UWS 6a: The Decay of the American City
Prof. Nathaniel HodesMeets MW 1:00-1:50 in Mandel G10 / Office hours: Thurs 1:00-1:50 in Rabb 226
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Course Description
UWS focuses on learning to summarize, analyze, and evaluate other writers' texts, especially difficult academic texts, and then to synthesize` these results into your own original arguments. It also provides basic research and citation skills. As we explore the assigned readings, weekly writing assignments will connect our critical dialogue to paper-writing techniques, paying special attention to structural aspects of the essay format and the logic of argumentation. The subject of this course is the decay and attempted restoration of American cities—in particular, how do we write and think about them, how do we live in them, how do they shape our personal identities, and what can be done to revitalize them? Readings will span a variety of disciplines, including journalism, sociology, economics, and urban planning, with texts by Jane Jacobs, Michel de Certeau, Richard Florida, Alexander Garvin, and others. We will begin by studying how the minutiae of sidewalks, facades, and the very act of walking govern personal safety and the perception of safety. Next, we will examine literary and non-literary texts that treat the city as a site of community. Finally, we will survey the aims and failures of urban reform.
Assignment Sequence and Grading
Essay #1: close analysis of a street scene or public plaza: You will closely analyze the activity on a chosen sidewalk or plaza, and based on principles derived from essays by Jane Jacobs, William Whyte, or Michel de Certeau, craft an argument about how the space functions.
Essay #2: lens analysis of The Wire: After watching several episodes from season 4 of the HBO series The Wire, you will explore its representation of the city—and in particular, how the city constitutes individual subjects—through the theoretical lens of social networking theory or underground market dynamics.
Essay #3: research paper on urban reform: You will research some effort at urban revitalization in an American city from the past decade after synthesizing the arguments of several assigned readings about urban reform.
Each essay will account for a percentage of your final grade, weighted according to how well you did on it. The paper for which you received the highest grade of the three will constitute 28% of your overall grade, the next highest will constitute 25%, and the lowest will constitute 21%. The rest of your final grade consists of the grades on your shorter work, including pre-draft exercises and quizzes (8%), and your participation, which reflects the quality and regularity of your in-class discussion and the timely completion of full drafts and peer reviews (18%).
Texts and Materials
· The Wire: Season 4: DVDs are available from online retailers for about $40; alternatively, you can download the show episode-by-episode from a service like iTunes or HBOGo.
· A course packet containing both academic essays and sample student writing will be handed out the second full week of class. You must bring this to every class once we begin using it.
· Other course readings will be available on the website for our course. Unless I state otherwise, you simply need to read and understand these and do not have to print them out or bring them to class.
· Also bring to class a dedicated notebook for in-class writing (you will need to tear out pieces of paper periodically, so you may prefer to use a binder of loose-leaf paper).
Stages of the Essay Assignments
- Pre-drafts are short papers, 1-4 pages in length, which help you to begin thinking about the upcoming essay. I grade them with a check if they make an adequate effort to address the assignment, a check-minus if they do not adhere to the assignment, or a 0 if incomplete or short of the required length. I occasionally give check-pluses for exceptional responses to an exercise—but note that simply writing more than the required page length or doing more than the assignment requires will not earn a check-plus.
- You should treat drafts as complete papers. Although I and your classmates will offer you feedback on your drafts and you will have a week to revise each one, you should put your best effort into it. Treat the essay draft as if I were going to grade it: the draft should meet the required page length and represent a coherent, complete argument. Drafts remain ungraded, but your efforts on them will factor into your participation grade.
- Each paper will undergo peer review. The day that drafts are due, you will receive two of your classmates’ drafts (and you will in turn give out your draft to those two classmates). For the next class (the "peer review workshop"), you will read and comment on your partners’ drafts. Bring a printed and marked-up copy of their papers to class so that you can discuss different passages in depth. You will also have a questionnaire to complete for each draft that aims to help your peers revise their work. Peer review, like the draft, factors into your participation grade.
- Revisions are significantly reworked versions of your drafts, taking into account all feedback you have received and any further ideas you have had. The most successful revisions preserve only 25 to 30 percent of the original draft; they start with the best parts of the draft and build completely new papers around them. I grade revisions with letters grades (A to F) according to a rubric we will review together.
Submission of Work and Receiving Feedback
You will submit all work electronically through LATTE. You must save files in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) format or Rich-text format (.rtf). I will not be able to read papers in any other format. I will respond to written work by inserting comments in the document and sending it back to you.
Late Papers and Extensions
Extensions are available for your revisions, but not for pre-draft assignments and not for rough drafts, which must be turned in on time to facilitate peer review workshops. You can ask for a 3-day extension on one of your papers, without explanation, so long as you notify me the night before the paper is due or earlier. Or you may instead divide up that extension, taking 1- or 2-day extensions on any revision (adding up to 3 days). Any other papers that are handed in late will drop a third of a letter grade for each day that they are late (for instance, an "A" paper turned in two days late will become a "B+" paper). You may also take an additional 1-day extension on any paper that you take to the Writing Center (be sure to have the tutor fill out a verification form).
Academic Integrity
You are expected to be familiar with and to follow the University’s policies on academic integrity, section 4 of the Rights and Responsibilities (available at http://www.brandeis.edu/studentaffairs/srcs/rr/). Instances of academic dishonesty will be referred to the Department of Student Rights and Community Standards.
