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INSTRUCTOR: Eric Dean Wilson	LOCATION: Kiely 429
EMAIL: [email protected]	CLASS HOURS: M/W 6:40p–8:30p
OFFICE HOURS: W 5:30p–6:30p (and by appt.)	OFFICE: Klapper 351

“Talking is natural. Writing is not.”
— Verlyn Klinkenborg, from Several Short Sentences About Writing

Course Description

Some geologists have proposed a new name for our current era: the Anthropocene, or the “Age of Humankind.” Over the past century, emissions from industrial processes have warmed the average temperature of the planet by 1ºC. A 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report warns that global warming by another 0.5ºC will have catastrophic results. Despite knowledge of this, our emissions have only accelerated. But is “Anthropocene” the most accurate name for our epoch? Why does the label matter at all? This semester, as we learn and practice academic writing, we’ll consider these and some of the following questions: How did we arrive at this crisis? Should all humans share equal responsibility? How might we understand the climate crisis in terms of ideas, rather than simply emissions? How does the Western conception of “nature” frame our use and abuse of it? Is science objective? What do we mean when we designate an area as wilderness? How do images of the climate crisis in the news—and shared on social media—influence our perception of it, of ourselves, of our communities, and of the world? Most importantly, what does language have to do with any of this? And how might we use language to think through a solution?

Academic writing is crucial to participating in the many conversations that exist in our intellectual communities at QC and beyond. Therefore, in College Writing I, we’ll learn and practice a dependable, manageable, and reproducible writing process that allows us to find and develop our own strong ideas as well as to express them clearly and persuasively. Over the course of the semester, we’ll read and discuss texts from a number of fields, complete regular informal reading and writing exercises, and write three longer essays. We’ll pay special attention to the practices of close reading, analysis, research, collaboration, and revision. Rather than approach writing as innate talent, we’ll see writing as a skill that anyone can learn and improve through hard work. My hope is that we’ll learn to see writing as a means of discovery, a process of continual refinement of ideas and their expression—as wilderness to explore and to keep wild, not to tame.

Learning Objectives

In learning to compose academic arguments over the duration of this course, students will:

1. write for a variety of rhetorical situations with a particular focus on academic argumentation.
2. learn reading strategies to summarize, synthesize, analyze, and critique other people’s arguments and ideas fairly.
3. learn research practices that will help strengthen their writing and thinking.
4. practice navigating diverse processes of composing including revision and collaboration.
5. learn and use appropriate language conventions for different writing situations.
6. take ownership of their work and gain an understanding of their own voice, style, and strengths.
7. respond to and critically use authoritative theories about the environment.

Required Course Texts & Course Site

The required text for this course is:

• Rules for Writers, Eighth Edition (2016 MLA Update), by Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012. ISBN: 978-1-319-08349-6

We’ll use this book as a reference for the more nuts-and-bolts aspects of writing.

All other texts—syllabus, course description, requirements, homework readings, assignments, and links to resources—are available on our Course Site. If you don’t receive a hard copy of the text in class, you’re responsible for printing it out and/or brining a digital copy to class.

Course Policies

On Passing

To receive a passing grade (D or above), students must at minimum:

• Submit both a formal draft and final revision of all three major essays that meet the assignment requirements. Students must submit all three final essays in order to pass the class. (However, simply submitting all essays without completing the other requirements will not guarantee a passing grade.)
• Attend and participate with engagement in classes and the conference hour.
• Complete reading and writing exercises as assigned. You should complete all course readings as preparation to discuss or write about the texts in class.
• Submit all of your writing assignments by stated deadlines.

On Attending Class & Participating

Attending class and arriving on time is mandatory. Missing class will hurt your overall participation grade, to be judged at my discretion. If you miss class, you’re still responsible for the assignments due on that day. Please email/submit them to me before class begins. If you know you’re going to miss class ahead of time, please let me know via email. It’s your responsibility to learn what you missed. I suggest contacting peers and checking the Site. If you want to further discuss class materials or topics covered, you’re welcome to make an appointment with me during office hours.

The classroom is a micro-democracy. Regular attendance and active participation reflect good classroom citizenship. A well-attended classroom creates a vibrant dynamic that benefits both you and your fellow student-citizens—plus, it’s more fun that way! To attend is to respect your fellow students. By attending, I expect you to participate and remain engaged in the present activity. In order to participate, you’ll need to have completed the assignments for the day, since homework will form the basis for freewrites, discussions, and group work that comprise every class.

