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Course Syllabus

Written Contributions


As we learn new skills, we have an opportunity to share that learning with others. Our two English Writing 1111 sections will host a Blog called "Writing 101" for an audience of other developing writers. 

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Over the course of the semester, you will contribute 3 posts of 750-1000 words each to the Blog. Each post will illustrate in detail a tool, technique, mechanism, or other concept that you have learned in this class.


This "think piece" will require you to perform critical thinking about a topic you may have never encountered before: intersectionality. We will ask how this concept, which is often used in academic circles to reveal overlapping factors of discrimination and power, might apply to your experience.  

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What is "intersectionality," exactly? Is your own identity or way of understanding yourself shaped through an intersectional paradigm? Can intersectionality offer new frameworks for reflecting on your community?

 

Published in newspapers and magazines, op-eds are short essays that represent the views of a writer not affiliated with the journalistic enterprise. Meant to reach a large readership, the op-ed presents persuasive, opinionated writing that substantiates claims with reasoning, anecdote, opinion, and logic. We will first study how others use the genre, then research op-eds related to your community before composing our own.


Our final project of the semester will combine writing with other modes of communication, like speaking, visual imagery and graphics, music, and movement. You will think not only about the products you created but also about what you learned and how.

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By looking back over the work performed between January and April, you will form a narrative around an experience you could not see at the time. This multimedia reflection will harness your creative energies to produce a final summative piece.

Exercises


A series of low-stakes assignments will guide you through writing at home, such as brainstorming in preparation for a paper or a worksheet about an assigned reading. These exercises will not be graded, and many times will not be turned in, but their completion will be necessary for the following class.

Peer Review Feedback


In addition to contributing reflective, thoughtful, and respectful remarks during "live" peer review sessions, you will also add marginal comments to your peers' work at set intervals. You will receive guidance to help you perform each set of annotations.

Verbal Contributions

Peer Review Group Workshops

 

To help you get to know your classmates in a collaborative intellectual setting, we will meet frequently in small groups using Zoom's "breakout rooms." You will undertake exercises, discussions, and workshops together. Each of you will be asked to contribute actively to these sessions.

Class Discussions

 

While Zoom is not always conducive to the kind of open-ended, free-flowing conversations that we might have in a seminar classroom, you will still have opportunities to contribute your thoughts and reflections during many class sessions. Please share openly and candidly as much as feels comfortable.

 

There will be several weeks where we meet in groups of 4-5 to discuss our written work. These meetings will require you to read your peers' work in advance of class, to add helpful critical annotations to their documents, and to come to class prepared to share your thoughts with your peers.

1:1 Meetings

 

Unlike the other categories, meeting with Dr. V on an individual basis is not a required contribution to the course, but it is certainly available. Wednesday mornings from 8.00-9.00am EST will be dedicated to meeting with students on a one-to-one basis to talk about material from class or your writing in progress. 

Verbal

Attending Class

Zoom

 

Each class meeting will be hosted virtually via Zoom from 8.00 to about 9.00am Eastern US time on scheduled section days (M/W/Th or T/F). Since we all suffer from Zoom fatigue, each section's "live" in-class time has been reduced from 200 weekly minutes to <120. Please sign on using the meeting links on Canvas and be prepared to begin at 8am.

Absence

 

If you will need to miss a class, please send an email to Dr. V as soon as possible, in advance if you are able. While you are invited to share any information that you would like to, you do not need to feel obligated to justify your absence with details regarding your health, wellbeing, or personal life.

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Repeated, excessive absences will lower your grade.

Cameras

 

For most class sessions, we will interact through lecture with discussion, Q&A sessions, and/or group breakout rooms. Your audio and video participation is as crucial as your bodily presence in an in-person seminar. You are welcome to use a virtual background in Zoom if you prefer to mask your setting. Please find a location where you can engage as best as possible.

