ENG 110: College Writing (Section 21)
Topic – Higher Education at Queens: Talking to the University
Queens College, Fall 2016
Mondays and Wednesdays, 8:00am-9:50am, KY 283
Instructor: Allison Douglass
Office: Klapper Hall 533; office phone: (718) 997-4659
Office hours: Wednesdays 10:30am-12:00pm and by appointment
Email address:
Course blog URL: 110highered.social.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu
Course Description / Our guiding assumption in this course is that higher education functions through a series of relationships, and that exploring these relationships through writing will help us to contextualize the way we understand both higher education in America and our personal college experience. We can think of these relationships in different clusters or “frames”: as conversations between students, their families, and their teachers; between faculty and administrators; and between universities and the racial, ethnic, and geographical communities from which they draw. Through a progression of formal and informal writing assignments, we will contribute our voices to these conversations. One of the clearest ways that we can begin to understand what drives these conversations is to read and write about them in the context of the institution of which we are all a part: The City University of New York (CUNY). The process of observation, argument, evaluation, and revision that has driven changes in educational policy at CUNY is the same process that you will engage with as you participate in the interchange of ideas and information through your writing in this class. We will also explore the series of choices and circumstances that led to your decision to come to CUNY. What will be your relationship to this institution? How do your reasons for coming to college compare to generations of students who preceded you? How do your values converge with or diverge from the values of your university?Learning Objectives / By the end of the semester students will be able to:
1) assess rhetorical context across different genres—evaluating them in terms of tone, stance, purpose, audience and visual design— and understand how this context works with ideas to produce the meaning of a text.
2) incorporate various methods of research into their written texts, including the use of secondary resources (both print and multimedia) and primary sources they have gathered themselves.
3) develop a vocabulary that will help them to analyze the structure and style of their writing, applying critical reading skills to their own texts and then articulating strategies for improvement.
4) make connections with other courses in terms of both content and methods of critical inquiry.
Texts /
- Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing, 2nd ed. by John Trimble; Prentice Hall; ISBN: 978-0130257130
- Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, 2nd ed. by Emerson & Fretz; University of Chicago Press; ISBN: 978-0226206837
- The rest of our texts will be made available through our course website, and you will be asked to bring a printed copy to each class meeting.
Materials / A notebook or some other place where all your notes/writings from this course will be kept
A sturdy portfolio folder or something like it to keep all physical materials
A reliable recording device (to collect data for your ethnographic research paper)
Consistent access to a working computer with a reliable internet connection and a printer
Course Requirements / Assignment
Reading Presentation
Policy Presentation
Essay #1
Essay #2
Essay #3
Final paper proposal
Annotated bibliography
Fieldwork
Ethnographic research paper
Active contributor status / Weight (%)
5
5
10
15
15
5
5
5
20
15
The final grade is out of 100 points. 90-100 = A-range; 80-89 = B-range; 70-79 = C-range; 60-69 = D-range; below 60 = F
Formal Writing Assignments / Essay #1: What is “Cultural Literacy”?
Length: 4-5 pages.
Draft Post: September 19th; Final Version: September 26th
E.D. Hirsch, Donaldo Macedo, and James Loewen each have emphatic opinions about the advantages, drawbacks, and blindspots inherent in the relationship between history, culture, and literacy in America. Using Hirsch’s discussion of “cultural literacy” as a starting point, describe how each author would redefine the meaning of this phrase, analyzing and comparing the motivations and assumptions that underlie their arguments about “what you should have learned” in school.
Essay #2: As They Put It: A Dialogue
Length: 5-6 pages.
Draft Post: October 6th; Final Version: October 17th
Choose one educational policy that you want to learn more about [for example, “No Child Left Behind,” remediation, affirmative action] as the focus for this assignment. This policy should be something that you have a personal interest or stake in. Summarize, paraphrase, and quote from various sources (you may use those we have discussed in class, but you must also find some on your own) as you create a transcript of a debate between two fictitious individuals. Give your speakers identities: names, ages, jobs, and stakes in American higher education. How will each speaker use your sources to persuade the other about his or her opinions on this policy? The climax of the dialogue should have one major point of contention. The dialogue should also come to some new moment of clarity or resolution by the time it concludes. (Speakers can “agree to disagree,” as long as each speaker’s precise position has been articulated effectively.)
