emyers@qc.cuny.edu
Monday 1-3 or by appointment
Office: Klapper 352
Prof. Elissa Myers
Queens Hall 006
M/W 10:05-11:55 AM
ENGLISH 110
The Visual World
Fall 2015
“Always the seer is a sayer.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
The primary goal of this course is to teach you to use the conventions of scholarly writing in all
of your General Education courses. College writing looks different in different disciplines, so
this course is designed to help you meet the variety of challenges you’ll face as a writer at
Queens and beyond. To achieve that goal, this course is organized around an interdisciplinary
topic—the Visual World—meaning it is not an “English” class in the usual sense, although there
are literary texts among our readings.
Learning Goals
We’ll discuss the ways that writers use textual evidence across different disciplines to advance
their thinking in conversation with one other. My goal is to teach you how to enter the scholarly
community we share by
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drafting and revising your work with regularity and seriousness;
developing arguable theses in conversation with your peers and with published scholars;
supporting your theses with close analysis of the evidence;
citing your evidence professionally;
conducting independent research.
Our course topic
In “A Short History of Photography” (which we will read later in the semester), Walter Benjamin
refers to photography as a “visual world.” By this, he means to suggest that our world is
structured by the sense of sight.
In our class, rather than merely attending to what we can see, we will attend to the (sometimes
problematic) ways in which what is visible shapes our world. We frequently say things like
“seeing is believing,” or “I see what you mean.” As these metaphors illustrate, the sense of sight
is a controlling metaphor in our culture, to the degree that we sometimes overlook what cannot
be seen directly. How does one see power, for instance? Though its effects are everywhere,
power itself is invisible. This leads us to the most important goal of our time together this
semester—figuring out the connection between seeing and saying, figuring out how to describe
what we see going wrong or going right from our own unique perspectives, and how to make
compelling arguments that can change what others see.
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To get to this point we will need to engage with questions such as: How do our points of view
influence what we see? What means can we use to interpret the visual world around us, and what
forms of knowledge are needed to do so? What writing strategies can we use to help others
visualize something that we see, and to offer them a cogent argument about it?
Grades and assignments
You have four major assignments this semester. Your grade for each of the major assignments
depends on your completion of the smaller assignments they contain, including in-class writing,
annotation assignments, and blog posts. Therefore, it is important that you maintain a high
standard of quality for yourself even on small assignments.
You will receive regular feedback but not letter grades on those smaller assignments; my
evaluations of them will be factored into your final grade on each large assignment.
With that in mind, I will assess your final grade by this formula:
Essay 1: Close Reading in Literary Studies and Visual Art (4-6 pp.): 15%
Essay 2: Urban Scene in Critical Context (6-7 pp.): 20%
Essay 3: Research Essay (8-10 pp.), including the required annotated bibliography (not
included in page count): 25%
Essay 4: Personal reflection and written commentary (4-5 pp.): 15%
Participation: 15%
Letter of reflection: 10%
Essay Assignment Sequence
Essay 1: Close Reading in Literary Studies and Visual Art (4-6 pp.)
Make an argument about a poem’s interpretation of a painting or a painting’s interpretation of a
poem, supporting your thesis with close reading.
Essay 2: Urban Scene in Critical Context (6-7 pp.)
Drawing on sources we’ve read, make an argument about a place in or around Queens that you
can show us in a photograph (your own photo or a published photo), and suggest how your
argument extends or calls into question the argument of one of our sources.
Essay 3: Research Essay (8-10 pp.)
Drawing on your own research and on any sources we’ve read this semester, make an argument
about meaning in the visual world. Support your thesis using secondary sources that you find
through independent research. I will give you a set of more concrete questions to help you
develop your research essays as the assignment gets closer.
Assignment 4: Personal reflection with written commentary (4-5 pp.)
For your fourth assignment, you’ll take a literal or metaphorical selfie, using a combination of
artistic and argumentative methods. You can take a self-portrait with a camera, write a reflective
essay or poem, or make a multimedia art object—or come up with another approach.This
assignment thus involves a creative and critical component. No matter the form of your selfie, a
written commentary on the argument your selfie makes will also be required.
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Blog Posts
Purpose: I would like our class to function as a community of writers focused on the writing
process. The blog posts are meant to help our class focus on the process by encouraging you to
write well before formal assignments are due, and to create community by encouraging you to
show your writing to your peers. With this in mind, regular participation in the blog is extremely
important.
