Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Ztc English 111: Introduction To College Writing Syllabus, Nicolette Guida

Open Educational Resources

This is a syllabus for a first year college writing course. This is also ZTC course (or "zero textbook cost" course). Course texts are only open-access materials and texts that are readily accessible online.

This course focuses on the power of language in our society. Students analyze the importance of rhetoric for both writers of language and consumers of language. They consider how language can be used to make meaning of the world, construct and express identity, persuade or manipulate others, and how language has evolved with technology. Students develop critical reading and academic writing skills through workshops and writing …

Engl110 Course Syllabus (Composition), James Andrew Grammer

Open Educational Resources

Syllabus for Freshman Composition Course/Intro to Writing.

Writing For The Humanities And The Arts, Olivia Wood

Open Educational Resources

This is the syllabus, course calendar, and grading contract used for Olivia Wood's section of ENGL 210: Writing in the Humanities and the Arts at City College in Spring 2023. Students write opinion editorials in the first unit, research a genre of their choosing and create a "genre guide" to help others write in that genre during the second unit, and then complete a multimodal project in the third unit, perhaps using their own or a classmate's genre guide to assist them.

"Dear Stanford: You Must Reckon With Your History Of Sexual Violence" By Seo-Young Chu, Seo-Young J. Chu

Publications and Research

In 2000 a Stanford professor raped me. My rape is now older than I was. (I’m still not as old as he was.) The more time passes the more I’m struck by Stanford’s apathy and fecklessness about sexual violence. I wrote a letter asking Stanford to stop compounding the abuse and to reckon with its rape culture. This letter—including the “Incomplete Compilation of Links to Sources Documenting Stanford’s History of Sexual Violence, in Chronological Order”—should be mandatory reading for administrators, faculty, students, alumni, and stakeholders at both Stanford and CUNY. #MeToo #MeTooAcademia

Expressivism And Its (Dis)Contents: Tracing Theory And Practice From History To Here And Now, Sasha A. Maceira

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores the theory and practice of expressivism as a pedagogy viable for the twenty-first century. Expressivism, in its inception (1960s), was wrongly perceived in many ways for the seemingly superfluous nature of its intentions; mainly it was targeted as an elitist, individualistic approach to the teaching of composition, only seen as suitable for a privileged student body. What was entirely overlooked that expressivism offered, were the more conventional ideologies and activities, such as process theory and peer review—things we use and cherish to this day. What I discovered through archival research was that expressivism then was inadvertently divided …

Exhibitions Of Impact: Introducing The Special Issue, David H. Lee

Publications and Research

The Exhibitions of Impact (EOI) special issue of American Behavioral Scientist consists of six articles from authors in communication studies and rhetoric, public health, medicine and bioethics, memory studies, and art therapy. Each article profiles some exhibition or memorial related to a pressing social issue, including gun violence, racist terrorism, domestic violence, religious fundamentalism, corporations selling harmful products, and how society treats those regarded as cognitively and behaviorally different. First, examples from today’s headlines show a global outcry over racist monuments and artifacts, and a global pandemic, which casts doubt on the future of exhibitions. Historical examples and explanatory concepts …

Beast-Gods, Bandits, And Beggar-Kings: The Traveler In Political Thought, Nader Sadre

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I use texts by Plato, Locke, Homer, and Gandhi to explore the political dimension of travel. I argue that travel is a proxy for practices and conditions that exceed “normal” politics. In this capacity, travel reveals what normal politics is, or is assumed to be. Travel marks a boundary of the political realm in a double sense: it may conceal or point to a pre-political source of authority; and it may provide an intimation of new political modes and orders. My analyses suggest that there is no single or consistent relationship between travel and politics. Rather, the …

Film/Tv Response & Critique, Janelle Poe

Open Educational Resources

This extra credit assignment was designed for a joint humanities course in English and Black Studies, combining first-year writing and an introductory survey of African American Literature. Throughout the semester, students are encouraged to complete extra credit assignments, such as this film/tv review, to earn additional points (up to 5%).

Combining rhetorical analysis with applied research, students have a list of films or television shows to choose from, as well as the ability to select their own related media, and write a response that includes a synopsis, analysis of plot, character development and themes, and personal response to the text …

Political Culture In The Cities Of The Northern Black Sea Region In The "Long Hellenistic Age", Emyr Dakin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study is to examine the political culture of the Greek North Pontic cities of Olbia and Chersonesos through a rhetorical analysis of the honorary decrees passed by their respective ekklesiai during the Long Hellenistic Age (third century BCE until the mid-third century CE). The study seeks to achieve two main goals: to examine these decrees to understand the political framework of the two cities; and to understand the relationship between the elite recipients of the honors and the demos that awarded them. This investigation employs evidence from early fourth century BCE until the incorporation of the …