Respect

 

To meet the challenge of being critical thinkers, analyzers, and writers and speakers, we often have to be willing to take intellectual risks, try new things, and share from a vulnerable space. This work demands that we be respectful of our peers. I will expect courtesy and generosity from each of you. If at any time you feel uncomfortable with any aspects of our course, please submit this anonymous feedback form.

Essay & Multi
Written
Blog Op-Ed

Attribution

 

Without exception, work with your name submitted on it must be your own. Information and ideas from sources need be referenced appropriately, whether the material is quoted or paraphrased. Citations and attributions should be incorporated for anything that has not been produced by your mind.

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Students will be responsible for reading and understanding NU's policies for academic integrity.

 

Suspected cases of plagiarism will be placed on your university record with the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution. Repeated offenses will result in academic hearings.

Acknowledgment

 

While the principal ideas, structure, prose, and conceptual framing for each paper will be your own responsibility, it is common that students seek a variety of sources of support with their writing. This support might come in the form of a conversation with your instructor, input from your peers, a tutoring appointment with the Writing Center (all of which are encouraged in this course), or an editorial read-through from a parent, roommate, sibling, or friend. 

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To identify these collaborations, you will submit a cover page with each version of a paper. On this Acknowledgments Page, you will describe any and all input that has contributed to the document presented.

Assessment

Assessment

 

Since writing is as much about process as it is about product, your final grade reflects the arc of your progress across the semester, including written work as well as in-class engagement. 

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A minimum passing grade of a C (>73%) requires that you participate fully in the course, complete all assigned work, and engage actively in your learning. Performance at the B or A level indicates work that is strong or exceptional.

 

A student who earns a C- (<73%) or below will need to repeat the course to fulfill graduation requirements.

Feedback

 

Through our peer work and small group meetings, you will receive plentiful feedback on your work. Upon timely submission of a final draft, you can expect Dr. V to return qualitative annotated comments, a quantitative rubric, and numerical mark within 2 weeks. Unexcused late work receives no feedback.

Late Assignments

 

In general, work that must be completed prior to class (i.e., homework exercise, peer annotations, etc.) will not be accepted late for credit. Drafts and final versions of essays submitted late will not receive feedback (unless 24-hour pass is used). Final versions of major work will lose 1/3rd letter grade per each 12-hour period it is submitted after the due date.

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Status

 

Since we will not be using the Gradebook feature in Canvas to track quantitative marks, if at any time you have questions regarding your status in the course please email me and/or meet with me during my drop-in hours on Wednesday mornings (or make an appointment to speak individually at another time).

 

To account for unforeseen last-minute circumstances that may prevent you from doing your best work, you may at any time turn in one of three 24-hour passes allowing you to submit a draft or final essay within 24 hours after the deadline without penalty. Only one pass may be used per deadline, and passes must be sent by email prior to the original due date. 

Communication

 

Email should serve as your first point of written contact with your instructor. I do my best to respond to emails within 24 hours. Please practice courteous professionalism in your emails: open with a greeting such as "Dear Dr. V" or "Hi Professor Vestri" and sign the email with your name. If for any reason you do not hear back from me after a week, please check in.

 

If you have a quick question or one that would, ideally, receive a timely response, you can reach me using Northeastern's Microsoft Teams chat function. Sign in using your NU account and locate my name in the school contacts. While I cannot promise an immediate response, I will try to get back to you promptly.

 

Each Wednesday morning, from 8 to 9am, I will hold an open drop-in session on Zoom, where you can join at any time individually (or with a friend or group) to talk about your work in the class, questions you may have, material from our readings, or anything else on your mind. Join as often as you'd like—even weekly!

 

At mid-semester, you will have a chance to provide input about our course via an anonymous survey. If at any other point you would like to provide feedback to me, please feel free to use this anonymous form here on our website. (You can of course send non-anonymous thoughts at any time by email.)

Communication
Attending
Attribution
Reflection
Op-Ed
Breakout Rooms
Grading
Image by Paul Melki
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