Since English 110 is primarily a writing course, student participation will also be measured via engagement in writing completed in class and for homework. If you miss class, you also miss the opportunity to engage in the day’s writing and classroom activities. Writing takes regular practice. Only through thoughtfully producing and revising a significant quantity of words will you improve the quality of your writing. Your completion of such work not only advances your own learning but also contributes to a productive learning environment in the classroom.

On Classroom Discussion & Respect

I expect all students to participate regularly in robust class discussion. In order to ensure our discussions and time collaborating are enriching, the following rules for discussion must be obeyed at all times (adapted from Dr. Koritha Mitchell’s Classroom Covenant):

• Respect your peers and your peers’ ideas. You don’t have to agree with someone’s idea, but you must provide the space needed for your fellow students to articulate their thoughts. Don’t attack your peers personally for their thoughts, if you disagree.
• That said, you’re expected and encouraged to talk passionately about your ideas, as long as you communicate with thoughtful and considerate reasoning. Dissent is thinking!
• Allow others to participate. Listen. Don’t hog the conversation. Don’t interrupt.
• The only ideas I won’t allow in my classroom are those that de-value a person for any reason but especially in terms of (perceived) gender, sex, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, nationality, ability, and/or intelligence—whether intentionally hurtful or not.
• Similarly, language and hate speech that de-values or attacks anyone in terms of any of these categories won’t be tolerated, particularly expletives related to race, sex, gender, class, ability, and/or sexual orientation, regardless of your identity, even if you’re quoting a text or song lyric. The capacity for these words to do violence to your peers extends beyond your intentions.
• And although simple profanities (curse words) are sometimes warranted, please keep them to a minimum and be mindful that some may find it more offensive than others.
• Celebrate each other’s differences—as long as those differences don’t impose a violent or oppressive ideology on another person or group.

Also, please no vaping during class.

On the Conference Hour

The last 30 minutes of each class—the conference hour—is dedicated to small group workshops in which you will work closely with a designated writing group of your peers on your developing essays. Writing groups will be decided during the first week of class. Each writing group will meet every 4^th class, with some exceptions. Attending these small group workshops is mandatory. They provide you with invaluable opportunities to give and receive personalized feedback and instruction that can enhance your learning.

On Using Phones, Laptops, Tablets, Headphones & Other Electronic Devices

For regular in-class writing, bring either a dedicated writing notebook or an electronic device (laptop, phone, tablet) to write on. You can bring your own laptops or rent the laptops housed in the Digital Writing Studio. However, phones, laptops, and tablets should not be open or in use if not required for the current class activity. Please do not use headphones or earbuds in the classroom. Please take them out. Lastly, practice professionalism and don’t text during class.

On Short Writing Assignments

The class is organized into three units, each culminating in a major essay assignment. For each unit, you’ll also complete many short, low-stakes writing assignments either in-class or for homework. These short writings are designed to practice or experiment with the skills needed to complete the major essays. Though I’ll read all of your homework exercises, I won’t provide extensive written feedback. Instead, you’ll receive either a Ö or 0. (You’ll receive a grading rubric for this.) However, you’re expected to complete all exercises, as they form part of your final grade and help you develop strong formal and final drafts.

All short writings should be submitted as blog posts on our Course Site. Even though exercises are less formal than major essays, they should still represent your best work. Proofread!

On Major Essay Assignments

All major essays must be formatted according to the latest guidelines in the MLA Handbook.

For any questions related to MLA, see Rules for Writers, or the following resources:

• Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
• MLA Handbooks for Writers of Research Papers

All major essays should be submitted as Microsoft Word documents to the appropriate Dropbox folders using the links provided on our Course Site. Use the following template to name a file:

[Student Last Name][First Initial]_E[Essay Number]_[Draft or Final].doc/x

Example: if Jane Smith submitted her draft of Essay 1, she would name it: SmithJ_E1_Draft.doc
If I were posting my final revision of Essay 2, I would name it: WilsonE_E2_Final.docx

The Major Essay Assignment Prompts

Essay 1: Rhetorical Analysis | Unit 1: Welcome to the Anthropocene

Through close reading, analyze closely one of the course texts we’ve read so far in terms of specific rhetorical choices.

Essay 2: Lens Analysis | Unit 2: Re-Thinking the Anthropocene

Using ideas from one of the course readings, analyze a visual text (advertisement, news article, or TV/film scene) in order to make an insightful argument about the messages of the visual text and the methods by which it conveys its messages.

