Syllabus

John Jay College of Criminal Justice • CUNY

619 W. 54th St., (between 11th and 12th) New York, NY 10019

Department of English

Spring 2008

Alex Smith

Note: The syllabus is subject to change.

John Jay College of Criminal Justice • CUNY

445 W. 59th St., New York, NY 10019

Department of English

Spring 2008

English 201: NEW YORK: NARRATIVE AND POWER

SYLLABUS AND SELECTED READINGS

John Jay College of Criminal Justice • CUNY

445 W. 59th St., New York, NY 10019

Department of English

Spring 2008

English 201: NEW YORK: NARRATIVE AND POWER

Exploring Writing across the Disciplines

M, W 9:40 AM to 10:55

Section: 64. Course Code: 0386. Class Location: 116W

Instructor: Alex Smith

Office Location: 3508 North (“The Bullpen”)

Office Hours: Wednesday, 11:00 – 12 Noon

Contact Information

• (212) 237-8909 (English Department)

• Email: smithalexandersmith@gmail.com

The following is a description of the class and your responsibility to the class. In order to succeed in this class, you are expected to meet these standards. In attending subsequent classes, your presence indicates that you have read and agree to these standards.

Course Description

New York is currently the hub of academic and creative expression, where provocative, controversial, and innovative ideas and movements often pour out into the streets before they are even heard of in the rest of the world. Its rich history of cultural leadership makes it a Petri dish for the incubation of progressive concepts and ideals.

With New York as the theme of this interdisciplinary writing and English course, we will use the city as our point of departure in sampling a wide variety of film, art, and writing in many disciplines that were created in and on New York.

We will respond to such things by writing, researching, and presenting topics for discussion and reflection on our journey through this range of subjects.

Course Objectives

This course introduces students to the rhetorical characteristics and writing styles

from across the disciplines, exploring differing literacy conventions and processes of diverse fields. Students learn how to apply their accumulated repertoire of aptitudes and abilities to the writing situations presented to them from across the disciplines.

Some specific goals:

• Comprehend varying processes and conventions of writing as it moves from field to field.

• Students learn different types of research methods and writing that they will face in the content-based courses of the college.

• Consider how writing can help them learn new discipline-specific subject matter.

• Identify the preferred genres, rhetorical concepts, terminology, formatting, and specific uses of evidence in various disciplines.

• Review research methods, conventions, and practices that they integrate into the cross-disciplinary writing assigned for this course.

• Reflect upon how their composing skills can be applied in diverse writing situations.

• Students expand their abilities to discuss their writing strengths and challenges.

Furthermore, the course will help develop:

* Senses of fairness, objectivity, and accuracy in reporting
* Listening skills
* Effective speaking abilities

Required Course Materials

The following books are available in the John Jay Bookstore. They are required. Students having difficulty purchasing these books for whatever reason can seek them out in their local library.

Available and Required from the Bookstore

* Rhetoric, Research and Strategies (the official writing handbook of John Jay College of Criminal Justice)
* Washington Square (Penguin Classics) (Paperback) by Henry James (Author), Philip Horne (Editor), Professor Martha Banta (Editor, Introduction) · Paperback: 256 pages · Publisher: Penguin Classics; New Ed. / edition (December 18, 2007) · Language: English · ISBN-10: 0141441364 · ISBN-13: 978-0141441368
* Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York (Paperback)
by Luc Sante · Paperback: 460 pages · Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (November 24, 2003) · ISBN-10: 0374528993 · ISBN-13: 978-0374528997

Other reading materials, provided as handouts or on online course reserve

A NOTE ON “E-RESERVE”

Many of the assigned texts will be made available through ereserve. This is a John Jay system that allows me to select multiple different texts at no cost to you. These readings are not optional, so expect to spend time reading at the library, or at a computer that has these texts available.

You are encouraged, but not required, to print and bring the reading in to class, so that we may easily reference it.

E-Reserve Instructions:

1) Access the John Jay Library E-Reserve Website: http://eres.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/eres/courseindex.aspx?&page=instr

2) Search by Instructor, “Smith”

3) Select: ENG201/Composition II /English/Smith/Spring 2009

4) You will be prompted to enter a password. The password: newyork

5) A list of the scanned readings will appear. Use the E-RESERVE BIBLIOGRAPHY below to guide you to the proper reading.

