COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is concerned with understanding, describing, and responding to the various ways we s hare and express ourselves and encounter the world. The word “Humanities,” as an academic term, encompasses multiple genres, such as Music, History, Philosophy, and the Arts. In this class, we will creatively and critically explore the world of creativity, learning how to respond to and write about multiple genres. We will read rigorously, from fiction to non -fiction to poetry. Studying specific aspects of each of these types of work will hone our abilities of looking and responding. A lot of this course’s readings will offer varying perspec tives of the ever-changing American experience. We will learn how to discuss language and dissect it, how to employ it to analyze subject matter across genres in ways that both effective and creative. We will take the conclusions we come to and broaden them, establishing worldviews. This course is about slowing down in a world that moves quickly.
COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES
- 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)
REQUIRED MATERIAL
Bullock, Richard: The Norton Field Guide to Writing, 4th Edition
Selected handouts& readings provided lry instructor& uploaded onto Blackboard
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
GRADE WEIGHTS
Participation: 20%
Short Responses: 20%
Extended Essays: 40%
Portfolio: 20%
FULL ASSIGNMENTS
Explication, Poetry
Using 2-4 poems that we have read in class, analyze each poem’s use of language.
Point out ways in which the poet employs sound, figurative speech, or rhythm in order to affect meaning. Then, comment on the meaning of each poem. What do you think the poem is trying to say? Is it effective? How does the poem resonate? Compare and contrast each poem in this manner – what is one poet doing that another is not doing?
Length: 5 pages
First Draft Due: 2/ 15 Final Draft Due: 2/27
Book Review
Choose one fiction book that we have read in class. In your essay, pinpoint
what the author is attempting to say about the American experience. Then, using research and your own personal experience, relate the argument of the essay to the modem world. How has the ” problem” of the essay grown? How has it subsided?
Length: 5 pages
First Draft Due: 3/22 Final Draft Due 3/29
Visual Essay
Choose from any of the topics below:
- Structure: How does Baldwin play with time & plot in Giovanni’s Room? How does this affect your reading/perception of the novel?
- Context: Discuss the context surrounding the writing of Giovanni’s How was this book bold in the 1950s? How is it still relevant now? Is it still relevant now?
- Theme: Discuss and analyze Baldwin’s criticisms of America in Giovanni’s How does he compare this country to Europe? Has this changed at all? Are his criticisms still relevant? How does this influence your own contemporary worldview?
- Character: Pick 2 characters and analyze their motivations and/or morality in Giovanni’s
Length: 5 pages
First Draft Due: 4/24 Final Draft Due: 5/1
INFORMAL WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
Media Response Essays
Since much of the course material revolves on historical and contemporary responses to the American experience, each month you will have to turn in brief, 1 page responses to news articles that you encounter in print or online. List the publication and title at the top of your essay, and below it, summarize and respond to the issue addressed in the article. Your responses can be reflective, critical, creative, or encompassing of all of these qualities.
Length: 1-2 pages Due Dates TBA
COURSE POLICIES
Plagiarism and Academic Integrity
Plagiarism is copying and using other people’s words without proper acknowledgment or citation as 1t 1s indicated in the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity. All writing submitted for this course is understood to be your original work. Plagiarism is unacceptable and has serious consequences that can include a failing grade. In cases where I detect academic dishonesty (the fraudulent submission of another’s work, in whole or part, as your own), you may be subject to a failing grade for the project or the course, and, in the worst case, to academic probation or expulsion. You are expected to read, understand, and adhere to CCNY’s Policy on Academic Integrity, which is available here: http:// wwwl. ccny.cun y.edu/ current/upload/Academic In tegrity-Policy .pdf
Student Code of Conduct
All student members of the College community are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that demonstrates mutual respect for the rights and personal/academic wellbeing of others, preserves the integrity of the social and academic environment, and supports the mission of the College. The College has an inherent right to address behavior that impedes, obstructs, or threatens the maintenance of order and attainment of the aforementioned goals by violating the standards of conduct set forth in the University student conduct policies noted below as well as other policies that may be established by the respective Schools, Global Sites, and administrative offices of the University. The goals of the CCNY Community Standards are:
- To promote a campus environment that supports the overall educational mission of the University
- To protect the University community from disruption and harm
- To encourage appropriate standards of individual and group behavior
- To foster ethical values and civic virtues
- To foster personal learning and growth while at the same time holding individuals and groups accountable to the standards of expectations established by the Code of Conduct: http:/ /www.ccny.cuny.edu/studentaffairs/community-standards.cfm
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
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.
AccessAbility Center Tutoring Services, NAC 1/218 http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/accessability/
Provides one-on-one tutoring and workshops to all registered students with learning or physical disabilities.
SEEK Peer Academic Learning Center, NAC 4/224 Phone: 212-650-5786; email: [email protected]
Offers counseling and peer tutoring for students in need of academic and financial support who have registered for the SEEK Program.