Blog participation: You must respond to all the blog post prompts that are starred on the
syllabus (marked with this symbol*). Note that there may be more than one starred blog post
per week. In weeks where there is no starred blog post, you may choose which prompt to
respond to. Feel free to write a post on the blog whenever you have something to say about our
readings! If you write a blog post, please make a note of what you write so that we can discuss
You should also comment on at least three of your fellow classmates’ blog posts per week.
Though I do not require you to blog every class day, I give two blog post prompts per week in
order to encourage you to think about the writing and reading we are doing as a class, so even if
you do not blog, please think about the questions in the prompt, and read your classmates’ posts.
Blog posts are due at 8 PM on the day before we attend class, and comments to your fellow
students’ blogs are due by class time.
Blog presentation: Once per semester, you will present your answer to the blog question(s) in
class. We will sign up for these dates near the beginning of the semester.
Grading: The blog posts are informal assignments, so this means that you do not have to create
a works cited, or spend a lot of time making them polished. I am more concerned that you
engage critically with the texts we are reading, and learn from the writing strategies they use.
I will often give more specific instructions for blog posts the week before they are due, but if I do
not, please refer to the prompts listed on the syllabus.
Class Participation
Your participation grade will be based on the regularity of your participation in class discussions
and preparedness for class, your blog posts, and your comments on your classmates’ posts. To be
prepared for class, you should always bring any homework I have assigned and/or assignments
that are due, and have done the readings for that class. Readings and blog posts are due on the
day they are listed on the syllabus.
Conferences
Group conferences: I will be breaking you up into stable writing groups that will meet during
the last 15 minutes of each class. Your writing group will not meet every week, so this means on
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the days your group does not meet, you may leave class early. I will be around as a guide for
these groups, but the purpose of them is to get you talking to your peers about your writing.
Individual conferences: I will also ask you to sign up for individual conferences with me before
each formal assignment. I will send a sign up sheet around for each assignment closer to the
assignment due dates.
Letter of Reflection
At the end of the semester, you will write a letter of reflection to me about how you have grown
as a writer in this class—how you have discovered new writing strategies, developed a more
academic style, etc. The purpose of this assignment is that you come to an understanding of your
development over the semester, and think of ways to improve your writing in the future.
Schedule (subject to revision – always announced)
Mon., Aug. 31
Introductions; hand out key terms for poetry and painting; read
Emily Dickinson’s “Before I got my eye put out”
Wed., Sept. 2
Reading: Gordon Harvey, Elements of the Academic Essay
Lucille Clifton’s 3 “Leda” poems and William Butler Yeats’s
“Leda and the Swan”
In class: Discuss thesis
Blog: Choose one of Clifton’s poems; make two observation
related to how Clifton is responding to Yeats
Mon., Sept. 7 Labor Day
No class.
Wed. Sep. 9
Reading: Mary Oliver’s Rules for the Dance (selections),
“Responding to Writing”
In class: Elements of Pre-Raphaelite Painting and Edward
Hopper; discuss PIE; pre-draft activity
Tues. Sept. 10
We have class! This is a Monday schedule!
Reading: “The Lady of Shalott” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson,
“Getting it Wrong in ‘The Lady of Shalott’” by Erik Gray
Viewing:
o I Am Half Sick of Shadows - John William Waterhouse –
o The Lady of Shalott (2) - John William Waterhouse
o -William Holman Hunt
o -Elizabeth Siddal
In class: Discuss motive, keyterms, evidence; pre-draft activity
*Blog: Write about how a painting looks at a poem.
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Mon. Sept. 14
*No class! (Rosh Hashanah)
Wed. Sept. 16
Reading: Mary Leader’s “Girl at Sewing Machine,” and Edward
Hirsch’s “Edward Hopper and the House by the Railroad”
Viewing: The House by the Railroad
And Girl at Sewing Machine by Edward Hopper
In-class: Continue to discuss “Getting it Wrong”; discuss
analysis, structure, stitching
*Blog: Write about how a poem looks at a painting.
Mon. Sept. 21
Please have rough draft for in class workshop
In-class: Peer review draft workshop; thesis workshop; discuss
style, orientation
Wed. Sept. 23
No class for Yom Kippur
Mon. Sept. 28
Final draft of Essay #1 due in class!
