ENG102: Writing through Literature Section 0894// Fall 2020 Distance Learning LaGuardia Community College, CUNY 

Prof. Richards (she/her) 

Online Hub: 

(links to everything) 

eng102-0894.slack.com How Are We Having Class? 

How to reach me: 

@prof.richards on Slack or 

dr.leah.richards@gmail.com 

Zoom Meeting Room: (waiting room enabled): [address redacted] 

This section of ENG102, like most classes this semester, will be held exclusively online, and class will be asynchronous, meaning that you are not required to be online at a specific time, although you will be expected to meet regular deadlines. 

You will access all course content, which is related to writing, writing about literature, writing arguments about literature, and conducting research to write arguments about literature, on your own schedule, and deadlines will be the same every week to allow you to settle into a routine and plan when and how you will complete your work for class. 

I am fully aware that online learning is not ideal, but these extraordinary circumstances do not change the nature of the class or what is expected of you. To do well, you should commit to keeping up with assignments and managing your time carefully; completing reading, homework, and essay assignments; actively participating in asynchronous online conversations; and meeting deadlines so as to not fall behind. 

Should you be facing difficulties of any sort, student services are available.

Where and When Can You Find Me? 

Every week, you can find me on Thursdays, from 3:00-4:00p on Zoom, where I will be holding a Student Hour. I will not be lecturing or otherwise delivering new content; I will be available to answer questions, discuss any challenges, or work through an assignment with you. You are welcome to join the Zoom session to just hang out and do work for class. 

Additionally, there will be a series of recommended (but not required) 10-minute one-on-one conferences and 30-minute small group conferences throughout the semester, as well as one required one-on-one conference late in the semester. Details will be provided about when and where these conferences will take place. Feedback on your work for class will be provided in written or video comments and through conferences. 

I am also available to answer quick questions or, by arrangement, for longer meetings. I will always respond to Direct Messages on Slack (which is a better way to contact me than email) as soon as I am able; after 7:00p or on weekends, responses may be delayed. I’m happy to meet in whatever forum makes the most sense to help you work through anything that isn’t clear. 

ENG102: Writing through Literature 

What Do We Need for Class? 

I will provide all materials for class, typically via hyperlinks, which I will share in multiple locations. Materials to support your work for class will be provided in a variety of formats: each week, I will post an overview of the week, video introductions of key concepts and terminology, slideshows and handouts reviewing ENG101 writing and citation content, and reading guides to accompany reading assignments and support solo close reading and critical thinking. 

Our Slack workspace will be our hub; all class materials will be linked there; weekly small group exchanges will happen there, and all assignments will also be submitted on Slack. Unless you, like me, sit at your computer all day every day, please add the Slack app to your phone and check it at least once every day to keep in contact and stay on top of class work. 

In addition, we will use Google Docs/Drive, so you may want to add that app to your phone as well. If you do not have a Google (Gmail) account, please set one up as soon as possible. 

Finally, we will be using Zoom for most real-time conversations. 

What Is ENG102: Writing through Literature? [English Department Introduction to ENG102] 

This course is the follow-up to ENG101; it is not a literature course; it is a writing course, with works of literature as the basis for argumentative writing. The following is the fine print that I am required to include in the syllabus, the information that outlines the objectives for the class and is essentially a contract between us: I will teach this, you will learn this, and we will all live happily ever after. 

The college catalog states that ENG102 “extends and intensifies the work of Composition I, requiring students to write critically and analytically about culturally-diverse works of literature. Students are introduced to poetry, drama, and fiction, employing close-reading techniques and other methodologies of literary criticism. Students will utilize research methods and documentation procedure[s] in writing assignments of varying academic formats, including a research essay that engages literary critics or commentators. Admission to the course requires completion of Composition I.” The Instructional Objectives for this course are as follows: 

1. Reinforce the practice of writing as a process that involves pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, proofreading, critiquing, and reflection. 