Grading and Conduct:

Your primary assignments and responsibilities in this class are focused on analysis, synthesis, and research. These skills are accrued through your outside homework, but also your ability to understand and engage in topics discussed in the classroom.

Your performance outside of class (reading, researching, writing) will be assessed based on your completion of two research papers and brief homework assignments, but also your classroom participation.

30% – Classroom performance (participation, attendance, conduct, written assignments, quizzes)

25% – Research paper I

25% – Research paper II

10% – Completion of brief homework assignments (as added to reading)

10% – Final examination

Participation:

To participate in class, you must complete the assigned work for this class- finishing reading and brief homework assignments on time. You will be assessed not on how articulate you are in discussion, but how familiar you are with the subject matter, and how engaged you are in the topic during discussion. Meaningful contributions to class discussion (questions, comments, responses) are encouraged. You will also be asked to engage readings and lectures in in-class writing and group work. Finally, quizzes may be given to assess the class’s completion of reading assignments.

Conduct:

Because classroom performance is such an important part of this course, a code of classroom conduct (to be followed by both the professor and students), follows:

· Respect others when they are speaking.

· Cell-phones, laptops, iPods, and all other electronics will be silenced and put away at the beginning of class.

· Be prepared for class.

o Bring a pencil, some paper, and the reading.

o Use your cell-phone and the restroom before class.

o Discuss personal issues with your professor before or after class.

o Catch up with classmates before or after class.

· Be punctual. Be respectful when coming in late.

· Do not eat major meals in class. Snacks and beverages are okay.

Attendance and Lateness:

Attendance

· You are allowed FIVE absences this semester, whether excused or un-excused. If you miss more than five classroom meetings, for whatever reason, you will be unofficially withdrawn (UW), the equivalent of failing, the class.

· Sleeping in class is not attending class. If you sleep in class, you will be marked absent.

· You are advised to use these allowed absences for serious disruptions in your life and academic career, and be attendant and punctual otherwise.

· You are responsible for learning of the in-class assignments and discussion you missed outside of class. Hand in in-class written assignments ONE WEEK after missing them for credit.

Lateness – Your punctuality is crucial to your ability to fully participate in this class.

· If you are late, it is your responsibility to make sure you are marked present by letting me know after class. This is not an opportunity to explain your lateness, simply to ask me to be marked “late” in the attendance roster.

· If you are more than FIFTEEN minutes late, you will be marked absent whether you attend or not.

· Chronic lateness can result in a reduction of your Classroom Performance grade to F (a 30% reduction of your total grade).

Research Papers:

The class will be assigned two research papers, to be completed and handed in on-time, in the format specified below. Papers not meeting these specifications will not be accepted.

· Typed. 12 pt, Times New Roman Font. Double-spaced. 1” Margins. White printer paper. Black Ink.

· Correct APA format. (See the John Jay Handbook for information)

· Stapled.

Instructions on how to meet APA standards are documented in the required John Jay: Rhetoric, Research, and Strategies handbook. These guidelines will be explained once during class-time.

You are advised to resolve issues with finding printers, black ink, finding and using a word processor, before papers are due.

Your research papers will be graded on writing style, research amount, source comprehension, analysis, and synthesis of topics, as well as thoroughness and punctuality.

Emailed papers will not be accepted.

Late papers are reduced by one letter grade a week until they are handed in to me- in class, in print. Explanations are not required: simply hand in the paper when you have it.

Brief Homework Assignments:

You will be asked to complete brief written homework assignments that will usually relate to the reading or an in-class topic.

Final Examination

The final examination will consist of a series of short answer questions and an essay question. It will assess your comprehension and retention of readings and in-class topics.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined as using the words or ideas of others without acknowledging your

debt. It is important to understand that in academic and professional life plagiarism is

unacceptable. Deliberate plagiarism on any assignment, major or minor, will result in a

grade of F for the course, and may result in further disciplinary action.

Writing Center

The Writing Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice is a wonderful (and free)

resource that you can use to further develop your writing skills and to improve your

chances for success in this course. It is located in Room 2450 North Hall. Furthermore, the course instructors may refer you to the Writing Center.

More information is available at: http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~writing/about.htm.