Attendance and Tardiness
Please notify me by email beforehand if you are unable to come to class for any reason—medical, extracurricular, religious, or otherwise—although you should not specify the reason. You will lose 1/3 of a letter grade for every absence after your third absence. Repeated tardiness will also count as an absence (every third time you arrive over 5 minutes late). Missing a peer review workshop will generally count as two absences, since the prodigal students are impairing the ability of their group members to complete the assigned work. If you miss a class, do not ask me what you missed—check with another student. 6 absences will result in automatic failure.
Conferences and Meeting outside of Class
You are required to attend a group or one-on-one conference with me for each paper that you write. These conferences are mandatory, as they replace the third hour of class.
Participation and Quizzes
You are expected to participate in class discussions and peer review workshops. A primary purpose of this class is to learn to generate and analyze ideas, to think critically about primary and secondary texts—which is exactly what we do in class discussion. Come to class prepared to offer your own thoughts and questions on the assigned text. To grasp the reading well, you should be able to:
· point to one or more sentences that you believe either convey or are crucial to understanding the author’s thesis or goal in writing the text
· outline the major steps of the author’s argument
· assess the weaknesses and strengths of the argument
· compare how the author approaches the idea of the city to the approaches used in previous readings
To ensure students are doing the reading, I will periodically administer pop quizzes.
Laptops, Tablets, and Cellphones
Because this is a writing class, I will sometimes ask you to bring your laptops for in-class writing and revision exercises. When we are not using the laptops for that purpose, however, leave them home or keep them stowed away. (When we workshop essays, you are required to work from hard copies.) If you feel you need more regular access to your laptop for note-taking or other legitimate purposes, please speak to me. You may not use your cell phone or tablet during class—don't even try to hide it in your lap. If you need to leave your cell phone on in "silent" mode because of an emergency situation, please let me know at the start of class. Using any of these devices without prior authorization will count as an absence.
Disabilities
If you are a student who needs academic accommodations because of a documented disability, please contact me and present your letter of accommodation as soon as possible. If you have questions about documenting a disability or requesting academic accommodations, you should contact Beth Rodgers-Kay in Academic Services (x6-3470 or ). Letters of accommodation should be presented at the start of the semester to ensure provision of accommodations. Accommodations cannot be granted retroactively.
Schedule of Course Packet Readings and Assignments—SUBJECT TO CHANGE
The following syllabus only lists our city-themed readings, which will generally be due on Monday of the week listed. Smaller writing-oriented readings will also be assigned and will generally be due on Wednesdays, as will peer reviews. Written assignments are generally due on Friday and should be submitted to LATTE.
Week 1: R Aug 28
Introduction; syllabus distributed
Week 2: W Sep 3 (NO CLASS on M Sep 1)
Jane Jacobs
Week 3: M Sep 8, W Sep 10
William Whyte, Sample Essay #1 A
Predraft for Essay #1 due
Week 4: M Sep 15, W Sep 17
Michel de Certeau
Draft for Essay #1 due
Week 5: M Sep 22, W Sep 24
Sample Essay #1 B, Wire episodes 1-2
Peer Review
Week 6: M Sep 29, W Oct 1
Elijah Anderson, Wire episodes 3-4
Revision for Essay #1 due
Week 7: M Oct 6, W Oct 8
Robert Putnam, Sample Essay #2 A, Wire episode 5
Predraft for Essay #2 due
Week 8: M Oct 13, W Oct 15
Ethan Watters, Wire episode 6
Draft for Essay #2 due
Week 9: M Oct 20, W Oct 22
Sample Essay #2 B
Peer Review
Week 10: M Oct 27, W Oct 29
Richard Florida, library research session
Revision for Essay #2 due
Week 11: M Nov 3, W Nov 5
Owen Fiss
Predraft A for Essay #3
Week 12: M Nov 10, W Nov 12
Nicholas Lehmann, Sample Essay #3 A
Predraft B for Essay #3
Week 13: M Nov 17, W Nov 19
Alexander Garvin
Partial draft for Essay #3 due
Week 14: M Nov 24 (NO CLASS on W Nov 26)
Sample Essay #3 B
Predraft C for Essay #3
Week 15: M Dec 1, W Dec 3
Peer Review, Presentations
Week 16: M Dec 8
Revision for Essay #3 due
Diagnostic Writing Prompt:
I use this prompt to get a sense of your ability to generate an argument and to determine what writing skills we will need to work on as a class. It is not graded at all. Please put forth your best effort, but do not let this exercise stress you out..
In his 1937 essay, "What is a City?", urban historian Lewis Mumford attempts to define cities from a sociological perspective:
One may describe the city, in its social aspect, as a special framework directed toward the creation of differentiated opportunities for a common life and a significant collective drama. As indirect forms of association, with the aid of signs and symbols and specialized organizations, supplement direct face-to-face intercourse, the personalities of the citizens themselves become many-faceted: they reflect their specialized interests, their more intensively trained aptitudes, their finer discriminations and selections: the personality no longer presents a more or less unbroken traditional face to reality as a whole. Here lies the possibility of personal disintegration; and here lies the need for reintegration through wider participation in a concrete and visible collective whole. What men cannot imagine as a vague formless society, they can live through and experience as citizens in a city. Their unified plans and buildings become a symbol of their social relatedness; and when the physical environment itself becomes disordered and incoherent, the social functions that it harbors become more difficult to express. (185)
What does Mumford mean in this difficult passage, and do you agree or disagree? Please compose your answer in five to six paragraphs, using quotations from Mumford and concrete examples from your own experience to support your position.