Reading: Ina Miyares, “From Exclusionary Covenant to Ethnic
Hyperdiversity in Jackson Heights, Queens”; Mark Gaipa, “8
Strategies for Critically Engaging Sources”
Blog: Make two observations about the way Miyares uses
evidence. What is her motive? What keyterms does she use?
In-class: Discuss sources, stance, orientation
Wed. Sept. 30
Viewing: TED Talks: “Greening the Ghetto,” “How Public Spaces
Make Cities Work,” “Revision Strategies for New and
Experienced Writers”
Homework: Find three argumentative claims in the videos and
make note of them. How is the way in which they make claims
different than in Miyares’s article? Are there important issues that
the speakers do not bring up?
*Blog: Identify a place of interest to you, in or near Queens that
you can share in a photograph (your own or published).
Monday, Oct. 5
Revision of Essay 1 due!
Reading: “Ten Sentence Patterns,” “Using Quotations and Making
Arguments”
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In Class: Analyze your own style with a partner; what is your
sentence structure and word choice like? What do you like about
it? What would you like to change? How is your partner using
sources? What strategies are they taking from Gaipa?
Blog: Write about a difficulty or success you are having in your
writing process for Essay #2.
Wed. Oct. 7
Viewing: QNSMade blog, Naked City: The Death and Life of
Authentic Urban Places by Sharon Zukin (selections)
In class: Structure workshop – reassemble the papers, discussion
of outlining
Blog: How do both texts use the visual and text in tandem? How
would describe their motives? Interpret QNSMade through the lens
of Zukin.
Mon. Oct. 12
No class for Columbus Day!
Wed. Oct. 14
Draft of Essay 2 due
In-class: Peer review of drafts
Blog: Write about a difficulty or success you are having in your
writing process for Essay #2.
Mon. Oct. 19
Reading: Three grading rubrics, Revision Strategies of Student
Writers and Experienced Adult Writers”
In-class: Workshop using rubrics: Identifying strengths and
weaknesses in your own writing
*Blog: What have you learned so far in English 110, and how do
you want to continue to develop as a writer?
Wed. Oct. 21
Revision of Essay 2 due
Reading: Gregory, Eye and Brain
In class: Brainstorming; research question workshop: From
observation to question
*Blog: Identify two research questions or topics of interest to you
and suggest the kinds of sources you would want to find in
investigating each
Mon. Oct 26
Reading: Merlau-Ponty “Eye and Mind”; your research materials
In-class: Discussion of citation, discussion of annotated
bibliography
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*Blog: Note some keyterms that Gregory and Merlau-Ponty use.
What kinds of evidence do they use? What kinds of evidence
might you use in your papers?
Wed. Oct. 28
Library Session. Please meet in the library at class time!
Mon. Nov. 2
Reading: Your research materials
Annotated bibliography due
In-class: presentations on work in progress, finding using evidence
from a variety of disciplines
Blog: Write about a difficulty or success you had with the
annotated bibliography. How will you use it to structure your
paper?
Wed. Nov. 4
Reading: Your research materials
In-class: Discuss introductions, conclusions
*Blog: Discuss one difficulty or success you are having in your
writing of Essay #3.
Mon. Nov. 9
Draft of Essay 3 due
In-class: Draft workshops
Blog: Discuss your hopes for the draft workshop. What questions
would you like your reviewer(s) to answer? What sort of feedback
would help you?
Wed. Nov. 11
In-class: pre-draft activity; brainstorm ideas for Essay #4
presentations on writing in progress
*Blog: How did responding to the work of your peers help you in
your writing?
Mon. Nov. 16
Reading: “A Short History of Photography,” by Walter Benjamin
and “Ways of Seeing” by John Berger
In-class: thesis workshop; titling the research essay
*Blog: How are Berger’s ideas similar to Benjamin’s? What
strategies does he use to incorporate Benjamin’s ideas into his
own?
Wed. Nov. 18
Revision of essay 3 due
Blog: How can you use Berger’s incorporation of the visual and
verbal as a model for your selfies?
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Mon. Nov. 23
Reading: Selfie City website and two short essays, “Imagined
Data Communities,” “Beyond Biometrics: Feminist Media Theory
Looks at Selfiecity”
Blog: What is the difference between how visual and textual
evidence work? Is Manovich a critic or an artist?