ASSIGNMENTS:

1) Mon. 1/26

Review of Syllabus

Discussion of expectations, writing

In-class writing assignment

2) Wed. 1/28 – Edith Wharton

DUE: Read – “Pomegranate Seed” – In Handout. (In-class: Writing assignment: “Why does NY matter to “Pomegranate Seed”?

3) Mon. 2/2 – Henry James

DUE: Read – “The Jolly Corner” by Henry James from The New York Stories of Henry James. Handout. Also due: one page- what is a ghost story? In class: E-reserve instructions.

4) Wed. 2/4 – Gotham and Walt Whitman

“Manahatta” and “Crossing the Brooklyn Ferry”. Handouts.

5) Mon. 2/9 – Whitman Continued

6) Wed. 2/11 – Low Life

DUE: Read – Low Life by Luc Sante (Preface and Chapter 1, “The Body”)

7) Mon. 2/16 – Washington’s Birthday – Classes Do Not Meet

Wed. 2/18 Discuss Jacob Riis

DUE: Read – Low Life by Luc Sante (chapters “Home” and “The Streets”)

9) Mon. 2/23 –Discuss Sante, View Film (possibly)

DUE: Read – Low-Life by Luc Sante (chapter “Saloon Culture”) and Write 2 paragraph analysis of Jacob Riis picture “Fire-escape”

9) Mon. 2/23 –Discuss Sante, View Film (possibly)

DUE: Read – Low-Life by Luc Sante (chapter “Saloon Culture”) and Write 2 paragraph analysis of Jacob Riis picture “Fire-escape”

10) Wed. 2/25 – The Gangs of New York (Film)
DUE: Read – Low-Life by Luc Sante (chapter “Gangland”)

MARCH
11) Mon. 3/2 – Snow day

12) Wed. 3/4 – The Gangs of New York (Film)
DUE: Read – Section II (Gangs of New York Book)

13) Mon. 3/9  – The Gangs of New York (Film)
DUE: Read – SECTION III – Optional Reading on Scorsese – Recommended for those interested in writing a paper on the film.

14) Wed. 3/11 – Discuss Gangs

15) Mon. 3/16– “Life Above Bleecker”
DUE: Read – SECTION IV

16) Wed. 3/18 V – Henry James and Washington Square
DUE: Read – Washington Square by Henry James, chapters I – VII

17) Mon. 3/23 – Henry James and Washington Square
DUE: Read – Washington Square by Henry James, through chapter X

18) Wed. 3/25– Henry James and Washington Square
DUE: Read – Washington Square by Henry James, through chapter XV

19) Mon. 3/30  – Henry James and Washington Square

DUE: Read – Washington Square by Henry James, through chapter XXV. Write (you can handwrite) a robust paragraph to hand in on Monday as well. What does Europe reveal about Dr. Austin Sloper and Catherine? Use one citation in your response. (Written out of class).

APRIL

20) Wed. 4/1 –  Henry James and Washington Square
DUE: Read – Washington Square by Henry James, through chapter XXXI

Note: Last day to withdraw from a course is April 7th.

21) Mon. 4/6  –  Henry James and Washington Square
DUE: Finish Washington Square – and have your thesis approved

22) Wed. 4/8 – Spring Recess

23) Mon. 4/13 – Spring Recess

24) Wed. 4/15 – Spring Recess

25) Mon. 4/20 – APA Workshop -Bring paper drafts if you can

26) Wed. 4/22– Research Paper I Due – An investigation of a variety of texts culminating in a thesis from a historical or other disciplinary perspective.

27) Mon. 4/27– HP Lovecraft – “He” -  You can click that link to see the reading.
DUE: Read “He” handout.

28) Wed. 4/29  –Raccoona Sheldon – “The Screwfly Solution”
DUE: Read – Handout.

MAY

29) Mon. 5/4 – The Harlem Renaissance
DUE: Read – SECTION VII of the E-Reserve

30) Wed. 5/6– The Beats. DUE: Read – SECTION VIII in the E-Reserve

31) Mon. 5/11 –– Amiri Baraka. DUE: Read – Selected Poems and Social Critiques- Handout

32) Wed. 5/13 –  In-class: Whitman Reading and Writing. DUE: Research Paper II – An investigation of a variety of texts culminating in a thesis from a critical or historical perspective.

33) Mon. 5/20
Final Exam  – Remember, come early: 9:30-11:30:AM, 116W