2. Reinforce students’ skills at writing clearly and coherently in varied academic formats (such as response papers, blog posts, formal essays, and research papers) with an emphasis on writing as a critical thinking process. Essays will vary in length between 600 and 2000 words, using standard written English (SWE). 

3. Familiarize students with poetry, drama, and fiction, and introduce students to techniques of literary criticism including the close reading of literary texts. 

4. Introduce students to methodologies of literary analysis, such as biographical context, historical context, and critical theory. 

5. Reinforce critical reading and analytical skills by guiding students to identify an argument’s major assumptions and assertions and evaluate its supporting evidence and conclusions. 

6. Reinforce students’ skills in creating well-reasoned arguments and communicating persuasively over a variety of contexts, purposes, audiences, and mediums. 

7. Reinforce students’ research skills including the use of appropriate technology and the ability to evaluate and synthesize primary and secondary sources, while employing the conventions of ethical attribution and citation and avoiding plagiarism. 

8. Reinforce writing strategies to prepare students for in-class writing. 

End of message. So what does this mean, exactly? This class is all about reinforcing skills developed in ENG101 and applying them specifically to literature. You will be writing a lot, and through this writing, you will 

➔ revisit the practice of writing as a process and the skills developed in ENG 101 to write clearly and coherently in a variety of academic formats.. 

➔ read literature and develop new skills to close read and interpret poetry, drama, and prose, and use literary terms and apply methods of critical literary analysis appropriately in class discussions and written work. 

➔ continue to develop skill in creating well-reasoned arguments and communicating persuasively over a variety of contexts, purposes, audiences, and media. 

➔ demonstrate developing research skills, using appropriate technology, by gathering, evaluating, and synthesizing primary and secondary sources and employing the conventions of ethical attribution and citation. 

How Will We Do That? 

You will be expected to keep up with the reading assignments; review course content presented by slideshow or video; complete and submit biweekly quizzes, low-stakes writing assignments, or other small assignments; participate (asynchronously) in weekly exchanges with a small group of your classmates; and write four essays, two timed (equivalent to in-class essays) and two more formal, staged essays, ranging in length from 600-2000 words. 

What Are We Reading? 

Primarily, we will be reading short fiction that falls into the categories of horror/ gothic, fantastic, speculative, and science fiction; we will spend some time with poetry, specifically sonnets, at midterm and with drama at the end of the semester. You will also be introduced to non-fiction prose to supplement and enrich your arguments about and interpretations of specific texts.

All materials will be made available to you; some “reading” assignments may actually entail watching videos through the library’s Kanopy streaming service that introduce concepts, just to vary modes of content delivery. 

What Are We Writing? 

You will write four essays for class, ranging from 600-2000 words in length and drawing on both primary sources (the literature) and secondary sources such as literary criticism and cultural theory; in no case will you use reference works (encyclopedias, including Wikipedia) or self- styled “educational resources” (i.e., the sites that purport to tell you what a text “really” means or offer completed essays for reference or for purchase) as sources. There will be required stages to be completed as part of each essay. 

Essay #1 analytic essay with mandatory draft stage, 700-900 words (15% of final grade) 

Essay #2 midterm “in-class” essay building on homework assignments and written in response to a prompt, minimum 600 words (15% of final grade) 

Essay #3 research-based argumentative essay with multiple mandatory stages totalling 1800-2000 words (25% of final grade) 

Essay #4 final “in-class” essay in response to a prompt, minimum 600 words (15% of final grade) 

Essays must be submitted on time. If you are facing challenges that prevent you from submitting an essay as assigned, you should contact me to discuss a reasonable extension. 

If an essay submission does not meet the basic requirements of the assignment, such as meeting the assigned minimum/ maximum word count, using the required sources, or including an MLA Works Cited page and citations, I may require you to revise and resubmit by a stated deadline. If you are asked to resubmit an essay under these circumstances, the highest grade that the resubmitted essay can earn is a B (that is, your final grade for the essay will be dropped up to a full letter grade), and if you do not complete a required resubmission, the essay earns an F. 

