Fall 2010 English Department Composition Course Themes
English 2100 DG13A
Staff
First and foremost, this will be a course in written composition. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the "real" world beyond school.
English 2100 DG13B
Monica Vecchio
Defining Our Heroes, Defining Ourselves
Whether in New York, Gotham City or the Himalayas, everyone seeks a hero or heroine, real or imaginary, be they on the battlefield, in the comics, on the beat, in the courtroom or the fire department. Young or mature, famous or unknown, he or she can wear a badge, perform surgery, throw a football, leap over buildings, save endangered species or lead a nation. All have been honored and imitated, but are they now? Do we still believe in the concept, or have we become too cynical? How do our perceptions shift from childhood, to youth, to maturity? Using texts such as Carlyle’s essay Heroes and Hero Worship, Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and Emerson’s Representative Men we will explore this phenomenon and examine what our idols reveal to us about our values. Studying the words of Nobel Prize recipients we will determine whether events in our times have changed our perspective. Coursework will include writing about these questions and researching the topics in sports columns, current events, biography, superhero comics, non-fiction studies, war stories, political readings and famous speeches.
English 2100 DG13C
Sheila Getzen
Satire: Canterbury Tales to Colbert Report
Satire is multifaceted. It can be a gentle and jovial, as in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales; urgent and cynical, as in Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”; or sly and highly ambiguous, as in Machiavelli’s The Prince. In this course, we will examine these three works and their social and historical contexts, and will then move on to contemporary satires. We will read a post-9/11 essay by Ian Frazier and a graphic arts memoir set in Iran by Marjane Satrapi. We will also look at satirical news programs—The Colbert Report and The Daily Show—and read interviews with their hosts on world view. Students will keep journals of their evolving perspectives on today’s society --and will write a satire of their own.
First and foremost, this will be a course in written composition. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the “real” world beyond school.
English 2100 DG13D
Thom Donovan
Ecological Practices in Writing and Visual Art
This course will explore writing and art that addresses ecology and attempts to intervene in ecological problems in various ways. Core texts for the class include William Cronon's "The Trouble with Wilderness," Charles Darwin's On Natural Selection, Frederick Law Olmstead's plans for Central Park, and Peter Linebaugh's The Magna Carta Manifesto. We will also look at poems from the journal Ecopoetics (ed. Jonthan Skinner) and other ecologically concerned poetries. The artists we will be looking at and reading include Robert Smithson, Agnes Denes, Mierle Ukeles, and Amy Balkin.
Throughout the course we will both write through critical discussions of core texts, as well as propose practical means to intervene in ecological problems via art and writing. Requirements for a grade in this class include three paper assignments, weekly "mini papers," and no less than two oral presentations. Rigorous participation through writing workshops and oral participation are also required.
English 2100 DG13E
STAFF
First and foremost, this will be a course in written composition. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the “real” world beyond school.
English 2100 DG13F
Mary Louise Penaz
Food Glorious Food: Sustainable Agriculture and Social Justice Issues
Ever since the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge tempted Eve, food has been a subject of endless fascination in prose and poetry. Food reveals our values, assumptions, and sometimes, political convictions. What we eat, where it grows, who grows it and why, is fast becoming a central social justice issue within the scope and complexity of oil and fossil fuels usage. Is the small, multi-crop farmer a relic of an agrarian American long past, or will the growing Farmers Green Market movement (or the 100-mile movement) reshape the way Americans choose to eat? In this course, we will discuss food from a historical and literary perspective to improve our critical writing and thinking skills.
In New York City, the largest urban setting in the country, the Farmers Market and Handmade Food Renaissance producer offer an alternative model to corporate style agri-business and reinforce the need in an economic crisis for tightly knit entrepreneurial alliances. At the same time, Internet-based social networks are now increasingly important to Foodies and local farmers alike.
First and foremost, however, this will be a course in written composition. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the "real" world beyond school.
English 2100 DG13G
STAFF
First and foremost, this will be a course in written composition. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the “real” world beyond school.
English 2100 DG24A
Monica Vecchio
Whether in New York, Gotham City or the Himalayas, everyone seeks a hero or heroine, real or imaginary, be they on the battlefield, in the comics, on the beat, in the courtroom or the fire department. Young or mature, famous or unknown, he or she can wear a badge, perform surgery, throw a football, leap over buildings, save endangered species or lead a nation. All have been honored and imitated, but are they now? Do we still believe in the concept, or have we become too cynical? How do our perceptions shift from childhood, to youth, to maturity? Using texts such as Carlyle’s essay Heroes and Hero Worship, Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and Emerson’s Representative Men we will explore this phenomenon and examine what our idols reveal to us about our values. Studying the words of Nobel Prize recipients we will determine whether events in our times have changed our perspective. Coursework will include writing about these questions and researching the topics in sports columns, current events, biography, superhero comics, non-fiction studies, war stories, political readings and famous speeches.