Feminist Theology And The Fantastic In Jewish Poetics And Children's Literature (1960s–Present), Meira S. Levinson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation traces the development of Jewish fantasy rhetoric in post-WWII British and American literature, focusing on three genres: kabbalistic Beat poetry, children’s fantasy, and graphic novels/comics. Despite increasing scholarly attention to all these areas, little work has focused on fantasy rhetoric or issues of gender and sexuality within non-canonical Jewish literature, or on interplays of religion and fantasy in children’s literature. Jewish kabbalistic poetry and children’s fantasy speak to each other in their mutual engagements with the otherworldly, mystical and monstrous, interrogations of gender, and complex portrayals of feminist theological potentialities. I identify and analyze Jewish-hermeneutic themes and methodologies …

Freshman Composition: Early College Initiative, Julianne Davidow

Open Educational Resources

The purpose of this course is to provide further practice with a variety of genres that you’ll use throughout your college career and in your professional life. These genres include reflection, analysis, reporting, arguing, and self-assessment. While you likely had experience with these genres in your primary and secondary education, this class will provide you with an opportunity to expand and develop your range. In addition to exploring these genres, we will also develop our research practices to make use of City College’s virtual library.

Composition Of Individual & Society Fiqws, Julianne Davidow

Open Educational Resources

First-year composition courses at CCNY teach writing as a recursive and frequently

collaborative process of invention, drafting, and revising. Writing is both personal and social, and students should learn how to write for different purposes and audiences. Since writing is a process of making meaning and communicating, FYC teachers respond mainly to the content of students’ writing as well as to recurring surface errors. Students should expect frequent written and oral responses on the content of their writing from their teachers and peers. Classes rely heavily on a workshop format. Instruction emphasizes the connection between writing, reading, and critical thinking; …

Contradictory Shakespeare: An Investigation Of Female Protagonists In Othello, Measure For Measure, And Pericles, Mingyue Xu

Student Theses and Dissertations

Unlike the stereotyped image of women in the Elizabethan era, in which women should submit to men’s control, Desdemona in Othello, Isabella in Measure for Measure, and Marina in Pericles present their powerful and brave characteristics when facing male dominance. More specifically, all three young women — Desdemona, Isabella and Marina — negotiate sexual and marital arrangements with their language intelligently, despite the fact that they sometimes lack self-determining power in the plays. That is to say, Shakespeare gives women rhetorical power while in certain circumstances, men cannot be persuaded. Such contradiction within how Shakespeare depicts his female …

Writing For The Humanities And Arts, Shamecca A. Harris

Open Educational Resources

This dynamic English Composition course asks students to both create and engage with texts, in a variety of forms, that demonstrate how culture and personal experience inform a writer’s work. In this class, students will read and write voraciously about social, political, economic and cultural issues that influence their lived experiences and use the conventions of multiple genres to both reflect and respond to the times in which they live. Moreover, they will also consciously consider what it means to write academically at the college level through regular self-reflection and revision. In doing so, students will strengthen their rhetorical knowledge …

Fiqws Fall 2018: Phase 2 Assignment Prompt The Exploratory Essay, Sabina Pringle, Missy Watson

Open Educational Resources

This phase two writing assignment prompt for FIQWS 10003 - HA1 WCGI History & Culture and FIQWS 10103 - HA1 Composition for WCGI History & Culture (fall 2018) provides guidelines for writing an Exploratory Essay in which students will consider the ideas of course readings and compose an essay that demonstrates their engagement with those ideas. The rhetorical purpose of this assignment is for students to demonstrate the ways in which their thinking about language and literacy has developed so far in the course, using evidence based on interpretations, ideas, and examples as well as passages from four or five …

Writing For Strangers: Structural Transformations Of The Public Letter, 1640-1790, Shang-Yu Sheng

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines public letters in England during the period spanning the English Civil War to the French Revolution, showing how authors employed the printed epistolary form to imagine different relations with the “stranger readers” who constituted the nascent reading public. I employ a formalist approach to analyze the various rhetorics made possible through the public letter’s framed structure, focusing on the assemblages of the narrative positions of letter writer, addressee, and reader. Each chapter describes a mode of the public letter in socio-spatial terms: spectacle, network, community, and public. Building on studies in book history and print culture, this …

Aeschylean Drama And The History Of Rhetoric, Allannah K. Karas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation demonstrates how the playwright Aeschylus contributes to the development of ancient Greek rhetoric through his use and display of πειθώ (often translated “persuasion”) throughout the Oresteia, first performed in 458 BCE. In this drama, Aeschylus specifically displays and develops πειθώ as a theme, a goddess, a central principle of action, and an important concept for his audience to consider. By tracing connections between Aeschylus’ innovations with πειθώ and later fifth and early fourth century conceptions of Greek rhetoric, I argue that Aeschylus plays a more important role in the development of practical principles and concepts of the …

Digital Literacies And Visual Rhetoric: Scaffolding A Meme-Based Assignment Sequence For Introductory Composition Classes, Andie Silva

Publications and Research

Introducing students to the practice of academic writing ideally goes beyond teaching strategies like drafting, outlining, and revising in order to encourage deeper skills such as critical thinking and metacognition. This post discusses an assignment series focusing on reflection, genre analysis, and multiliteracies leading up to the design of original memes.

