Stern College Syllabi -- Spring and Fall 2021-2022 courses --- ENGL (English)

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    ENGL 2921H: Jane Austen in Her Time
    (Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-09) Nachumi, Nora
    Jane Austen’s novels have been called “timeless” in the sense that they still appeal to readers today. In this course we examine the assertion by considering the novels as products of their time. In this course we will think about Austen’s development as a writer. We will read all of Austen’s work in chronological order, paying particular attention to cultural and historical contexts that helped shape the novels and to learn about the issues with which the novels engage. ¶Course Goals and Objectives: By the end of the semester, students will have read and thought about Austen’s work and her development as a writer, have considered contemporary and current debates relevant to the novels and will have analyzed Austen's work and engaged with arguments about the texts via discussion and in their own written work.
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    ENGL 2925H: Topics: Female friendship
    (Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-09) Peters, Ann Marie
    The Neapolitan quartet, Elena Ferrante’s series of novels about a friendship between two women who meet as children in Naples, has received extraordinary praise from readers and critics worldwide since its publication between 2011 and 2014. Carole DeSanti, an editor at Viking Press, writes that after reading Ferrante’s novels she “was bursting with the need to talk about them…because they speak to us so intimately, but are also highly social—showing us so many interrelations and co-creations, how we make and un-make one another, find and mirror each other—in all kinds of ways.” ¶The topic of this honors course is fiction that explores this act of co-creation, this making and mirroring that happens between female friends. We will explore female friendship in four relatively contemporary novels from four different countries: Italy, The United States, Hungary, and Canada. (I also ask that you read—or reread—Louisa May Alcott’s classic children’s novel Little Women.) We’ll begin with My Brilliant Friend and use the novel as a touchstone, returning to it for the rest of the term. After My Brilliant Friend, we’ll read Toni Morrison’s Sula (1973), Magda Szabo’s The Door (1987), and Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye (1988). Over Fall break, you’ll also watch the recent HBO adaptation of My Brilliant Friend. Throughout the semester, we’ll consider how the novel of female friendship works as a bildungsroman or a coming-of-age story. And while female friendship is the central theme, our exploration will take us in all sorts of directions. In reading My Brilliant Friend, for example, we may find ourselves talking about class conflict or ambivalence over maternal roles or the effects of education or the changing status of women in the seventies or about experiments in form and issues of authorship. Requirements for the course include regular reading quizzes, four short reading response letters, and two papers, one 5-7 pages and the last 7-10 pages. No midterm or final exam.
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    ENG 2903: French women writers from enlightenment to existentialism
    (Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-09) Mesch, Rachel
    ¶This course will trace how French women writers explore key questions surrounding their female identity by engaging with the literary movements of their time. As we make our way through a series of fascinating novels from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, we will see how these writers explored the ideological questions of their day by centering the place of women’s roles in French society. Each module of the class will be organized around the central question of the novel at hand: We’ll ask What Is Love? as we read Françoise de Graffigny’s Letters from a Peruvian Woman (1747), a story in letters exchanged between an Incan princess kidnapped by European invaders and her fiancé, who may or may not be waiting for her. Next we’ll consider ¶What Is Marriage? with George Sand’s Indiana (1832), the story of a young woman unhappily married to a violent man, and the drama that unfolds in a series of unexpected love triangles that traverse race and class. Then we’ll turn to What is Madness? in Rachilde’s Monsieur Vénus (1884), which draws on popular medical literature and leaves the reader wondering who decides a woman’s sanity. We’ll ask What is Independence? with Colette’s The Vagabond (1910) in which a woman attempts to support herself after the end of her tumultuous marriage to a cheating husband. Finally, we’ll explore What is Liberty? in Simone de Beauvoir’s A Woman Destroyed (1968) a novella in which a woman considers her own destiny as she grapples with choices she has made, and whether she had any choice at all. The novels will be contextualized in a variety of ways: through excerpts from contemporary feminist critics, early French medical and scientific texts about women, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century French women’s magazines. Students will gain an understanding for the sweep of French literary tradition, while examining how fiction can function as a mode of feminist critique. In the process, they will develop their own literary analysis and close reading skills, as well as an appreciation for how cultural and historical context can frame their literary interpretations. ¶In recognition of the current challenges that students (and faculty!) face, we have "pauses" built into the syllabus. These breaks will mean less reading or no reading for class, and films to watch or images to examine instead of novels to study. They are marked by the pink highlighting below. They are structured around when papers are due and/or we've just completed a long novel. This should allow you to catch up if you've fallen behind, or just get a chance to reset before we continue. Of course, there may be unforeseen events and interruptions over the course of the semester. Please reach out to me if you are having any difficulties and we will work out a solution.
