Course Description

Welcome to your first-year composition (writing) course! This semester we’ll explore the connections between writing, reading, rhetoric, and critical thinking. You’ll practice writing for different purposes and audiences, and you’ll both give and receive substantial feedback on your and others’ writing. As learning from each other will be a large part what we do, you are expected to be an active participant in the classroom community.

Course Topic of Inquiry

In order to build our critical reading and thinking practices, we will engage several readings on a shared course topic of inquiry: “The Politics of Language.” We can understand this course as drawing on the topic of language and literacy as a vehicle for critically analyzing and developing our own languages and literacies. We will explore questions such as these: What is the relationship between language, race, and power? How do attitudes about language standards empower and oppress language users? What are the historical and political implications behind how “Standard English” is valued and traditionally approached? How are we—the readers and writers participating in this class—affected by the ways that language and literacy function in the United States? That is, how do our language backgrounds affect our lived experiences and how we are perceived and treated by others?

Required Materials

This is a “ZERO Textbook Cost” course. All reading materials will be accessible on our course website.

We will also read a collection of student writing (yours, your peers’, others’). Please either print or have digital access to all course documents and materials for class.

Please bring a pen and paper to EVERY class. I recommend a small notebook or journal, as we will start each class with a short (5 to 10-minute) free-writing exercise.

Recommended Open Education Resources:

Use these additional resources as needed for help with the writing process, editing, and formatting.

• https://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/write/fieldguide/index.asp
• https://courses.lumenlearning.com/englishcomp1v2xmaster/
• https://writingcommons.org/
• https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
• https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/

Online Technology and Software Requirements

You will need to regularly access:

• Google Classroom (our central hub, where you’ll submit assignments)
• Blackboard (CCNY’s support system, where you’ll receive grades)
• Google Drive (a free online file storage site where you’ll upload work and we’ll share and collaborate on our writing as a class)
• CUNY Academic Commons (where you’ll create a digital portfolio)
• Word-processing software of your choice: Microsoft Office, Office365 (available for free to CCNY students), Google Docs, etc. No matter what you use, please save all documents as .doc or docx files and please no links, PDFs, or Pages files.

I strongly recommend you make an effort to organize our course documents and your work. Create a designated English 110 Fall 2023 folder on your computer and be strategic in how you use subfolders and title documents. You will need to return to assignments, so the more organized the better. Computers, as you know, are susceptible to crashing and freezing. Save your work frequently and back up your files (in multiple places!).

Course Learning Outcomes

In this course, you will work to

1. Examine how attitudes towards linguistic standards empower and oppress language users.
2. Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations.
3. Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing.
4. Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations.
5. Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences.
6. Locate research sources (including academic journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles) in the library’s databases or archives and on the Internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias.
7. Compose texts that integrate a stance with appropriate sources, using strategies such as summary, analysis, synthesis, and argumentation.
8. Practice systematic application of citation conventions.

Grading

We will use transparent grading for this course. Please see our contract for details. In short, your grade will be based on your attendance, your completion of all minor and major assignments, and how diligently you practiced the specific goals of each assignment.

Major Assignments

You will complete four major writing assignments, which are mentioned below but will be described in more detail within assignment prompts you’ll receive later. All parts of all major assignments must be successfully completed in order to pass this course. You will write multiple drafts and revise each major assignment based on the peer feedback you receive. You will also receive extensive instructor feedback on your “Final” version, which you will then substantially revise again before including the “Portfolio” version in your Digital Portfolio.

Smaller Homework Assignments

Reading and writing assignments will be due twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays (Fridays if you’re taking this class online!), 30 minutes before our class starts (11:00 AM for in-person; 12:30 PM for online). You should plan to spend about 10 hours per week on our course: 4-8 hours on homework and/or essay writing for this course and 2.5 hours of class meeting time. You will be asked this semester to read, annotate, take reading notes, keep a record of ideas, revisit in-class assignments, collaborate (online) with your classmates, and engage in a variety of research, writing, and revision assignments.

Your homework will be reviewed on a regular basis. Much of your grade depends on you submitting smaller homework assignments, so do take these assignments seriously. See the Grading Contract for details about late and make-up assignments. If there are extenuating circumstances (e.g., medical or other emergencies), please do not hesitate to contact me so that we can arrange a good time to talk and figure out a plan.

One-to-one Meetings

You will be required to schedule a one-to-one, thirty-minute meeting with me once this semester. Your attendance at this meeting will count as an assignment grade.

Course Policies, Procedures, and Pertinent Information

Contacting Your Instructor

I want to get to know you, and I take seriously my role in supporting your learning. I strongly encourage you to contact me and visit during office hours (or make an appointment). And I expect you to keep me informed about your work, your progress, your questions, and your problems, preferably BEFORE your grade is the central concern. Do not hesitate to email me to ask questions or send me important reminders.

Professional Courtesy

It’s essential that we are all courteous and considerate of each other at all times. As a group, we will represent diverse cultural, racial, linguistic, and gendered identities and abilities. We must all commit to honoring, respecting, and accounting for our differences. As your instructor, I am committed to this.

Technology Expectations

I ask that you please turn off all electronic devices that are not to be used during class time. We will sometimes rely on our cell phones, laptops, or university desktop computers (located in library computer labs). You are tasked with accessing and submitting documents online, as well as creating a digital portfolio. Learning about and regularly accessing technology is thus a critical part of our course.

Participation

I care deeply about students being present and engaged in class, and I’ll do my best to make class meetings meaningful and useful. I ask that you come to class on time and prepared with all relevant readings or texts. I understand that everyone has different approaches to participation, so I welcome you to engage in class in a way that best fits you (by quietly but actively listening, writing in the chat, taking notes, asking questions, and/or offering comments). Everyone is required, however, to collaborate with peers during group work.

Language

Students are expected to take an active role in developing their writing and language. I recognize that students come from different educational, linguistic, and racial backgrounds and that it takes several years, not a semester, to develop English academic language, especially if English is a student’s additional (and not first) language. As your instructor, I am committed to adopting approaches deemed most effective by the fields of Second Language Writing and Composition and Rhetoric: I will provide ongoing feedback on your writing to highlight potential areas to revise/develop (including language uses), and I will refrain from penalizing you for your language. You will also learn in this course about the racial politics of using language as a tool for measuring students’ and others’ learning, qualifications, and intelligence.

The Writing Center

The CCNY Writing Center provides a supportive learning environment where students can have one-on-one tutoring sessions with experienced writing consultants. The Writing Center is available for virtual meetings. Students can schedule an appointment through the online booking system. This is a free resource available to all students and recommended for all writing assigned in this and other classes. Visit their website for more info http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/writing/ and to book an appointment.