Excavating Eportfolios: What Student-Driven Data Reveals About Multimodal Composition And Instruction, Amanda M. Licastro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The pedagogical practice of asking students to compose in open, online spaces has grown rapidly in recent years along with an increase in institutional and financial support. In fact, in July 2013, the Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL) announced the “coming of age” of ePortfolios as the percentage of higher education students using ePortfolios rose above the 50% mark in the U.S. (“About”). There are a host of constituent assertions that support the use of open online writing platforms in college-level courses. These claims include that writing publically cultivates digital literacy through broader audience awareness, facilitates interactivity …

Musical Rhetoric, Narrative, Drama, And Their Negation In Morton Feldman's Piano And String Quartet, Ryan Michael Howard

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Though Morton Feldman famously expressed his aversion to conventional compositional rhetoric early in his career, an examination of his music from the late 1970s onward reveals a more complex and ambiguous relationship with musical rhetoric than has often been acknowledged. In his own writings Feldman hinted at the notion of illusory function and directionality in his music, as well as to the phenomenon of "negation." It is my contention that the extended-length works written in the last years of the composer's life, which frequently feature tantalizing suggestions of conventional musical narrative, provide rich opportunity for readings of these statements. My …

When The Virtual Meets The Real: An Assessment Of The Benefits And "Costs" Of Open Access Texts For First Year Writing Courses At Cuny, Johannah Rodgers

Publications and Research

An assessment of the advantages, drawbacks, and costs of Open Access / OER texts for First Year Writing courses at CUNY.

In The Name Of Citizenship: The Writing Classroom And The Promise Of Citizenship, Amy J. Wan

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Revisión De Estudios Sobre Las Funciones De Las Citas En Textos Académicos Escritos Por Estudiantes De Posgrado Nativos Y No Nativos Que Aprenden Una Lengua Extranjera, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

El estudio de las citas, los motivos por lo que se cita un trabajo y las funciones retóricas que las citas cumplen en el discurso escrito, han sido materias abordadas desde distintas disciplinas, entre ellas la Lingüística Aplicada. En el presente trabajo se rastrean los orígenes de estos temas y se revisan más concretamente los estudios llevados a cabo en el contexto académico universitario sobre citación por aprendientes nativos y no nativos de una lengua extranjera.

Summary: The study of citations, the purposes for which a work is cited, and the rhetorical functions that the citations carry out in the …

The Social Construction Of Authorship: An Investigation Of Subjectivity And Rhetorical Authority In The College Writing Classroom, Johannah Rodgers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Although we use the term author on a daily basis to refer to certain individuals, bodies of work, and systems of ideas, as Michel Foucault and other critics have pointed out, attempting to answer the question “What is an Author?” is by no means a simple proposition. And, starting from the position that there is no single, or definitive answer to this complex question, this dissertation seeks to contribute to the ongoing discussion of the genealogy of authorship by investigating the ways in which conceptions of the author have informed models of the writing subject in the field of rhetoric …

Thoughts On Reading "The Personal": Toward A Discursive Ethics Of Professional Critical Literacy, Jane Hindman

Publications and Research

Notes this special issue of College English that author has edited focuses primarily on embodied personal writing. Identifies and argues for a powerful alternative to masculinist discourse by incorporating an "embodied rhetoric" into professional discursive practices. Considers how embodied rhetoric requires gestures to the material practices of the professional group and to the quotidian circumstances of the individual writer.

Writing An Important Body Of Scholarship: A Proposal For An Embodied Rhetoric Of Professional Practice, Jane Hindman

Publications and Research

Identifies a set of professional discursive practices of rhetoric teachers that reveal gendered power relations. Proposes an "embodied rhetoric" characterized and authorized in part by specific sorts of personal author- and context-saturated gestures. Concludes that an embodied rhetoric regenders academic discourse, assures agency and power to feminist theory and praxis, and facilitates efforts to effect change in teachers and students' lives.

Making Writing Matter: Using "The Personal" To Recover[Y] An Essential[Ist] Tension In Academic Discourse, Jane Hindman

Publications and Research

Considers how constructing a hopeful professional discourse requires substantial revision of current professional discursive practices. Notes that the search for local knowledge and a shared, more hopeful discourse has rekindled interest in the rhetorical as well as material authority of ideologies, in various forms of writing collected under the overdetermined rubric "the personal." (SG)

Fostering Liberatory Teaching: A Proposal For Revising Instructional Assessment Practices, Jane E. Hindman

Publications and Research

Appraises the assumptions that drive standard evaluation methods and compares them to those assumptions that undergird more critical approaches to teaching. Presents an alternative teacher evaluation instrument and explains how it more accurately measures what is said and believed to be effective teaching. Offers statistical evidence supporting the instrument and suggests further steps to foster teaching practices