You may choose to revise any essay that was submitted on time. To revise an assignment, you must meet with me outside of class within one week of when I grade your essay to discuss the revision and agree upon a due date during that meeting. Revision does not automatically guarantee a higher grade. To earn a higher grade, your revision must reconsider your original submission in light of my comments and your own fresh evaluation of your work (you will discuss this process in a revision reflection). 

All essays must be entirely your own work, with all material from outside sources correctly cited. Any work that is not your own automatically earns a zero and is not eligible for revision. 

What Else Are We Writing? 

In addition to essays, you will complete “low-stakes” writing assignments twice a week; these assignments will relate to reading assignments and will typically require you to complete the reading and review a video, slideshow, or handout before writing a paragraph in response to a specific prompt. Sometimes, instead of a paragraph, you will be asked to take a short online quiz or complete an annotation assignment. 

Even on these small assignments, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and anything else specified by the assignment (for example, citation) “count,” and if you do not do what was assigned, you may not earn credit for the submission. 

These assignments are considered “low-stakes” because they individually count very little and are graded less vigorously than major assignments; we will be completing more than 20 of these assignments, which, combined, will be the basis of 15% of your final grade and will be what I base attendance on. It will not impact your grade if you miss a few of these assignments. 

These assignments will help you practice and develop academic essay writing skills that you will use in your essays for this and future classes. Completing these assignments late turns a practical exercise into busywork, so you cannot submit these assignments after midnight on the day that they are due. 

What Else Will We Be Doing? 

Reading and writing are solitary acts, but both can be enriched by collaboration. To supplement your solo work, you will participate in asynchronous online exchanges on Slack with a small, assigned group of your classmates in addition to occasional whole-class asynchronous online conversations. 

These weekly small-group exchanges will typically be in response to a prompt or question from me and will reinforce or provide a space to practice course content, and each person should contribute when they are able (in advance of a deadline), both by contributing original ideas and by responding to one another. Ideally, you will pop into the discussion daily, to keep up, but to earn credit, you will be required to participate at least twice a week; a higher level of participation will earn a higher grade, and these discussions will be the basis for 15% of your final grade. 

A resource that you may find helpful is the Writing Center, which is operating online. Details on how to make an appointment are available at laguardia.edu/writingcenter/. 

Attendance, given the online and asynchronous nature of class, will be based on the timely submission of the biweekly low-stakes writing assignments. Attendance itself is not a factor in the grade, but a significant number of missing assignments will, of course, impact your grade for the class. 

Falling behind will make it very difficult to keep up with work for class. Late mini-essays and low-stakes assignments may be submitted within a limited window of time for partial credit; essay stages and participation in small group exchanges must be completed on time; and unless there are extremely extenuating circumstances that you can support with documentation, you may not hand in your research essay or your final project more than 7 days late. 

If you are facing issues that are making it difficult to focus on and complete work for class, talk to me; don’t wait until you have missed assignments and are in danger of failing the class. Although it is not always possible for me to make accommodations for you to catch up that are fair to other students, it is much easier if you are in contact with me and we have a plan in place. 

Academic Dishonesty: This class will be conducted in compliance with LaGuardia Community College’s Academic Dishonesty policy. All students are responsible for preparing and presenting original work. In accordance with the college’s policy, the penalty for plagiarized work ranges “from a grade of “F” on a given test, research paper or assignment, to an “F” in the course, or suspension or expulsion from the College.” Please refer to the college catalog for a more complete discussion of academic dishonesty. 

Academic dishonesty includes cheating, plagiarism, Internet plagiarism, obtaining unfair advantages, and other misconduct. In this class, any case of academic dishonesty will earn a grade of zero and may result in immediate and absolute failure of the course. While you will be using outside sources, which may help you to generate your own ideas and support your own claims, presenting someone else’s words or ideas as your own is completely unacceptable. 

