An advanced course in expository essay writing that includes a required library paper. This course further develops research and documentation skills (MLA style). Demanding literary and expository readings are assigned for classroom discussion and as a basis for essay writing.

Course Description: A course in effective essay writing and basic research techniques including the use of the library. Demanding readings assigned for classroom discussion and as a basis for essay writing.

Instructor: Anthony Wheeler
Course: ENG1121 English Composition II (O470)

This project was originally created as part of the Mina Rees Library's Open Pedagogy Fellowship at The Graduate Center (Winter 2021).

Our world is created through stories. In this class (Great Works 2850, in case you forgot), we will read a cross section/sample of riveting works of literature from the 17th century to the present. It will be beautiful. We are going to read across genres—novels, poetry, bits of memoirs, short stories. Hopefully, we can watch some movies, look at some art, and hold class discussions digging into art, literature, and politics, and everything in between. You’ll learn how to speak and write about literature using proper literary terminology without sacrificing your own voice and personal style in the process. We will reconstruct the socio-historical and cultural contexts of the texts we read. We are going to do a lot of scaffolded bits of writing to help us build to the bigger final essays.

This course presents a global approach to literature by introducing a variety of narrative, lyric, and dramatic forms representative of different cultures and historical periods, from the eighteenth century to the present. We will approach texts of a variety of forms and genres, from satire, Romantic poetry, and modern plays, to a broad range of fictional and non-fictional narratives. Discussions involve both close reading of selected texts and comparison of the values the texts promote. You will engage in a variety of communication-intensive activities designed to enhance your appreciation of literature and your awareness of the way it shapes and reflects a multicultural world.

Pedagogical materials created during Spring 2019 OER/Digital Literacy fellowship at Queens College, revising English 302: Playwriting Workshop.

Bulletin description: Essentials of the structure and nature of the English language. A systematic study of English grammar: the elements and processes of the sound system, the system of grammatical markers, the syntax and the semantic systems of English.

This site is the OER for Martha Nadell's English 7320 at Brooklyn College. Here's what Dead Girls is all about:

Young flirts. Debutantes. Street Walkers. In the nineteenth century, or at least in its novels, consumption, Roman fever, and madness claim these girls quite young. This class focuses on the surprisingly common figure of the dead girl in nineteenth-century American literature. We investigate the death of the young girl through a range of issues, including the construction of femininity and maternity, the intersection of class and ethnicity, the contrast between urban and rural space, and the formation of national identity. We speculate about the nature of realism and naturalism and explore the visual culture of dead girls of the time. We focus on the work of Louisa May Alcott, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Henry James, Edith Wharton, and others.

This course concerns itself with absurdism, which introduces irrationality into a seemingly rational universe, and surrealism, absurdism’s softer counterpart, which introduces elements of the human subconscious/dreams into a seemingly rational universe. Both of these movements evoke feelings of loneliness and terror, but there
is also room in them for comedy, satire, surprise, and delight. We will look at a range of works, from articles to novels to plays to movies to sketch shows and analyze how and why they use absurdism/surrealism, and what the result is. We will interrogate who “gets” to be absurd/surreal, and engage with the intersection of absurdism/surrealism, gender, and race. You will critically engage with the material to write two short responses and a longer research paper, in which you will advance unique, original ideas based on the material we read.

This course concerns itself with absurdism, which introduces irrationality into a seemingly rational universe, and surrealism, absurdism’s softer counterpart, which introduces elements of the human subconscious/dreams into a seemingly rational universe. Both of these movements evoke feelings of loneliness and terror, but there is also room in them for comedy, satire, surprise, and delight. We will look at a range of works, from articles to novels to plays to movies to sketch shows and analyze how and why they use absurdism/surrealism, and what the result is. We will interrogate who “gets” to be absurd/surreal, and engage with the intersection of absurdism/surrealism, gender, and race. You will critically engage with the material to write two short responses and a longer research paper, in which you will advance unique, original ideas based on the material we read.

Course Objectives:
• Understand what makes a piece absurdist or surrealist and be able to engage with it.
• Generate your own unique ideas supported by evidence from the material we read and watch.
• Express ideas–both orally and in writing–correctly, cogently, persuasively, and in conformity with the conventions of the discipline.
• Learn how to rethink and revise essays.
• Learn to develop viable research questions and identify appropriate sources.
• Learn to use library resources, including collections, databases, and archives.
o Learn how to summarize and cite both primary and secondary sources in support of the argument in MLA format.

Theme of the class: The Horror!

Overview: While this course focuses on mastering the skills of expository writing: analyzing and evaluating sources, developing theses and arguments, researching topics, using evidence and citation, developing, and navigating bibliographic materials, drafting, and revising, and structuring a paper, it can do more than that. The goal of this class is for you to exit the room asking questions and observing the world in a way you haven’t before. What is literature? Why do people write and why do people read? What is its purpose in our society? If you do not see a place for yourself, the reader, in the books you study, then how can you determine why they say what they do and whether it is relevant? The goal of this class is for you to find a place in the world of literature by questioning the message every piece of writing transmits. Writing offers a way to express difficult painful, beautiful ideas in the world. What would you like to say about these messages?