English 2100 DG24B
STAFF
First and foremost, this will be a course in written composition. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the “real” world beyond school.
English 2100 DG24C
Catherine Russell
How to Improve Our Thinking: Critical Thought Skills
This course will develop your critical thought skills and help you to become a more articulate, thoughtful and opinionated thinker and writer. Each student will be required to write a weekly summary and response to a current newspaper or magazine article and then present it to the class; read any novel he/she chooses and then discuss it with me in an individual conference; write a series of essays at home and in class, andfinally, as a research assignment, choose a prominent business figure and write a biography analyzing how and why he/she became a success. Expect a lot of heated discussion and lots of class participation; thinking critically should be fun! Readings may include passages from the following:
Justice by Michael J. Sandel
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
Americans Talk About Love by John Bowe
Working by Studs Terkel
English 2100 DG24D
Cynthia Thompson
First and foremost, this will be a course in written composition. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the “real” world beyond school.
English 2100 DG24E
Staff
First and foremost, this will be a course in written composition. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the “real” world beyond school.
English 2100 DG24F
Krista McGruder
Writing the Inhabited Earth
The environmental movement of the early twenty-first century in the United States is commonly associated with global climate change. But broader issues—America’s place in nature, the responsibilities and privileges of land stewardship, and the natural world as a sublime inspiration for art—have been the source of literature, poetry and academic writing since Europeans settled in America.
This course begins with Thomas Jefferson’s view of nature as the source of human rights and continues with Garrett Hardin’s iconic Science essay, “The Tragedy of the Commons.” These pieces will frame the debate about the role of morality and self-interest in stewardship of the earth that Americans inhabit. Students will read selections from Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Mary Oliver’s New and Selected Poems, and John McPhee’s chronicle of land use conflicts in Encounters with the Archdruid. The class will consult other works, such as Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Pond to better understand how writers define what it means to be American through the lens of living in nature, apart from social tradition. The class will also examine the Supreme Court’s Kehoe decision and the Constitution’s eminent domain clause.
Students will read Frank Cioffi’s The Imaginative Argument: A Practical Manifesto for Writers. This text will help students draft logical arguments about competing interests and perspectives in the context of land usage. As this is primarily a composition course, students will produce in-class writing, at least two formal essays, and a research paper. Students will also be expected to contribute to class discussions and group presentations.
English 2100 DG24G
Mary Louise Penaz
Food Glorious Food: Sustainable Agriculture and Social Justice Issues
Ever since the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge tempted Eve, food has been a subject of endless fascination in prose and poetry. Food reveals our values, assumptions, and sometimes, political convictions. What we eat, where it grows, who grows it and why, is fast becoming a central social justice issue within the scope and complexity of oil and fossil fuels usage. Is the small, multi-crop farmer a relic of an agrarian American long past, or will the growing Farmers Green Market movement (or the 100-mile movement) reshape the way Americans choose to eat? In this course, we will discuss food from a historical and literary perspective to improve our critical writing and thinking skills.
In New York City, the largest urban setting in the country, the Farmers Market and Handmade Food Renaissance producer offer an alternative model to corporate style agri-business and reinforce the need in an economic crisis for tightly knit entrepreneurial alliances. At the same time, Internet-based social networks are now increasingly important to Foodies and local farmers alike.
First and foremost, however, this will be a course in written composition. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the "real" world beyond school.
English 2100 FJ13A
Christina Christoforatou
First and foremost, this will be a course in written composition. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the “real” world beyond school.
English 2100 JM13A
Corey Mead
Deviant Globalization
English 2100 is a course on college-level essay writing. Through regular reading and writing assignments, you will learn to read carefully and critically while annotating a text, define a personal position on a reading or issue, narrow down your main point, pull together evidence and analyze its implications, make claims based on evidence, develop convincing arguments, identify and write for a specific audience, and structure coherent essays with clear main ideas.
In this section of 2100, we will spend our time focusing on what might be called the underbelly of globalization, or “deviant globalization,” as we cover a series of topics that mainstream discussions of the global economy rarely address— topics such as drug smuggling, human trafficking, and contemporary slavery.
English 2100 JM13B
Gary Hentzi
First and foremost, this will be a course in written composition. The primary purpose of this course will be to enhance students’ writing skills and rhetorical sophistication, particularly with regard to argumentative prose. The goal is to prepare students not only for success in academic writing but also for effective participation in and critical understanding of the public and professional discourses of the “real” world beyond school.