Zoom: I know that we’re all Zooming from our personal spaces, and that we may be in PJs or dealing with pets, kids, or other housemates. That’s FINE. All I ask is that you mute when you’re not speaking if there’s a lot going on in the background! You are not required to have video on, although it does make simulating a face-to-face conversation easier. 

On Zoom, please make your display name the first name that you prefer to be called, your last name, and your pronouns–this way, I know who I am talking to! 

All of our Zooming will be one-on-one or small group, so there’s no need to worry about virtually raising hands or using other features, although we can certainly use them in the small-group meetings if you would prefer or would like the practice. 

Meaningful and constructive dialogue is encouraged, and an atmosphere of mutual respect will be maintained at all times. 

[Statement affirming the college’s commitment to pluralism can be found here.]

Class Schedule 

I will post the next week’s content to Slack by midday every Friday. 

The primary reading assignments and essay due dates for the semester are already linked on the schedule below, and links to all other materials will be added each week when I post that material to Slack. I will post things in the order in which I recommend that you complete them, both on Slack and here. 

We will follow the same schedule for submitting work every week; you can always complete and submit work in advance of the deadline. 

Low-Stakes Writing Assignments are due by 3:00pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You will submit this work by posting a link to a Google Doc in the Slack channel where the assignment is posted, unless the assignment states otherwise. 

Small Group Exchanges will take place throughout the week, and participation will be assessed through 5:00pm on Thursdays. 

Essay deadlines are indicated on the detailed schedule which follows. 

All materials in blue underlined text are hyperlinked. If a link is not working for you, let me know and we’ll take care of that. A lot of my materials are presented as slideshows. This is because this breaks information up into small pieces, where a handout might be overwhelming, and because it makes it easier for us to reference: “on slide 5, it says….” Hashtags indicate Slack channels. All other channels will be linked from #general, so if you cannot see a channel on the menu, click the link and you’ll have full access to the channel. Each Low-Stakes Writing Assignment will be posted on its own channel; you will always submit it the same way (walkthrough of this process here). Videos housed on Kanopy, to be accessed through the library website, are in red (because login is required, I cannot provide a direct link).

Content Warning: Many of these stories are about various types of violence, and some are visceral and immediate representations of violence within families/ intimate relationships and the domestic sphere. 

If you have concerns that this might present difficulties for you, please communicate with me to discuss specific content warnings or possible alternatives. 

WEEK ONE 9/14 – 9/20

Introductions to the Course & the Objectives of ENG102 Tuesday, 15 September, 2:15-3:15pm will be the only synchronous class meeting of the semester. Attendance is encouraged but not required. This meeting will be dedicated to providing an overview of how you will be doing work for class this semester. We will briefly discuss the syllabus, the biweekly low-stakes writing assignments, the small-group exchanges that you will complete each week, office hours, and optional conferences, and I will introduce how we will be using Slack and Google Docs. By 3:00pm on Thursday, 17 September: 1. Email me from a Gmail account and accept the invitation to join Slack that I will send in reply. Your email should include your full name and the name you prefer to use (if different), and tell me when you took ENG/A/C101 or its equivalent (and with whom or where, if you want); please use the subject line ENG102. 2. Complete this form about general availability for optional conferences. 3. Read the syllabus. You are responsible for all of the information in it (and should expect to be told “it’s in the syllabus,” possibly by meme, if you ask questions that the syllabus answers). You should read the syllabus by Thursday because Friday is the last day to change your classes. Remaining enrolled in this class means that you agree to all policies and expectations outlined in the syllabus. Some time this week/ weekend, review these slideshows and videos: ● Planning for Class (Schedule & Time Management) ● Kindness & Integrity ● Using Slack & Drive for class video introductions (playlist) Also be sure that you have access to the library databases On Friday, I will post all assignments for next week on Slack #for_week_2. In the future, these regular assignments will not be listed on the syllabus (although deadlines will be reiterated when I post them). I’m including these here because this is the first week and this will help you to plan ahead. Low-Stakes Writing Assignment #1 due by 3:00pm on Tuesday, 22 September Low-Stakes Writing Assignment #2 due by 3:00pm on Thursday, 24 September Low-Stakes Writing Assignments will be posted on their own Slack channels twice each week. You will have an assignment due every Tuesday and Thursday. Small Group Exchange #1 to be completed between Friday, 18 September and 5:00pm on Thursday, 24 September You will be expected to participate in a Small-Group Exchange each week. Prompts will be posted to your assigned group’s private Slack channel.