Essay #3: Saying Why It Matters
Length: 5-6 pages, plus Works Cited page.
Draft Post: October 31st; Final Version: November 7th
Identify a change in change in educational policy at Queens College that you think would benefit students. This policy can operate on any scale – in other words, it may affect all students, a particular segment of the campus-wide student body, or students within a narrow group like your academic department. Then identify a member of the administration whose job it is to oversee that particular policy – this may be the chair of a particular committee or department all the way up to the Queens College Provost. Your task is to write a letter to this administrator, structured as a well-organized argument. This letter should propose the change that you think would be beneficial, explain the reasoning behind the proposal using your research, and lay out a practical plan for how the proposal could be implemented.
Final Research Paper: From the Inside Out: An Ethnography
Length: 8-10 pages (final write-up), plus Works Cited page.
Deadlines: The stages and due dates of this sequence of assignments will be discussed in further detail as we progress.
An ethnography is a study of human social phenomena and social communities through the use of fieldwork (first-hand observation). To conclude this course, you will define and select a small sample of people (some subset of students, teachers, parents, etc.) who have a stake in a debate in higher education that we have discussed this semester (e.g. what we mean by “cultural literacy,” remediation, affirmative action, NCLB or another national educational policy, or for-profit schools). Arrange times to observe and interact with the subjects in your study closely for three to four weeks to record their beliefs, understandings, and habits. As you learn more, through observing this group and through your own outside research, you will compose a final write-up that demonstrates the impact of a particular national issue on a local scale.
Assignment Format and
Late Paper Policy / Your initial drafts will be posted on your personal blogs on the listed due date. We will workshop those drafts in class, and you will then revise to showcase your most polished, sophisticated work. Following a writing workshop, hard copies of all revised papers must be turned in for a grade on the dates indicated on the schedule (then you can upload this final version to the blog as well. Both the electronic version and the hard copy must be submitted by the required due dates. If only one of the two versions is submitted, you will be docked a letter grade. All final drafts should consistently follow one style guide (MLA, APA, or Chicago).
Papers submitted after the designated due date and time (usually noon on a class day) will be accepted, but will be docked a letter grade. Additionally, no late work will be accepted more than 48 hours after the original deadline.
On days when we are workshopping drafts, if you have not completed your work on time you will be unable to participate in the day’s work, and that will affect your overall “Active Contributor” grade.
You may give drafts to me at any time for notes, but even if I have seen a draft, you must still upload to the blog and submit hard copies when otherwise required.
Presentations / You will also complete two 5-minute presentations for this course.
For the first, you will lead the discussion of one of our readings. You will sign up for one of the assigned readings, and on the day when we read that piece, you will have five minutes to 1) briefly summarize the most important points of the reading, 2) point out the most interesting ideas you found in your classmates’ blog posts about the reading (obviously, this means you will need to have read everyone’s posts), and 3) ask a couple of questions about the reading we could try to answer in our discussion. The questions you ask should be open-ended – challenge us!
For the second, you will talk to the class about one policy at Queens that you think should be changed or done away with, showing us whatever research you have done on it so far. Be sure to give us all the important information about 1) what the policy is, 2) why it was implemented in the first place, 3) what you find to be flawed in the policy, 4) any ideas you have about how it might be improved, and 5) who has control over changing that policy. These presentations will begin after you have already done a full formal essay on educational policies at Queens, so you may take all of this information directly from the writing you’ve already done, if you choose, or you may use this opportunity to explore a new topic (especially if you don’t want to continue working on the same one for your final research).
Becoming an Active Contributor / I expect you to take seriously your vital role in this classroom. The responsibilities you have accepted by enrolling include coming prepared to class, contributing to class discussions in a thoughtful and consistent way, staying up-to-date on any necessary changes in scheduling or course requirements, and posting regularly (more than once per week) on your individual blog.
