COURSE DESCRIPTION & POLICIES

Professor: Dr. Mark Noonan / mnoonan@citytech.cuny.edu / 917-575-0339

Weekly Office Hours:  TBD

Course Description

 This course will provide the foundation for the “close reading” of various types of English and American poems from different time periods. By focusing on the elements of poetry—how the parts work together—students will learn skills and terms used to support an academic argument in literary studies. Students will learn to become attentive to language and be familiar with the reasons for the writer’s particular choice of language. They will learn how the writer uses the techniques and elements of literature and the particular resources of genre to create meaning. They will learn how texts differ from one another and how they speak to each other. Through these and an analysis of basic diction, style, and poetic devices, students will be able construct arguments which they will demonstrate in short written responses, essays, and presentations.

Course Objectives :

  •  Analyze poems in class discussion and in writing assignments.
  •  Deliver informative and analytical oral presentations about poems and their authors.
  •  Interpret the works, probing for layers of meaning, and levels of thought in the language of the poem, through literary conventions of close reading and comparison.
  •  Understand poems as creative expressions of human experience, in their biographical, cultural and historical context, through discussion, analysis and research across a variety of sources and from a variety of points of view.
  •  Analyze the structure and versification of the works and show how this analysis helps reveal the meaning of the poems and how the meaning is conveyed; examine other components of the works (speaker, dramatic situation, imagery, metaphor, irony, figures of speech, diction, rhythm, meter, form) and explain how the transmission of meaning through poems benefits from them
  •  Appreciate the artistic and cultural importance of poetry as both a traditionally oral form and a written form, through the oral presentation of poems and the analysis of the relationship between poetry on the page and poetry in performance.

Our Course Tools

  • OpenLab  course site
  • Poetry Foundation (for readings)
  • Email (check your City Tech email regularly)
  • Google Docs (for assignment collection)

Grading Breakdown

Paper 1                                                                                                                                              20%

Paper 2                                                                                                                                              20%

Paper 3                                                                                                                                               20%

Participation (including posts)                                                                                            40%                             

Required Materials

  • Syllabus texts are linked on the course schedule
  • Computer folder dedicated to this class. The folder will house your assigned essays.

Policies and Procedures

Participation      Though we are not in a physical classroom, we are still a community. Respect for everyone in our course (not just the professor) is crucial.

Accessibility Statement 

Your success in this class is important to me. We all need different accommodations because we all learn differently. 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 will develop strategies to meet both your needs and the requirements of the course. 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. The Center for Student Accessibility can be reached at 718-260-5143 or Accessibility@citytech.cuny.edu . Visit http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/accessibility/.

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.

 

 

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