ENGL 21001

SPRING 2019

Classroom: NAC 1/301Y

Class Meeting Times: Monday and Wednesday 9:30-10:45pm
Instructor: Yolande Brener ybrener@ccny.cuny.edu

Office Location: 6/252

Office Hours: By appointment

Course Description: This is an English composition course designed for students who are interested in pursuing careers in the humanities, such as literature, linguistics, foreign languages, history, classics, philosophy, art history, gender studies, music, and dramatic arts. In this course, you will be exposed to academic writing, as well as writing that you may encounter in other professional settings. We will study and practice several genres associated with these areas to understand the standard conventions of humanities composition, vocabulary, and style, and acquire the necessary research and communication skills that will help you in future projects outside of this class.

Keys to Success:

1. The most successful students in a general education English/Humanities course accept that they have much to gain from the course, stay on top of the reading, think critically about the reading and actively participate in class discussions.

2. Successful students, furthermore, see writing as more than the means of completing required assignments. They think of writing as not only a means of communication, but also an opportunity for reflection and a mode of personal expression. Finally, successful students see writing as a means of discovering their ideas on the subject at hand through revision.

Required Course Materials:

Active CCNY email account and Blackboard page. City College Blackboard: Other reading and writing materials, PowerPoint slideshows and videos will be posted online on BB during the semester. Please Note: You must use your CCNY email address in Bb (log in to the CCNY Portal, click Blackboard, then Update Email in the Tools menu). If you add a non-CCNY domain email address in this window, you will not receive important course announcements.

Course Learning Outcomes

During the semester, you will:

• acknowledge your and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources, and draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility
• enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment
• negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation
• develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes
• engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond
• formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing
• practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects
• strengthen your source use practices (including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources)

Assignment Grade Weights

Reading and Writing Assignments (in addition to the essays): Online responses to assigned readings and comments on each other’s posts; peer review. Chapters in the Norton provide heuristics for peer review. All papers must be submitted via Blackboard as a Word document or a PDF. The Final Portfolio can be submitted as a PDF or as a CUNY Commons site.

Your final grade will consist of the following:

Resume and Cover Letter: 10%                                     Due 02/06 (one page each)

Interview 10%                                                                  Due 02/25 (600-800 words)

General Audience Project (Op-ed essay): 15%            Due 03/11 (700-900 words)

Arts Review: 15%                                                            Due 04/01 (800-1000 words)

Grant Proposal: 20%  (group project)                           Due 05/06 (1000-1250 words)

Participation/Attendance: 15%

Final Portfolio and Self-Reflection: 15%                       Due 05/08 (ref 500-700 words)

  

Course Policies

CCNY’s Statement on Community Standards

https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/studentaffairs/community-standards

Attendance

Students are expected to attend every class session of this course and to be on time. If you miss five classes, your final grade will be dropped by one-half of one letter (a 90 to an 85, for example). If you miss six classes, your final grade will be dropped one full letter. If you miss seven classes, you will not be able to pass the course. Consistent late arrivals and early departures will have a negative impact on your grade. I will notify you by email if course absences (for full or partial classes) are having an impact on your grade. If you have special circumstances, please see me. I’m happy to work with you to help you complete this course.

Student Support Services

The Writing Center, NAC Third Floor

https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/writing

The City College Writing Center offers one-on-one assistance for students working on writing assignments and projects from any discipline.

Gateway Advising Center, NAC 1/220

http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/gateway/

Students without a declared major can receive academic advising, especially if you have questions about your course of study, core requirements, etc.

Additional Policies

• Please do not bring food or drink into the classroom.
• Please limit use of electronic devices to course-related content.
• Please respect your classmates and the class environment. Listen to group discussions and limit potentially distracting activities such as side conversations.
• Please speak up. If you don’t understand or don’t agree with anything said in class, or anything assignment-related, please say something, or contact me after class. It will help the group.