WEEK TWO 9/21 – 9/27

Asking the Right Questions: Introduction to Close Reading Writing about Literature: Skills & Practices from ENG101 Literary Terms Optional 30-Minute Group Conferences: What do we need to cover from ENG101?

WEEK THREE 9/28 – 10/4

Literary Terms “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin Introduction to Literary Analysis Writing about Literature: Skills & Practices from ENG101 “A History of the World in Five Objects” by S.J. Rozen “Please Translate” by Edwidge Danticat Optional 10-Minute Conferences: questions about writing or the stories

WEEK FOUR 10/5 – 10/11

“Raj, Bohemian” by Hari Kunzru Literary Terms Essay #1 draft due by 6:00pm on Thursday, 8 October Optional 10-Minute Conferences: questions about writing or the stories

WEEK FIVE 10/12 – 10/18

Introduction to Poetry Essay #1 revision due by 6:00pm on Friday, 16 October Optional 30-Minute Group Conferences: sonnet walkthrough

WEEK SIX  10/19 – 10/25

Essay #2 to be completed on Tuesday, 20 October Introduction to Fairy Tales & Archetypes “The Bloody Chamber” by Angela Carter Optional 30-Minute Group Conferences: Works Cited review

WEEK SEVEN 10/26 – 11/1

Introduction to Literary Criticism “The Husband Stitch” by Carmen Maria Machado Optional 10-Minute Conferences: questions about writing or the stories

WEEK EIGHT 11/2 – 11/8

Introduction to Science Fiction Literary Terms “Mono no aware” by Ken Liu (pronounced “mo-no-no-AH-wa-ray”) “The Evening and the Morning and the Night” + Afterword by Octavia Butler What Type of Literary Critic Are You? Optional 10-Minute Conferences: questions about writing or the stories

WEEK NINE 11/9 – 11/15

Literary Criticism & Literary Theory Introduction to the Post-Apocalypse “Speech Sounds” + Afterword by Octavia Butler “Inventory” by Carmen Maria Machado Optional 10-Minute Conferences: questions about writing or the stories

WEEK TEN 11/16 – 11/22

Introduction to Horror & the Gothic “Nuestra Señora” by Carrie Richerson “Paranoia” by Shirley Jackson Optional 30-Minute Group Conferences: final essay Q&A

GHOST WEEK 11/23 – 11/29

Introduction to the Suburban Gothic “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates “One of These Nights” by Livia Llewellyn Essay #3, Stage 1 due by 5:00pm on Tuesday, 24 November

WEEK ELEVEN 11/30 – 12/6

Research for Essay #3 Essay #3, Stage 2 due by 2:00pm on Tuesday, 1 December Essay #3, Stage 3 due by 2:00pm on Thursday, 3 December Required Conferences Essay 3, Stage 4

WEEK TWELVE 12/7 – 12/13

Introduction to Drama Trifles by Susan Glaspell Essay #3, Stage 5 due by 2:00pm on Thursday, 10 December Optional 10-Minute Conferences: final essay challenges

FINALS WEEK

Essay #3 due by 6:00pm on Wednesday, 16 December Essay #4 between Tuesday, 15 December, and Thursday, 17 December