Unit 1: E-mail To the Author (Academic Argumentation, Summary, Analysis, and Critique)

Thursday, January 26 (Please try to do these things BEFORE class.)

• Fill out the pre-course survey before class.
• Sign up for Slack by following all of the instructions in this course site post. 

Tuesday, January 31

• Read “Grading Has Always Made Writing Better” from BIAW (Mitchell R. James, pp. 255-258, PDF). 
• Read the Grading Agreement (course website) for this class

Thursday, February 2: Slack Tasks and Survey are Due

• Please finish your Slack set-up tasks and the pre-course survey by today before class time. This is a weekly work credit. If you can’t finish them before then, please plan to stay for conference hour today.  
• Watch the Unit 1 and Assignment 1 overview video and read Assignment 1: E-mail To the Author before class.
• Look at the chapter titles in the book Bad Ideas About Writing. Remember that in every chapter of this book, the author is going to argue the OPPOSITE of what the title says. With this in mind, which of these titles intrigue you? Which chapter(s) do you want to read?

Tuesday, February 7: Weekly Work 1 Due Date

• Read “Official American English Is Best” (PDF) from BIAW (Steven Alvarez, pp. 93-98) before class. You can also go here to listen to a recording.
• Weekly Work #1: Reading Guide is due tonight (after class) by 11:59 pm. If you do not complete this assignment before class, please plan to stay for conference hour today. You can complete a reading guide on ANY chapter from Bad Ideas About Writing that looks interesting to you. It doesn’t have to be for a chapter that we’ve already read or that we will read together. Here is a PDF copy of the full book. 

Thursday, February 9

• Read Sample Essay #1: E-mail to Dr. Alvarez (Google Doc). Think about how this student summarizes Alvarez’s major claims.
• Read How To Annotate Your Own Work.

Tuesday, February 14: Weekly Work 2 Due Date

• Read “Teaching Grammar Improves Writing” (PDF) from BIAW (Patricia Dunn, pp. 144-149) before class. You can also go here to listen to a recording.
• Weekly Work #2: Journal is due tonight (after class) by 11:59pm via the assignment submission form. You can complete this journal entry on the same chapter that you completed your reading guide on, or you can choose a different chapter if you’d prefer to do that. Remember: each of the weekly work assignments are helping you to build your first essay. If you do not submit this assignment before class, please plan to stay for conference hour. 

Thursday, February 16

Class is asynchronous today, as I will be away at the Conference on College Composition and Communication. We will not meet in person. Instead of coming to class, please complete the activity below: 

Option 1

Using the strategies that we’ve practiced in class, generate an essay in Chat GPT about the chapter that you’re planning to use for your E-mail To the Author assignment. Copy and paste it into a Google Doc or a MS Word doc. Then, using the E-mail To the Author requirements, annotate the essay that it generated showing us where the AI is meeting each of the requirements (or commenting on what is missing). Send this to me by e-mail.

Option 2

If you would prefer not to use ChatGPT or you’re having trouble accessing it, make a copy of Sample Essay #2 by clicking here. Using the E-mail To the Author requirements, annotate the draft with comments showing us where the student is meeting each of the requirements of the assignment.

Tuesday, February 21st

Classes follow a Monday schedule today. Our class will not meet. 

Thursday, February 23rd

• Read “Developing a Research Question” in the Library Workbook for English 110: A Topic-Based Approach. In Weekly Work 2: Journal (and maybe also for last week’s Choose Your Own Adventure), you wrote 2-3 questions for the author about the topic of their chapter. Revisit those questions as you read this piece. Have you written “research questions” or “regular questions”? If they are regular questions, how can you make them more like research questions?
• Read “How To Write a Research Question.” Building on the work that you did in the journal and the reading guide, think about your research questions so far. Are they clear, focused and complex according to this guide? It’s OK if they aren’t yet. Bring these questions with you to class.
• Weekly Work #3: Choose Your Own Adventure is due tonight (after class) by 11:59pm. Whether or not you submit this through the assignment submission form will depend on which option you choose. It is best to complete this assignment on a chapter that you have already written about, unless you’re certain you don’t want to keep working on those chapters and you have a new chapter in mind.

Tuesday, February 28: Final day for weekly work revisions, missing work, and exit tickets 

• Today is the final day to turn in late weekly work or weekly work that has been marked “not yet.” There are no readings or assignments due so that you can work on catching up. 
• If you’re already caught up, you might use this time to begin drafting Assignment 1: E-mail To the Author. Remember: don’t reinvent the wheel! You’ve been working on this draft throughout this entire unit, so apply the feedback that you’ve gotten. Please bring whatever you have to class with you: it’s OK to bring a hard copy or an electronic copy as long as you have a shareable copy available. 

