives within it. Through the various writing assignments you complete for this class, you will develop effective essay writing and basic research techniques, including the use of the library, digital media, ethnography, archives, oral histories, the streets and your imagination.

The study of architecture begins by developing a visual literacy of the built environment. Using New York City as a living laboratory, students explore concepts of design, composition, and construction in the context of the city by sketching and writing about their direct experience of buildings. Accompanying lectures focus on freehand drawing techniques, concepts of composition, writing about buildings and their construction, and reading architectural drawings. As a co-requisite of Design Foundations and a pre-requisite of Building Technology and architecture history, students are exposed to various styles of architecture and methods of construction found in the city. Along with developing graphic skills, students will build the basic foundation to talk, write, and graphically express architecture and its construction.

The study of architecture begins by developing a visual literacy of the built environment. Using New York City as a living laboratory, students explore concepts of design, composition, and construction in the context of the city by sketching and writing about their direct experience of buildings. Accompanying lectures focus on freehand drawing techniques, concepts of composition, writing about buildings and their construction, and reading architectural drawings. As a co-requisite of Design Foundations and a pre-requisite of Building Technology and architecture history, students are exposed to various styles of architecture and methods of construction found in the city. Along with developing graphic skills, students will build the basic foundation to talk, write, and graphically express architecture and its construction.