Essay 3: Researched Essay | Unit 3: Resisting the Anthropocene

In a rhetorically persuasive essay, using a wide range of authoritative sources, communicate a specific environmental problem in your community, argue for why it matters, and, from a range of possible options, propose for an actionable solution that would best address it.

On the Final Course Grade

In English 110, you will learn and practice a reflective, recursive, and collaborative writing process as you develop final drafts of your writing for a public audience. Your final course grade will be a combination of your final essay grades and your writing process grade:

FINAL MAJOR ESSAY GRADE (50%)

Final Essay 1: 10%
Final Essay 2: 15%
Final Essay 3: 25%

WRITING PROCESS GRADE (50%)

Drafts and evidence of process in all three major essays: 20%
Short writing exercises and grammar quizzes: 15%
Class participation (in-class writing, activities, and discussion): 15%
Your final course grade will be computed on the 4.0 scale

On Late Submissions & Missing Assignments

Late assignments are not guaranteed written feedback. However, you’re always welcome to make an appointment with me in office hours to discuss your submissions.

Submitting work late and/or failing to submit work at all make it much harder for you to do well on your essays, since you miss the opportunity to receive timely feedback that can guide your revisions.

All work must be submitted by the deadline in order to be considered “on time”—even if you miss class. (If you have trouble submitting anything, feel free to email me.)

On Assignment Extensions

If you need to ask for an assignment extension, you should let me know in an email at least 48 hours before the deadline. I can’t guarantee that I’ll grant you an extension. It depends on the situation. I don’t typically grant extensions for problems such as computer crashes (always back up your work!), conflicts with other course assignments, extracurricular activities, or other results of poor planning and time management. In the case of family emergencies, health, or other major crises, an extension may be warranted. Regardless, let me know if you’re unable to finish an assignment and we’ll discuss options.

On Email

Outside of class, I’ll communicate with you through your Queens College email, as well as the Course Site, so please make sure to check them regularly. I encourage you to email me with any questions, concerns, and/or thoughts about the class you might have. Before you do so, please carefully check this syllabus to make sure the question isn’t already answered here.

You’re welcome to email me whenever, but I may not respond until at least 24 hours afterward. I typically stop checking emails toward the early evening and may not respond immediately to an email sent during the day. I generally don’t check school emails over the weekend either—so plan well in advance if you need a swift response.

On Academic Integrity & Plagiarism

College Writing will provide you with strategies for working ethically and accurately with the texts you engage. We’ll discuss source use practices that prevent plagiarism, a serious academic offense that runs counter to our academic community’s core values of honesty and respect for others. According to the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity:

Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person’s ideas, research, or writings as your own. The following are some examples of plagiarism (though there are many others):

• Copying other people’s exact or approximate words without the use of quotation marks and citations attributing the words to their sources.
• Presenting other people’s ideas in your own words without acknowledging sources.
• Using information that is not common knowledge without acknowledging the source.
• Failing to acknowledge collaborators on homework and laboratory 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 and pasting” from various sources without proper attribution.

Websites and businesses that sell papers to students often claim they’re merely offering “information” or “research” to students and that this service is acceptable throughout academia. This is absolutely false. If you buy and submit “research,” drafts, summaries, abstracts, or final versions of a paper, you are committing plagiarism and are subject to stringent disciplinary action.

Final essays that contain plagiarism will receive a zero, may result in failure of the course, and the case will be reported to Queens College.

On Accessibility & Accommodations

I strive to make our time in the classroom accessible, regardless of your ability and/or learning style. My class design has reflected, to the best of my ability, this desire. But if you have or develop any condition that might require accommodation in this class—for example, a medical condition—you should immediately contact the Office of Special Services (OSS) in 171 Kiely Hall at 718-997-5870. OSS will ensure you receive any additional support needed to fully participate in and succeed at this course (and QC). You’re also welcome to inform me if you’re comfortable doing so. If there’s anything about the course that’s inhibiting your successful learning and engagement, let’s talk about possible ways to address or work toward a solution.

On Campus Writing Resources

If you need additional help with your writing (beyond peer review, my feedback, and my office hours), you’re welcome and encouraged to utilize any of the following on-campus writing resources:

• The Writing Center in Kiely Hall 229 (phone: 718-997-5676) provides free writing support services to all enrolled Queens College students. Website: https://sites.google.com/qc.cuny.edu/qcwritingcenter/home
• The Tutoring Center in Kiely Hall 127 (phone: 718-997-5677) provides free tutoring to students enrolled in many courses offered at QC.
• The Language Lab provides one-on-one tutoring for multilingual/ESL/ELL students enrolled in English 110 and 130. Email: [email protected]