Thursday, March 2: Assignment 1 First Draft

• The first draft of Assignment 1: E-mail To the Author is due today by 11:59pm. Please submit it through the assignment submission form (make sure to annotate it with questions!), and please also bring a copy with you to class, or make sure that you have a shareable, electronic copy available.
• We will sign up for one-on-one conferences and peer review today. 

Tuesday, March 7: Peer Review Due 

• Assignment 1: E-mail to the Author peer review is due today by 11:59pm via the form that is linked here. Today will be a catch-up day: a day to conference, make revisions to Assignment 1, or discuss your peer review with your partner if necessary. 

Thursday, March 9: Assignment 1 Final Draft 

• The final draft of Assignment 1: E-mail To the Author is due today by 11:59pm. Please submit it through the assignment submission form. You only need to annotate this draft if you forgot to do it for the first draft, or if you’d like additional feedback. 
• Any exit tickets that you need to have completed between February 28th and now should be turned in by tonight.  
• In class today, you’ll give me some feedback on Unit 1’s structure and the course policies so far. We will also begin to overview Assignment 2: Annotated Bibliography 

Unit 2: Annotated Bibliography (Conducting Library Research)

Tuesday, March 14: Exit tickets that you need to submit between February 28th and March 9th are due tonight by 11:59pm.  

• Read “How To Read Academic Papers Without Freaking Out” (Lee).
• Browse through the MLA sample paper. You don’t need to read this for the content: just look through it to remind yourself about MLA formatting.
• Please read Assignment 2: Annotated Bibliography prompt and watch the overview video to prepare. Note: you do NOT have to complete this assignment! We’re just setting up for it today.
• A reminder: if you have exit tickets that you need to submit from between February 28th – March 9th, please do that by tonight at 11:59pm.

Conference hours today will be devoted to MLA formatting fundamentals. If you haven’t used MLA formatting before, or you would like a refresher, please plan to stay.

Thursday, March 16 

• Review “Plagiarism in mechanical engineering education: a comparative study of international and domestic students”: the scholarly source (the PDF) in the #announcement channel. Using Lee’s strategic reading method that we discussed in class on Tuesday, prepare a brief annotation that includes the research question for this study, the findings, and the method that the author used to collect their research in your own words. Bring it with you to class. In other words don’t read the whole thing! Just enough to understand these key details.
• Read Sample Annotation. A note: I have annotated this annotation with notes about how each part works. If you are looking at this on a phone or a tablet (rather than a laptop or a desktop), you might be unable to see the annotations. 
• Begin completing exercise 1, exercise 3, exercise 4, and exercise 5 in the library workbook. These are not due until after class by Tuesday, but getting a head start on them will help me answer your questions today in class.

Conference hours today will be devoted to learning about some tools for building a Works Cited list.

Tuesday, March 21

•  Exercise 1, exercise 3, exercise 4, and exercise 5  in the library workbook are due tonight by 11:59pm. Please copy and paste your answers to exercise 3, 4 and 5, and put them into an e-mail that you send to me at lindsey.albracht@qc.cuny.edu and also to Leila Walker at leila.walker@qc.cuny.edu. Please put “Library Workshop for Lindsey Albracht” in the subject line. For exercise 4, please put the Annotated Bibliography: Assignment 2 into your own words. Also, please make sure to fill out the “focused research question” and the “key terms and concepts” section in exercise 5 with the ACTUAL research question that you’re thinking of using for Assignment 2 and not just a random question.  
• Bring a copy of what you have finished to class to review with peers.

Thursday, March 23: Library Day 

Please meet in Library Classroom 227 today. Note that it can be tricky to find because level 2 of the library is downstairs from the library entrance.

Tuesday, March 28

• In-class practice with locating, reading, and evaluating sources using the CRAAP test (please bring your computer / tablet if you can). We’ll also look at the reading guide (due Wednesday) together, so please bring your questions!
• Weekly Work #2: Reading Guide due tonight by 11:59pm.

