Due Tues Dec 3: You must verbally present on your topic based on the prompt we started in class on Thursday. ________________Be prepared to give us a deeper understanding of your topic. You MUST participate in this exercise to get a grade on your Final Paper. 3 or 4 minutes is all you need.
Here is the resource we discussed on Thesis Statements. There are also many other topics included in this site.
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UPDATED Schedule Below:
Important Dates
Dec 6 — Journal Check Day — put some kind of marker where our last check ended, please. A Post It or just turning the page down will do.
Dec 11 — Research Paper Due and Class Party
Dec 13 — No Class Scheduled (“Reading Day”)
Dec 18 — Practice for Final Exam
Dec 20 — Final Exam*
*The English Dept. requires that all students take the Final Exam; you can not pass the course unless you sit for the exam.
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Research and Information, Our Next Unit of the Semester
Going forward this semester, we will be delving into the why’s and how’s of research. We will focus on topic areas that interest us, both individually, and as a class. You will need to manage your time well, and also be prepared to share your progress in group formats. Our end goal is a coherent Research Paper, 2,000 words in length.
Due next class:
Group Exercise: 1) By next class you will have in hand a minimum of one resource on your chosen topic that you have found, preferably via our Library’s search pages. Bring us tangible proof (an article in a periodical or a book) so that we can evaluate it in class. 2) Be prepared to share, in informal conversation with your peers, about your topic, teaching your fellow students two things that they may not have known about it. Due: Nov 8.
Looking Ahead — Our Schedule:
By the end of next week (Nov 15), you will have picked a topic and will be prepared to present preliminary research on it to the Professor for her approval. You cannot receive a grade on your final research paper without this approval.
By Thanksgiving break you will have a Rough Draft of your Research Project, having completed a minimum of half your research.
By December 11th you will submit the Final Draft of your Research Paper.
Our Final Exam Week is December 14th–20th.
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Congratulations on finishing your MidTerms. Here is your next assignment which involves reading selections from two books available for free on the subway:
OCT 25: On the subway, you can access free Transit WiFi and with it a service call “Subway Reads.” (You can also access this free source at any time by going to subwayreads.org. Please feel free to read on it even when you are not in transit in order to complete this assignment.) You must: Read the excerpts provided on Subway Reads for at least two books and reflect on them in your Journal and for discussion next class. One of those books must be the memoir: Coretta: My Life, My Love, My Legacy by Coretta Scott King and Dr. Barbara Reynolds. The other is your choice. Please discuss the following in your journal reflections on Coretta:
What role did her education play in her life? Where did she receive it?
You may reflect in any way you wish on your other reading selection.
Due: Oct. 29
Note to remember: Nov 1 is our Library Instruction Day. We will meet outside the Library that day, not in class, at 8:45AM. I will take roll outside the Library.
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Oct 19: Important deadline updates. Your paper for Beauty is now extended; the new deadline is Tues, Oct. 23. Please use this extra time to work on the main grammatical/mechanical issues you have, as well as to proofread or otherwise energize your paper! Rest assured that I am interesting in hearing YOUR ideas and reflections, and that I am NOT interested in receiving papers that sound phony. Plagiarism is something that I reward with an “F.” No exceptions. So go for your own voice, please. May I reiterate that using The Little Seagull Handbook will help you? I also spoke with many of you about using the Purdue OWL Writing Lab as a resource and I shall copy below a few links to encourage you further. Chances are, if you are writing an essay about some daily, personal encounter you have had with the beautiful, that it is taking the form of a Descriptive Essay.
Here is a link to Purdue on the Descriptive Essay:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/descriptive_essays.html
If your paper is more philosophical or analytical in tone, it is probably taking the form of an Expository Essay.
Here is a link to their description of the Expository Essay:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/expository_essays.html
And, as I mentioned before, there are many exercises you can find at their site on grammar and punctuation. Scroll along their menu on the left. Here is their advice for writing more concisely (a number of us spoke on that topic) for example:
On being Less Wordy:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/paramedic_method.html
And finally, a link to their YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/OWLPurdue/featured
My apologies for overwhelming you here. I just want to make up for some lost time. I look forward to seeing you in class.
