Monday Peer Review Syllabus

ENG101.0745 Introduction to Composition

Spring 2015

Professor Jesse Schwartz

ENG 101: Mondays, rm. E-336 and Thursdays, rm. E-144,10:30-12:45

Contact Info:

Office Hours—M-109B, Monday 12:30-1:30, and by appointment

E-mail: jesseschwartz@lagcc.cuny.edu

Class Blog: Spring2015ENA101.wordpress.com

Course Description (from the Course Catalog)

English 101 is a required writing course at LaGuardia Community College. LaGuardia’s English Department requires students to write 600-word, thesis-driven essays. These essays will prepare students to be successful in future college courses. Students will have opportunities to write papers in stages – they will take a few weeks to write two or three versions of a draft before turning it in. They will also have opportunities to write under time constraints, such as the diagnostic and midterm essays.

Section Description:

The first step toward college-level writing is college-level thinking.  Together we will read challenging essays that encourage us to dive into the kinds of ideas that make college an exciting intellectual experience. This class will focus on the theme of labor. Or, if you prefer, “work.” As most of you are in college to get a “better life”—which usually means a “better job”—we’ll explore what that might mean by reading about people in various kinds of employment. 

Course Goals

This course will instruct students in the key modes of academic writing and professional communication: summary, comparison and contrast, analysis, close reading, resource citation, introductions, conclusions, bibliographies, arguments, supporting claims, audience awareness, and research techniques.

This course will instruct students to accomplish short writing assignments by approaching writing as a process. This process includes annotated reading, note-taking, drafting, revision, and peer review.

This course will help students become fluent with academic writing through various digital communication tools, such as blogs and discussion groups.

Required Materials:

• Course Pack.  You’re in luck: Nearly all of our readings will be compiled in a course pack that I distribute to you. It is your job to keep this pack and bring it to class.  If you lose it, you must print it out again on your own.

Grading:

• Participation, 15%.  Participation means consistent contributions to the classroom experience.  On a basic level this means coming to class ON TIME (consistent lateness and absences will be reflected in this portion of the grade), turning in assignments, etc.  This also means asking questions, sharing thoughts, and respectfully and critically engaging with the ideas and work of your fellow students.  I don’t expect anyone to say the “right thing” or talk all the time in order to participate—but I do expect you to bring your ideas to the classroom conversation. 
• Discussion Board/In-Class Work, 15%.  In order to facilitate classroom discussion, students will be expected to post comments about the readings on our class blog.  Our class discussion will be facilitated by one student who starts off the session (something you’ll each do once).  Everyone else may be expected to respond in turn before the next class meeting.  Think of this as a web conversation that will lay the foundation for the classroom discussion.  There is no firm word-count expectation, but comments must be productive. Simply writing “I agree with the above post” does not count as a response.
• 2 Short Essays 15% each (30% total)
• Research Paper (Paper #3) 25%
• Midterm (annotated bibliography) and Final In-Class Essays (10% and 5%)

Classroom Rules:

• Attendance and lateness: As with any college course, it is essential to be in class, to be on time, and to complete all assigned work.  To this end, more than four missed classroom hours (for ANY reason) can result in failure for the entire course. Lateness counts as well: every three latenesses will count as one missed class. Anyone arriving more than thirty minutes after the beginning of class will be marked as absent for the day.  If you miss a class for any reason, make sure you contact a classmate or look at the class blog in order to get the assignments and cover the missed material. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL WORK REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE LATE. Either email it to me or post it to the blog.
• Cell phones, iPods, laptops, and all other electronic devices need to be INVISIBLE and SILENT while you are in the classroom.  It is disrespectful to your fellow students to interrupt them by allowing your phone to ring, to text message, to leave the class in order to chat on the phone, or to listen to music/watch videos while class is in session.  Doing so in class will result in a lowered grade.  Exception: if a family member is ill or expecting to give birth, you should keep your phone on vibrate (but still out of sight) and leave quietly if called – you should NEVER answer the phone in class under any circumstance. I expect you to be professional and respectful regarding the use of electronic devices. 
• PLAGIARISM WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.  We will talk about plagiarism in class in great detail, but please note: Any paper exhibiting plagiarized work will fail immediately, thereby lowering your overall final grade.  If the case is severe (more than one or two sentences), you will also fail the course, and your work will be reported to the college via an Academic Integrity Complaint.  The LaGuardia Community College Policy on Academic Integrity can be found here:

http://library.laguardia.edu/files/pdf/academicintegritypolicy.pdf.

Students with Disabilities: The Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) provides services for students with disabilities to ensure access to College programs. They offer personal, academic, career, and accommodations counseling, evaluation referrals, testing for learning disabilities, and adaptive/assistive technology. 

They are located in M 102, and can be reached at (718) 482-5279 (TTY x6057). http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/osd/default.htm#

 

Day-to-Day Class Schedule

**All the readings below are to be read for the day listed. All readings are from our course pack or the book They Say, I Say (Graff)

March

Th/5     Welcomes and Introductions.

            HW: Set up a Wordpress account and send me the address

M/9     Zitkala-sa, “The School Days of an Indian Girl”

            In-Class Diagnostic Essay

Th/12   Freire, “The Banking Concept of Education” and Graff, Chapter 1

           

M/16   Graff, Chapter 2

            Paper #1 Assigned

Th/19   In-Class student workshop—producing introductions and thesis statements

            Graff, Chapter 3

M/23   Rough Draft #1 Workshop

Th/26   ***

M/30   In-Class Viewing The Harvest/La Cosecha

Paper #1 Due

April

Th/2     Film discussion

            Graff, Chapter 4

M/6     No Classes—Spring Break

Th/9     No Classes—Spring Break

M/13   Fast Food Nation, chapter 3

Th/16   Fast Food Nation, chapter 8

In-Class Writing: Thesis Statement Workshop

M/20   Rough Draft Workshop Paper #2

            Graff, Chapter 7

Th/23   ***

Paper #2 Due

M/27   Research Paper Topic Workshop

            Research paper assigned

Th/30   Graeber, “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs”

May

M/4     Ehrenreich, “Scrubbing In Maine,” from Nickel and Dimed

Th/7     Research day

            MLA formatting workshop

F/8      Last Day To Withdraw From Course

M/11   Annotated Bibliography due

Th/14   Ehrenreich, “Selling in Minnesota”

M/18   Graff, Chapter 11

Th/21   Rough Draft Workshop

M/25   No Classes—College Closed

Th/28   Research Paper Due

            Final exam preparation

June

M/1     In-class exam. LAST DAY OF CLASSES

***We will meet one last time during finals week in order for you to receive your final grade and discuss how this affects your future coursework.