To become/stay an active contributor, you should do these things:
Come to class every day prepared with necessary materials and having done the reading
Come to class with something to say
Post on your blog more than once a week (commenting on other people’s posts also counts, but you should write something of your own at least once per week)
Ask questions when you have them
For your “Active Contributor Status” grade, you will get an A if you do these things all/almost all the time, a B if you do them most of the time, a C if you do them the majority of the time, a D if you do them inconsistently, and an F if you rarely/never do them.
Course Blog and Student Blogs / Obtain access to the course blog (http://110highered.social.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu): Selected readings as well as announcements and assignments will be posted there.
You will also create and maintain your own personal blog: Once you have signed up for a Qwriting,org account at you will be able to create a personal blog for use in this course this semester (you first have to activate your Queens email account). The blog is yours forever. Treat it well and organize it clearly: make sure there is a designated page labeled “Essays” where you will upload your formal assignments – other than that, you’re free to design it as you wish. On this blog, you will A) post your formal writing assignments; B) post informal thoughts about the course, your work/process, or our readings more than once per week (you may also fulfill this second requirement through substantially commenting on other people’s posts, but you should post something of your own at least once per week). There is a page on our course website with suggested writing prompts, but you are free to write whatever seems relevant to you. Your informal posts will not be graded for content, but keeping up with them will make up a large portion of your Active Contributor grade, which constitutes 15% of your final grade. At the end of this semester, you may want to continue to add to it or adapt it for another purpose.
Once you have created your own blog, you will add it to the “blog roll” for our course, and it will be open to the other members of the course and to me. See the “Student Blogs” tab on our course site to do so. This is not a private blog and should not be treated as such. The blog is a space for you to respond to the readings and our class discussions and to develop your own relationship with the course material. Weekly blog posts and comments should be about 300-400 words each.
Plagiarism / Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person’s ideas, research or writings as your own. The following are all examples of plagiarism (though this is not an all-inclusive list):
- Copying another person’s actual words without the use of quotation marks and documentation attributing the words to their source
- Presenting another person’s ideas or theories in your own words without acknowledging the source
- Using information that is not common knowledge without acknowledging the source
- Failing to acknowledge collaborators on homework assignments
- Internet plagiarism includes submitting downloaded term papers or parts of term papers, paraphrasing or copying information from the internet without citing the source, and “cutting & pasting” from various sources without proper attribution. (http://web.cuny.edu/academics/info-central/policies/academic-integrity.pdf)
Safe Classroom Environment / In this class, we will spend a great portion of our time in discussion. It is extremely important to me that every member of the class be treated with respect. We are all different, and because of differences in gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, political beliefs, age, or just ways of thinking, we are bound to disagree from time to time – this is fine. However, all students should consider this classroom a safe environment, and it is the responsibility of every one of you to maintain that safety through respect and kindness.
Contacting Your Instructor / My office phone number and email address are included on the first page of this document. I would prefer that you use email to contact me whenever possible, and that you always use the same email account to do so.
I check my campus email for the last time every day at 4:00pm, so know that anything you send me after 4 may not be seen until 9am the next day.
Also, feel free to come by any time during my office hours – I will always be happy to speak with you then. You may also set up appointments to talk to me outside my office hours if they do not work with your schedule.
Freshman Year Initiative / What does it mean to be enrolled in a “linked” course? This English 110 section is linked with Geology 101 in order to explore the ways in which your courses across fields speak to one another. In terms of our specific pairing, you may wish to think of the Geology classroom, the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at QC, or the larger field of Geology as locations wherein you might begin to address the university system in an active, rhetorical way. You cannot drop one linked course without dropping the other.
The Writing Center / I encourage you to begin drafting papers as early as possible and to take advantage of the Queens Writing Center located in Kiely Hall 229. Writing tutors will not edit your papers for you, but they are trained to work with you as you develop your writing at various stages of the process. Often students find that writing centers are most beneficial when they visit regularly, even at multiple points while writing the same paper, so that they develop a dialogue about their work. You can also work with the Writing Center online at http://writingatqueens.qc.cuny.edu/the-writing-center/.
Special Accom- modations / If you have a learning, sensory, or physical reason for special accommodation in this class, you may contact the Office of Special Services in 171 Kiely Hall at 718-997-5870, and they will inform me of whatever I should do to help. However, you are welcome to come to me personally as well.
Semester Schedule