Thursday, March 30

• Bring a copy of the annotation that you wrote for Weekly Work #2: Reading Guide to class with you today, and make sure that you can access (and share a link to) the journal article that you wrote about for your guide. We will be reviewing these with peers today in class.
• Watch “Write On! Avoiding Over Quoting”
• Watch “Write On! Paraphrasing”

Tuesday, April 4 

• Choose a second source that you will use for Weekly Work #3: Paraphrasing and Quoting Guide before class today. Read it strategically (e.g. in the way that you practiced with the reading guide). Bring a brief summary of the source with you to class as well as any questions that you have about the study’s research question, methods, and findings.
• Review Sample Annotated Bibliography. Notice: what information does each entry contain? In what order do the sources appear? What do you notice about the balance of direct quotes to paraphrases and summaries? How did the author of this annotated bib trace the conversation that was happening BETWEEN these sources? How did she use them to answer her research question? What else do you notice about the formatting of this genre?
• Weekly Work #3: Paraphrasing and Quoting Guide due tonight by 11:59pm. Please note that this guide needs to feature a DIFFERENT SOURCE than the one featured in your Reading Guide.

Wednesday April 5 – Thursday, April 13

😎Spring Break! 😎

Tuesday, April 18: Final day for weekly work revisions, missing work, and exit tickets 

• Today will be a day to work in class in small groups on our first draft of Assignment 2. To prepare for class today, bring a working draft of your annotated bibliography and process log. It can be rough!
• Today is the final day to submit any missing weekly work for unit 2, anything that needs revision, or any exit tickets you have not completed yet. Please submit these by tonight at 11:59pm.

Thursday, April 20: First Draft of Assignment 2

The first draft of Assignment 2: Annotated Bibliography and Process Log is due today by 11:59pm. Please bring what you have to class. You can print it out and bring a hard copy, or you can have it electronically available.

Note: it’s OK if you don’t have all of your sources completely summarized yet, but the more that you can have done, the better your peer review and conference will be. Don’t forget your process log. Please submit this assignment through the assignment submission form. It’s OK if your annotated bib and your process log are in the same document, and it’s also OK to submit them separately. We will sign up for draft conferences and peer review today in class.

Tuesday, April 25: Assignment 2 Peer Review

• Work on the Assignment 2 Peer Review form before class today so that you can meet with your partner once more. The form is due tonight by 11:59pm.
• In-class conferences

Thursday, April 27: Final Day to Submit Additional Exit Tickets / Slides for Unit 2

• Final draft of Assignment 2: Annotated Bibliography is due tonight by 11:59pm. Please submit it through the assignment submission form. I am extending this due date until MONDAY, May 1st at 11:59pm.
• Any exit tickets or slide annotations that you need to complete between Tuesday, April 18th and today should be handed in by tonight at 11:59pm as well. 
• We will review Unit 2 and set up for Unit 3 today in class and discuss how your annotated bibliography will be the basis for your literature review. We will also review Assignment 3: Literature Review and Final Reflection, which you might want to look at before class. 

Unit 3: Literature Review (Synthesizing Research)

Monday May 1

I have extended the final due date for the final draft of Assignment 2: Annotated Bibliography Bibliography until tonight at 11:59pm.

Tuesday, May 2

• Watch “Research Synthesis”
• Watch “Synthesis: Definitions and Examples”. I’m linking to this video in the middle of it. The whole video does a great job of explaining the differences between summary, analysis, and synthesis if you want to watch from the beginning, but we’re focusing specifically on the “synthesis” portion, since this is what we’re working on in this unit.
• Read Sample Literature Review #1 and look at the comments that I’ve made on the draft.

Thursday, May 4

TBA flex day for synthesis practice. Bring a hard copy or an electronic copy of your annotated bibliography with you to class today. If you haven’t already done so, please read or review Sample Literature Review #1.

Reminder: please fill out your course evaluation here. Use your QC email or WiFi login credentials to sign in to this, and don’t forget to push the “send proof” button at the end!  

Tuesday, May 9 

• Weekly Work 1: Synthesis Matrix due tonight by 11:59pm

Thursday, May 11 

• Discuss end-of-semester grade conferences and sign up for them.
• Work on your literature review first draft to prepare for class today. Please bring what you have to class: either printed or electronically on your computer. Today is a good day to rent a computer from the library if you don’t have one already.

Tuesday, May 16: First Assignment 3 draft. Final day to drop a course and receive a W grade.

• First draft of Assignment 3: Literature Review and Final Reflection is due tonight by 11:59pm via the Assignment Submission Form. Remember: the first draft needs to contain at least 750 words, but can still be pretty rough. 
• This will also be the day to turn in remaining exit tickets from Unit 3, or any late weekly work / revisions. 

Monday, May 22: Final Assignment 3 draft and all final revisions of major assignments due tonight.

The final draft of Assignment 3: Literature Review and Final Reflection is due tonight by 11:59pm via the Assignment Submission Form. You may also submit REVISIONS (i.e. not a new draft) for Assignment 1: E-mail to the Author and Assignment 2: Annotated Bibliography by  11:59pm tonight, if you would like to try to meet more of the requirements. There is no final exam for this course.