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    ENGL 2795: Magic realism and literature of Franz Kafka
    (Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-09) Miller, Matt
    This course will be an imaginative journey into what happens in fiction when the real, normal or everyday confront the unreal, dreamlike, or downright bizarre. The conjunction in the quotation of the extraordinary situation, with an ordinary memory, but of a discovery that sounds just plain odd is just one example of the mind-bending prose we will explore together. Not only that, but the novels, stories, and essays we'll read are internationally recognized as some of the greatest writers of our time: including Italo Calvino, Franz Kafka, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Toni Morrison, two of them winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature. On our journey, we'll explore memories, alternative realities, fantastic places, and magical transformations into the extraordinary. Toward the end of the class, we will consider the relationship between what is often called the “magic realism” of these writers and other types of art such as painting and film. This class fulfills a III C Intro. requirement for the English Major. It also fulfills the general requirement, Interpreting Literature and the Arts. Pre-requisite: English 1100 or 1200H. Overall Goals Course Goals • Students will read major work by several of the most celebrated authors of the last century. • Students will refine and sharpen their reading ability in relation to the assigned literature. • Students will communicate ideas through sound rational and analytic thinking. • Students will develop their writing in reaction to personalized feedback from the professor. • Students will create a sensitive, thoughtful environment where they can nurture and interact with others’ ideas and observations.
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    ENGL 2793: Novels and Screens
    (Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-09) Nachumi, Nora
    What happens when a novel is adapted into a screen based medium? Are some better than others? Who gets to decide what texts mean? How do novels, movies, miniseries and vlogs generate meaning? Over the course of the semester we will read a selection of novels which pose very different challenges to those who adapt them in terms of their structure and content. Each text will be considered alongside one or more screen-based adaptation, ranging from those that are “faithful,” or “straight” adaptations to those that are much “looser” in their relationship to the original. We will study the strengths and limitations of these adaptations, paying special attention to the different modes of representation they employ. What can written words do that screen-based adaptations cannot and vice versa? What are some of the historical and cultural contexts, the marketing goals and the audience’s knowledge that influence the makers and viewers of these adaptations? ¶Course Aims and Outcomes: ¶General Education Goals ➢ Practice skills in close reading and interpretation ➢ Notice similarities and differences among kinds of representations ➢ Summarize, interpret, and integrate secondary critical materials ➢ Express ideas in writing and revise your own work ➢ Conduct research in databases and the library ➢ Engage with at least one controversy connected to the topic of the course ¶English Program Goals ➢ Students will be able to analyze a variety of texts and genres. ➢ Students will be able to critically evaluate competing critical/theoretical arguments pertaining to given work(s). ➢ Students will be able to communicate their critical thinking about literature and other media to diverse audiences both orally and in writing. ➢ Students will able to take ownership over their learning experiences both in their course work and beyond. Specific Learning Goals ➢ Students learn a critical and theoretical foundation for more specialized courses in film ➢ Students practice writing a thesis-driven argument about film ➢ Students learn how meaning is produced in cinema ➢ Students learn to analyze a diverse range of filmmaking practices ➢ Students interrogate key concepts and theories of cinema as an aesthetic medium and as a social practice
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    ENGL 2710: Introduction to Fiction: Narratology
    (Yeshiva University, 2022-09) O'Malley, Seamus
    Goals of the Course:¶ The goal of this course is to familiarize students with the functions and workings of fiction. To aid us in this we are turning to the branch of knowledge known as narratology. Narratology studies all kinds of narrative, but we will be focusing only on fictional narratives. While we will sometimes pose hermeneutical questions—“what does this story mean?”—more often we will analyze the mechanics and formal qualities of our fictional texts. We will study one novel, one novella, a series of short stories, and will use a textbook on narratology.¶ ¶General Education Goals: • Practice skills in close reading and interpretation • Express ideas in writing and practice revising your work ¶Goals of the Course: • Practice the skills of close reading of literature • Explore literary interpretation • Write three thesis-driven essays using claims and evidence structure • Understand narratology as a form of literary analysis
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    ENGL 2600: Historical Topics: Global Short Fiction
    (Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-09) Peters, Ann Marie
    This is a course about the short story as a literary form with a focus on short stories from around the world. We will acquire a technical vocabulary for discussing how short stories are made and how they can be interpreted. Why do stories matter? Why do we read and write them? What are the limits of the form? And how does reading stories from around the world help us better understand different cultures and help us better understand ourselves? Works will include (but not be limited to) stories by Achebe, Borges, Chekhov, Dinesen, Ginzburg, Joyce, Kafka, Garcia Marquez, Murakami, and Yi Yun Li. Course Requirements: One 7-10 page paper, daily one-question reading quizzes, four reading response letters (2-3 pages), and one take-home final exam due online during the scheduled final exam period.