The readings reflect several genres and disciplines, but focus on fiction, short stories, and academic writing. Through in-class discussions, we will draw connections between literature, criticism, philosophy, psychology, and personal understanding of today. These connections will lead us to questions that will drive research based on the themes of the class. From this research, each student will develop a research paper that reflects their unique, brilliant thoughts.

Course Objectives
Students who successfully complete this course will be able to:
• Read and think critically
• Understand how language operates
• Express ideas–both orally and in writing–correctly, cogently, persuasively, and in conformity with the conventions of the discipline
• Conduct research and write a research paper
• Display familiarity with literary works by a variety of authors in a variety of genres.
• Be able to offer an extended discussion in writing of two or more texts and authors in relation to each other.
• Demonstrate the ability to analyze and interpret based on careful attention both to the detail and overall design of a literary work.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the role of context in determining meaning.

Syllabus for College Writing I: Controversy in Literature, Language, and Literacy at Queens College

This syllabus was adapted and developed for Professor Benavidez's English 110 College Writing I course at Queens College. The theme for this First Year Writing course is “Media Literacy: Critically Reading and Responding to Media,” and since the course explores current events, the specific media sources are left open for instructor selection. Otherwise, all links to required course materials are included.

This Open and Free Educational Resource (OER) and Zero-Cost Syllabus outlines a set of course materials for English 130: Writing about Literature in English. The course materials provided (all open education resources) include both written and visual texts to accompany and encourage multimodal assignments. The materials provided address literary analysis or composition practices and are adaptable to specific topics or literary works. The course model presented consists of three units (literary analysis, rhetorical analysis & scholarly engagement, and independent research).

English 152W isan introduction to the development of American literature from its beginnings to the twentieth century through a study of selected poetry, drama, fiction, and/or nonfictional prose. Authors studiedmay include Thoreau, Hawthorne, Whitman, Dickinson, O’Neill, Hemingway, and Wright. Designed for nonmajors.

"The Problem of the University" is a (largely) open education syllabus that marries a criticality of/with the university as a site and space of knowledge making and knowledge suppression with a metacognitive writing approach for undergraduate students. The syllabus' contents include texts from bell hooks, Paolo Freire, Derrida, Fred Moten and Stefano Harney, Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang, among others.
Complete and updated syllabus available at https://waboutw.commons.gc.cuny.edu/

This is the first of two courses designed to familiarize you with world literature. (The second is ENGL 2121) This reading and writing intensive course covers the major literary works from 1200-1800.

This is second of two courses designed to familiarize you with world literature (The first is ENGL 2120). This reading and writing intensive course covers the major literary movements during the years 1800 - 1950, including Romanticism, Realism-Naturalism, Modernism, and Postmodernism. We will consider these movements in the context of precipitating and concurrent historical events: the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, fin de siècle decadence and the two world wars. We will also touch on critical theory, but the main aim of this course is to engage with works of literature personally, rather than through the lens of critics’ theories about them.

This is an introductory creative writing class in which you will read and analyze great writing, and have a go at writing your own great fiction, plays, and poems. We will consider how these forms of creative expressions of operate— what can we learn from the poet's attention to language and imagery, from the fiction writer's development of character and plot, from the playwright's skill with dialogue, pacing and engaging an audience? We will examine exemplary texts and discuss how and why the author made particular craft and technical choices. We will also see what happens when a short story, a play or a poem is interpreted in film.

The goal for this class is for you to find a way to tap into, and become acquainted with, your creative voice. You’ll learn methods to help you turn off your pesky self-editor and you will be encouraged to take risks. Analyzing and experimenting with new modes of storytelling will help you gain a deeper understanding of your own writing process, and in turn, will offer you so many new creative possibilities for your own work.

This is an introductory creative writing class. There are two parts:

1. The reading. In order to write good, you need to read good!
We will read and analyze (mostly) contemporary, bold, explosive writing in five categories: essays on craft, short stories, novels, poetry, and plays. These writers’ works will help you understand how to play with conventions to create truly original pieces.

2. The writing. In which, you guessed it, you write! And also listen. And also share. And also support. And also rewrite.
Throughout the semester you will complete writing exercises and tap into your creative voice. You will write 3 creative assignments and present 1 of them to the class. You will also provide verbal and written feedback to classmates throughout the semester, and participate in class discussions.

Which is worse: having a family, or not having a family? When Shakespeare’s powerful male protagonists fret over their legacies, they worry about children dying, disappearing, or disappointing them, or the corollary problem of not having children in the first place. Many of the plays feature bitter family disputes, and many feature terrible losses; some also feature mysterious reappearances, reunions, and reconciliations. This class will explore how questions of success, succession, heredity, and inheritance shape parent-child relations in Shakespeare’s plays.