Our other deadlines are also pushed forward:
MidTerm Exam Practice: Oct 23
MidTerm Exam: Oct 25
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OCT 9: We will have Doctor’s Hours (individual talk with the Professor for a maximum of seven minutes) this Thursday, Oct 11. Students may also come for these conferences during Office Hour on Wednesday (Oct 10 11:30AM to 12:30PM in the Bookstore).
Upcoming Important Dates: Oct 16 — Mid Term Practice Exam Day
Oct 18 — Essay due on Beauty
Oct 23 — Mid Term Exam
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OCT 4: Continue to write on beauty—quotidian (daily, easily overlooked) encounters you have with beauty. Note: Instructor will hand back previous assignments and students can sign up for short conferences with Instructor.
We will also discuss MidTerms.
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OCT 2: You are extracting quotes from the Schjeldahl article and are prepared to discuss them in class, along with your further writing on the prompt: “When I see something beautiful, I…” Also, you will come prepared to ask questions about words or concepts you may have difficulty understanding. Due: Oct 4.
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SEPT 23: Thank you to our many singers and non-verbal communicators. (Taiji — nice voice!) Reminder that Journal Check is Thursday. That’s all your notes thus far and any handouts thus far. Your next paper is due Oct 4. The I/O Dialogue formatting can vary, as long as it is consistent and clear and clean and you now have a PAPER FORMATTING page on this site to consult!
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SEPT 20: Thank you to our class facilitators (Moises, Justyna, Aravis, Azam…Daniel, Taiji…) ! We also discussed formatting for your writing constraint paper due on Tuesday (500-words, double spaced, printed on one side, typed…). Please come to class ready to read further all the new Inner/Outer Dialogue work you are doing in coffee shops/public sites/in transit. You should have more material by Tuesday such that you can generate another 500 words for you next paper. We will discuss its formatting on Tuesday and Thursday. Reading: please finish the Stephen King memoir. Due: Tues Sept 25.
Upcoming important dates: Journal Check Thu Sept 27 (your “journal” includes all handwritten work and notes thus far as well as any handouts you have received thus far).
Library Orientation day Nov 1.
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SEPT 13: Read further in your Stephen King memoir until p. 249.
Bring your drafts in to class from your Inner/Outer Dialogues created In Transit. We will read some of them aloud. These drafts will be worked into your second, 500-word paper for this class. We will discuss formatting in class. Due: Thu 20
Reminder: Your first 500-word, double-spaced typed paper (with writing constraint) is due on Sept. 25. If you have not already done so, please purchase the other required text for this class: The Little Seagull Handbook. See MATERIALS and SYLLABUS on this website if you need more details. If you do not have the textbook, there are many sources for MLA Format available Online for free. One of the best is the PurdueOnlineWritingLab. Here is a link.
You will see an example of the first page of a standard, double-spaced, typed paper there. Our college follows MLA style. You should be familiar with this format for all papers for classes at NYCCT.
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SEPT 6: Read further in your Stephen King memoir going deep into the “Toolbox” section (to app. p. 211). In your journals make note of the following: How does Stephen King feel about grammar? (what if you are not good at it? what if you are?); How does Stephen King feel about adverbs? Why? What does Stephen King say about drafts and revisions?
Writing: Have a first, handwritten draft of your constraint paper about life is change and be prepared to share it in oval time. POST at least one paragraph of what you wrote on OpenLab. Be prepared to be critiqued and have revisions suggested to you. Due: Sept 13.
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SEPT 4: Read to page 107 in your Stephen King memoir. Answer in your notebooks/journals the following:
Name three bad things that happened to King in his youth.
What is writing, according to Stephen King? (this is a one word answer.) Due: Thurs Sept 6.
Note, upcoming due dates: Your first typed paper: Sept. 25; your first Journal Check: Sept. 27. Your first paper topic is as discussed in class. Please bring your work in progress to share in class “oval” time.
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AUG 30: Write about the end of summer; or, summer is over and fall is beginning; or just Labor Day… This is your basic topic.
Constraint: Do not use any of the “lost 5 letters” — v, w, x, y, z — in the above writing.
No length limit. MINIMUM three paragraphs. Due: Sept. 4.
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AUG 28: Write without using the definite article as we discussed in class. Your topic can expand from the morning into the rest of the day if you like. “My day continued…” No length, but a three paragraph minimum. Handwritten in your journals. CP. Due next class (Thurs Aug 30).
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