Week 1: Course Overview

For Monday (8/29):

Texts: 

No reading to do in advance: it’s the first day of class!

During class, we will read:

1. “Defining Propaganda II”
2. “What are the Tools of Propaganda?”
3. “The Story of Propaganda”

Writing:

• Fill out the Getting To Know You Survey (this is private, just between you and me!)
• Introduce yourself to your classmates by commenting on our Discussion: Introductions post. Share whatever you want, and feel free to respond to each other!
• Choose your grading plan

For Wednesday (8/31):

Full agenda for Wednesday

Texts:

Please read these three examples of creative nonfiction writing by real students (two from John Jay College and one from Fordham University)

• Read “Q”
• Read “Lesbian”
• Read “This I No Longer Believe”

Note about the sample essays: The first two examples were NOT written for the specific prompt I am going to ask you to write on, but both are excellent examples of creative nonfiction written by real composition students at John Jay (another CUNY school). The third essay IS in response to the prompt I will give you, written by a student at Fordham University.

Writing:

1. Leave a comment on the “Reflections on Example Essays” discussion post responding to the prompts listed on that page..
2. Write approximately 500 words (or more) on “Yourself as Reader, Writer, and Researcher.” Instructions for how to turn this in are at the bottom.
   
   Prompt:
   
   We all have histories as readers, writers, and researchers, even if you hate these activities. For this assignment, help me get to know you by telling me about your history. Below are several questions for you to consider as you compose your answer. You do not need to address all of them, and feel free to talk about other things related to reading, writing, research, and English classes. Please answer in paragraph form.

• What kinds of things do you read? (Anything– doesn’t have to just be books!)
• What kinds of things do you love to read or hate to read? Why?
• What’s a really good memory you have about reading, or a really bad one?
• What about writing?
• How much writing did you do in the years/semesters prior to now (including high school/writing for a job/anything else), and what kinds of things did you write?
• What kinds of research have you done in the past?
• What do you find difficult or confusing about the research process?
• What were your past English classes like?
• How do you feel about starting this class? What would you like to learn?
• Has the pandemic changed your reading/writing/research habits at all? If so, how?

Turn this in as a post under the “Unit 1 Work” category. Click here for instructions on how to post to our site. Click here for help using categories (it’s not the Commons, but it works exactly the same).

By default, posts will be public/visible to all of your classmates. If you want to keep it private, you can change the “visibility” settings to private, and then only you and I can see it.