Wed. Nov. 25
Reading: Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams (selection)
Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
*Blog: Are these texts argumentative? If so, for what are they
arguing, and how do the writers use their own experiences as
evidence?
Mon. Nov. 30
Draft of essay #4 due
In-class: Draft workshop
Blog: Write about a difficulty you are having writing Essay #4?
How is this challenge different from those you have faced so far?
Wed. Dec. 2
In class: Discussion of letter of reflection.
Blog: Do you find value in evaluating your own writing? What
have you learned from evaluating the writing of your peers? If you
could design a new assignment to improve student writing, what
would it be?
Mon. Dec. 7
Final draft of essay #4 due!
In class: Presentations of essay 4; wrap up class discussion
Blog: Has this class caused you to remember aspects of the world
that were invisible? Has it caused you to question what you see? If
so, how? What other writings would you like to see on this
syllabus?
Wed. Dec. 9
Letter of reflection due! End of class party!
Mon. Dec. 14
No class! Prof. Myers has to attend a wedding.
Required texts
Course blog - english11030.wordpress.com. Please register for this right away, as it will also
contain copies of our readings, in case you miss the class when I hand them out.
Hard copies of the day’s readings (which I will give you or you can print from the blog)
Writing at Queens Handbook - includes many of our secondary readings. It will also be posted
on the blog, if you need to refer to it online.
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You might also want to purchase a reference book for guidance with formatting and citation such
as the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. However, this is optional, as the Owl at
Purdue writing site contains much of the information you would find in the Handbook.
Course policies
Communication
If you have questions about any aspect of our course, please don’t hesitate to email me or come
see my in my office hours. I would be more than happy to discuss your writing with you
anytime! If the hours listed don’t work for you, please contact me to make an appointment.
Assignment Due Dates
 The formal writing assignments are due as hard copies in class on the day when they
appear on the syllabus. The blog posts are due on the night before the class day for which
they are listed at 8 PM. Comments on your classmates’ blog posts are due by class time
on the day the blog is listed on the syllabus.
 If you submit an assignment late, you will lose 10 points per class day.
 Format your formal assignments using MLA citation. See the required texts section for
places to learn more about MLA format. When using quotations or paraphrasing in the
blog, you must use in-text citations of the page numbers you reference if you are working
with a written text, but you do not have to make a works cited for your blog posts.
 Check your email daily—and check the blog regularly—for any updates.
Absences:
You may be absent from class once for any reason. If you are ill, or have a family emergency,
etc., and need to miss another class, please let me know. Otherwise, with each absence from
class after the first, your participation grade will drop by a letter. Example: 1 unexcused absence
(after the first, which can be for any reason)=automatic “B” for participation; 2 unexcused
absence=automatic “C” for participation, etc. This policy is strict because your presence for draft
workshops, in-class writing exercises, and discussion is necessary for you to develop to your full
potential as writers this semester.
If you must miss a class, please contact a classmate to find out what you missed. If you missed
an assignment due date, you must turn that assignment in by the next scheduled class day. You
are still responsible for any assignments due on the next class day.
Campus resources
The Writing Center - Kiely Hall 229. The tutors there are trained to help you revise your
writing at any stage of the writing process. You can visit them to talk out an idea or an outline, or
as you are writing or revising. I strongly suggest that all of you attend the writing center this
semester. I will give extra credit of five points extra for each major assignment for which you
do so. Though you can go as many times as they will allow you, I will not give more than five
points per assignment of extra credit.
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Please note that in order to get the most out of your session, you should make an appointment at
least one week prior to when an assignment is due. You can also get online help by visiting the
Writing Center’s website at http://qcpages.qc.edu/qcwsw/.
Special Accommodations: If you have any condition that requires accommodation in this
class—for example, a medical condition, or a difficulty with your cognition or psychology—
please let me know. You should also contact the Office of Special Services in 171 Kiely Hall at
718-997-5870.
Academic Integrity: This course will help you continue to build your ability to use literary
sources to advance your arguments as fully as you can. It is important to be careful throughout
this process that you are giving credit to authors where credit is due to avoid plagiarism. This
means citing your sources (in the case of MLA format, noting the page number and author’s last
name) every time you use a quotation from someone else’s work or paraphrase their ideas. If you
ever have any questions about whether or not you are using a source fairly, please ask me, and I
will be happy to help you. You should familiarize yourself with CUNY’s policy on academic
integrity, and let me know if you have any questions about it.