Course Description

We go to college not just to study something but to learn how to do something – something that those who don’t earn a degree normally don’t do. What is our earned expertise? What is that extra something that college gives us the opportunity and support to pursue?

One answer is that college allows us to learn how to do research. Research involves the creation of questions worth asking, it involves gathering the materials that we need to address these questions, and it involves synthesizing our findings with our questions to come up with credible answers.

In our ENGL 1012 seminar, we will learn how to use the research methods practiced in literary studies. Within this discipline, researchers explore questions of identity, politics, history and aesthetics, among many others, by studying representations of people, places and events in literature. To guide our understanding of research through literature, we will be focusing on the kinds of questions that emerge from the study of early African American culture. We will read narratives of enslavement and resistance from the late 1700s through to the mid 1800s, and we will also read scholarly texts that help understand the historical and political context within which these early African American narratives were first written and read. The readings will serve as an inspiration and evidentiary base to pose questions such as – what is the use of personal narratives and fictional stories in society? How does reading literature change the way in which people think? When we talk about history, are we discussing the past or is our focus on understanding the present? How do race, class, and gender affect the lives and experiences of oppressed people? What strategies have the oppressed used to fight back and change the circumstances of their marginalization?

The written assignments for our seminar will teach us how to address such questions by doing research, and they will encourage us to come up with questions of our own. We will learn how the process of writing allows us to construct answers to our questions and express the value of our opinions. By moving through a series of written exercises that feed into each other, all the students in this course will produce a final research paper that draws on the general theme of the course and makes judicious use of the resources at the library to ask and answer a question of their own design. Possible topics for research can include food, fashion, celebration, medicine, religion, science, among many others. The research paper is a curiosity-driven project where students have the freedom to pursue their interests, within the specific context of early African American culture.

The purpose of this course is for you to learn how to take advantage of the time and space provided by attending college to learn how to do research. Therefore, getting a high grade in this course depends on your ability to be creative and motivated to explore a topic of your own choosing.

Course Objectives

Students who successfully complete this course will be able to:

• Conduct individual research
• Use library resources
• Evaluate the credibility and value of different kinds of sources
• Express ideas–both orally and in writing–correctly, cogently, persuasively, and in conformity with the conventions of the discipline
• Read and think critically to be prepared to succeed in a variety of college-level assignments

Course Requirements & Policies

Materials

All the required readings, assignments, and course policies for this seminar will be available on our class website. You do not need to buy any textbooks for this course.

Attendance & Punctuality

If you miss more than four classes, you will receive no credit for participation.  Two late arrivals count as one absence.  Arriving more than 10 minutes late counts as an absence.  A pattern of lateness will affect your grade.

Participation

Participation includes completing and commenting on the assigned reading, contributing to class discussion through listening and responding to classmates or the instructor, bringing required materials to class, and engaging in peer review and group activities.

Reading

Class discussion is a critical element of this course, and participation is essential. Students are expected to have closely read and be ready to discuss all readings on the day they are assigned.

Digital Technology Use

All of the reading, writing, and research in this course will be done on computers. This is both a tremendous opportunity and an incredible challenge. On the one hand, you will have free access to all your course materials, and you will have the incredible wealth of resources that the library makes available online. On the other hand, working on computers can be extremely distracting and difficult. Constant notifications from emails, text messages, social media updates, and news apps make it hard to focus on the reading, especially when the easy temptations of Netflix and YouTube lie a few clicks away. I understand. The important thing is not to reject the digital because of these constraints, but rather to learn how to use it appropriately. In this spirit, we will have an ongoing conversation in our classroom on how to use digital technology such that it serves our needs, rather than us being completely beholden to it. We will collectively learn how to develop healthy relations with the ways in which use our digital devices, and we will also discuss strategies for finding and evaluating sources on the internet.

I will expect you to bring a laptop, tablet, or smartphone to every class so that you can access the readings. It is my hope that you will refrain from surfing the web, going on social media, or doing things on your devices that don’t directly relate to our course while we are in class.

Assignments

Students will write the following: two summaries, one research proposal, one annotated bibliography, one research presentation, and one research paper.  Students will revise many of these writings. Students may be asked to complete other assignments, such as journal entries, in-class writing, and reading responses.

NOTE: More detailed information about each assignment will be provided in the course website and discussed in class.

Grading

The grades for this course are: A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, NC or F. Note that the minimum passing grade is C-. A more detailed grading rubric will be discussed prior to the first assignment.

Grading Breakdown:

 Essays: 80%

• 2 Summaries: 15% (7.5% each)
• 1 Research Proposal: 15%
• 1 Annotated Bibliography: 15%
• 1 Research Presentation: 15%
• 1 Research Paper: 20%

Attendance & Participation: 20%

This includes attendance, promptness, participation in class discussions and group work, in-class writing, etc.

Plagiarism

The faculty and administration of Brooklyn College support an environment free from cheating and plagiarism. Each student is responsible for being aware of what constitutes cheating and plagiarism and for avoiding both. The complete text of the CUNY Academic Integrity Policy and the Brooklyn College procedure for implementing that policy can be found at this site: http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/policies.