English 1
Fall 2009, Section M11BF, M.W. 11:00-12:15pm, Boylan 2154
Prof. Jason Frydman
Office: Boylan 2416
Office Phone: 718-951-5258
Email: jfrydman@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Office hours: M.W. 10:00-11:00am, and by appointment.
Course Description
English 1 offers you the opportunity to develop your critical reading, thinking, and
writing skills. We will assemble a toolbox of intellectual strategies enabling you to read,
analyze, and respond to high-level academic and professional texts. The course is
organized in three units, each focusing on a distinct mode of essay-writing. Unit 1: The
Personal Essay, will ask you to make individual thoughts and experiences relevant to a
wider community. Unit 2: The Lens Essay, will teach you how to appropriate a
conceptual lens through which you can analyze a given topic. Unit 3: The Conversation
Essay, will demand that you to participate in a conversation being conducted implicitly or
explicitly among multiple authors and texts.
Course objectives:
- To develop and express complex thoughts in grammatically correct English
- To enhance critical reading skills
- To improve essay-writing fundamentals: making arguments; using evidence to support
that argument; crafting effective styles and organizational structures.
- To learn three types of essays: the personal essay, the lens essay, and the conversation
essay
Required materials
Ordered at Shakespeare & Co.:
The Brief Bedford Reader, 10th ed. (Bedford/St. Martin’s, ISBN 0312472072)
Diane Hacker, A Writer’s Reference with Integrated Exercises (Bedford/St.
Martin’s, ISBN )
Course policies
Grading
Your grade for the course will be determined as follows:
Attendance, homework & participation: 30%
Personal Essay: 15%
Lens Essay: 25%
Conversation Essay: 30%
Classroom Environment
We are all responsible for making the classroom a space for open-minded inquiry,
passionate debate, and mutual respect. Expect to be engaged, contradicted, and surprised.
Neither silence nor intimidation are acceptable.
You may not take notes on a laptop. Cellphones must be turned off and out of sight.
Attendance
In the case of an absence, you must e-mail me, preferably before class. If you miss class,
you are responsible for the work you missed, so please get the notes from a classmate (I
can help facilitate this). Unless they are due to religious observance, you are allowed two
absences before your participation grade is affected. Your fifth absence will result in a
whole letter reduction of your final grade. Your eighth absence will allow you a D in the
class at best.
Arriving to class late disrupts your classmates’ learning and makes your own learning
more difficult: two tardy arrivals equals one absence, so please be on time.
Writing and Grammar Exercises
At-home writing assignments must be typed and printed out when you arrive to class. All
students should bring either a perforated notebook or have loose-leaf paper available for
in-class writing. Grammar exercises can be written in the Hacker exercise workbook.
Plagiarism
The faculty and administration of Brooklyn College support an environment free from
cheating and plagiarism. Plagiarism in this course will result in an F on the assignment,
possible failure for the course, and a report to the Dean’s Office of Academic Integrity.
Please consult the CUNY Academic Integrity Policy and the Brooklyn College procedure
for implementing this policy at: http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/policies.html. Each
student is responsible for being aware of what constitutes cheating and plagiarism and for
avoiding both. The following website may help clarify the difference between
permissible and impermissible forms of borrowing:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html. If you are still uncertain
about these guidelines, please consult me before handing in your assignment.
Disabilities
In order to receive disability-related academic accommodations students must first be
registered with the Center for Student Disability Services. Students who have a
documented disability or suspect they may have a disability are invited to set up an
appointment with the Director of the Center for Student Disability Services, Ms. Valerie
Stewart-Lovell at 718-951-5538. If you have already registered with the Center for
Student Disability Services please provide your professor with the course accommodation
form and discuss your specific accommodation with him/her.
8/31
Introduction; syllabus review; writing activities.
Unit One: The Personal Essay
9/2
Read pp. 57-63 (AWR) and then read Harold Taw, “Finding Prosperity by
Feeding Monkeys” (BBR). Following the model provided on 61 (AWR), sketch
an outline of Taw’s piece.
9/7
No class (BC closed)
9/9
Thesis and Purpose. Read Barbara Lazear Ascher, “On Compassion” (BBR).
Answer the “Questions on Meaning” from p. 168. Grammar exercises S4-a.
9/14
From the Specific to the General. Read Gretel Ehrlich, “Chronicles of Ice”
(BBR). Answer the “Questions on Meaning” from p. 247. Grammar exercises G21 and G2-2.
9/16
Principles of Editing. Read George Orwell, “Shooting an Elephant” (BBR).
Writing exercise: Narrate a personal encounter you participated in or witnessed.
Use this encounter as part of a brief essay in which you tell your audience
“Something I Believe.” Grammar exercises W2-1, W2-2, W3-1.
9/21
Something I Believe – The Personal Essay
Personal Essay: In the essays we have read this semester, the authors often make
ethical demands upon their readers, yet they do so without telling them outright
what to do. In fact, sometimes the examples and anecdotes they offer make it
seem even harder to figure out what to do. Using at least one detailed personal
encounter, write a 3-4pp. essay about something you believe. Your essay should
have general ethical implications, but it should also involve some grey area or
uncertainty. Please bring four copies to class on 9/23.
9/23
Workshop Personal Essay.
9/28
No class (BC closed)
9/29
No class. Grammar exercises G6-1, G6-2, G6-3.
9/30
No class. Grammar exercises P1-1, P1-2, P2-1.
Unit 2: The Lens Essay
10/5
Read Maya Angelou, “Champion of the World” and Amy Tan, “Fisk Cheeks”
(BBR).
Final draft of Personal Essay due.
10/7
Read W.E.B. Du Bois, “On Our Spiritual Strivings” (handout). Write a 1-2pp.
essay in which you interpret the essays by Angelou and Tan using Du Bois’s
concept of “double consciousness.”
10/12 No class (BC closed)
10/14 Read Yiyun Li, “Orange Crush” (BBR). Respond to the “Questions on Meaning”
(147).
10/19 Read Bruce Catton, “Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts” (BBR).
Lens Essay: Choose a person, thing, event, or concept to be a lens for an analysis
of a social or historical phenomenon, or a text of your choosing (5pp. Due
November 4). Please bring in a draft of at least 1-2pp.
10/21 Catton cont’d. Bring 1-2pp. revision plan.
10/26 Read Fatema Mernissi, “Size 6: The Western Women’s Harem” (BBR). Respond
to the “Questions on Meaning” (223-224).
10/28 Mernissi cont’d. Grammar exercises W4-4.
11/2
Workshop Lens Essay.
Unit 3: Conversation Essay
11/4
Judy Brady, “I Want a Wife” (BBR). Respond to the “Questions on Meaning”
(282).
Final draft of Lens Essay due.
11/9
Deborah Tannen, “But What Do You Mean?” (BBR). Respond to “Questions on
Meaning” (331).
11/11 Tannen cont’d. Write a 1-2pp. mini-essay on “Suggestions for Writing” #4 (332).
11/16 Martha Nussbaum, “Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism” (handout). Write a one-act
play in which Yiyun Li, Fatema Mernissi, and Martha Nussbaum have a
conversation and/or debate 2-3pp.
11/18 Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father.
11/23 Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father.
Conversation Essay: Using at least two readings from this semester’s learning
community, one of which must be Obama’s Dreams from My Father, write a
conversation essay in which you explore and make an argument about different
understandings of a value, such as heroism, or a concept, such as global
citizenship. 5-6pp, due 12/9.
11/25 Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father.
11/30 Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father.
12/2
Workshop Conversation Essay.
12/7
TBA
12/9
TBA. Final draft of Conversation Essay due.