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    ENGL 2004: Survey of British Literature II
    (Yeshiva University, 2022-09) O'Malley, Seamus
    Goals of the Course:¶ The goal of this course is to familiarize students with the developments in British literature between 1660 and 1870. We will of course only have time for a small sample of writings from these years, so the syllabus should not be considered exhaustive: major authors left off our reading list were done for reasons of time and not merit. Nevertheless, students should come away from the course with a solid timeline of literary progressions and a familiarity with the characteristics of the various eras (Restoration, Romantic, Victorian). Besides these macro-level skill sets, students should be able to focus on the micro as well, demonstrating the ability to perform close reading and literary analysis through three essays.¶ Although the years we will cover may seem remote, writers of these periods were struggling with issues that will seem familiar: authority versus democracy; the tensions between faith and a secular society; the role of women in society; the increasing powers of science and technology; etc. In short, what we will observe is the literary response to the modernization of the Western world.¶ ¶General Education Goals: • Practice skills in close reading and interpretation • Express ideas in writing and practice revising your work • Understand the timeline and development of English literature from 1660 to 1870¶ ¶Goals of the Course: • Practice the skills of close reading of literature • Explore literary interpretation • Write two thesis-driven essays using claims and evidence structure • Practice a variety of critical perspectives interpreting literature
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    ENGL 2000: Ways of Reading
    (Yeshiva University, 2022-09) Miller, Matt
    Who decides what texts mean? Why are some interpretations better than others? How much does the author’s intention matter? How does language generate meaning? In this foundational course, we will study a variety of texts, including some classic literature, as we consider major debates about meaning and interpretive practices that have emerged throughout the last hundred years.¶ This course is more about how we read than what we read. The goal is to show how meaning is created through critical reading and to help you learn to read and interpret works contextually and closely. To this end, our course has several objectives: students should leave this course with a clear sense of the variety of theoretical approaches available to them as readers, have a sense of why these approaches matter in apprehending all different kinds of texts, and be able to manifest their ability to read texts in different ways through verbal and written modes of communication.¶ You may find that the issues and readings difficult at first. But the course is also enjoyable and will help you gain the skills you’ll need to read and write critically about all kinds of texts, not just literary ones. We will read poems and a novel, but we will also be interpreting videos, essays, photographs, and other kinds of “texts” you encounter every day (and yes, a photograph can be read as a text—we’ll learn how and why). Different sections of the course take up major issues of concern in literary and cultural studies, issues like authorship, language, reading, subjectivity, ideology, aesthetics, and history.¶ This course is a requirement for English majors and minors (but not for the writing minor). It fulfills a requirement in the SCW core curriculum: “Interpreting Literature and the Arts.” Pre-Requisite: English 1100 or 1200H.¶ Overall Goals for the Course • Students will be introduced to current theoretical approaches to literature and language. • Students will develop new tools for analyzing and discussing texts and ideas. • Students will learn to assess and refine the content and quality of their own thinking. • Students will develop sound research skills to structure and inform their thinking. • Students will study two major literary works in-depth and from a variety of perspectives.
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    ENGL 1815: Writing Women’s Lives
    (Yeshiva University, 2022-09) Peters, Ann Marie
    In this course we will study examples of women writing about their lives and practice writing our own autobiographical narratives. The goal of the course is two-fold: first, we will examine the characteristics of the memoir genre and consider the way 20th and 21st Century women writers explore and represent selfhood; second, we will work on telling our own stories. We’ll be asking a number of questions in the course. Can a personal story really be just about “me?” How much of our stories are really about others—family and community? What happens when we take the seemingly shapeless events of our lives and try to shape them into a story? Can we say that a memoir is really true? What part does fiction play in the writing of a life story, and what part does autobiography play in some writers’ fiction? In the course, we will be reading works by Lynda Barry, Elizabeth Bishop, Ilana Blumberg, Joan Didion, Annie Dillard, Natalia Ginzburg, Patricia Hampl, Maxine Hong Kingston, Mary McCarthy, Maggie Nelson, Cynthia Ozick, Zadie Smith, Virginia Woolf, and in translation the French writer Colette. You will write one final autobiographical essay (at least ten pages) and five shorter pieces, each at least three pages. I will be giving periodic short reading quizzes. A significant portion of your grade will be based on your engagement and participation in class discussions and writing workshops.
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    ENGL1600: Advertising Copywriting
    (Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-09) Mintz, Erik
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    ENGL 1502: Feature Writing
    (Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-09) Gewirtz, Jason
    This class focuses on writing digital news features on digital journalism platforms. We will start with journalism basics but you will soon be writing feature articles. We will cover idea generation, pitches, story production, ethics, basic photography, graphics production and what is sometimes referred to as second day stories… where we take news of the day or breaking news and then pull a specific thread to explore a cause or personal story impacted by that day-of or breaking news story. We have also made an agreement with the student editors of the YU Observer this year that will allow students in this course to work with the news-site to pitch feature stories to the newspaper when appropriate.
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    ENG 1200H-C: Composition and Rhetoric
    (Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-09) Spencer, Stephen
    Utopian and Dystopian Fiction In the twenty-first century, utopian and dystopian fiction is everywhere. This type of fiction portrays imaginary worlds that are either “utopian”—societies that are ideal but that may not be realistically achievable in the real world—or “dystopian”—societies that intensify the most troubling aspects of the real world and serve as warnings for audiences. Sometimes, however, artists will create worlds that blur the boundaries between utopia and dystopia, prompting us to question our own preconceived notions about individual morality, social justice, and the power of fiction itself. In this course, we will engage with a sampling of utopian and dystopian poems, short stories, and films, and you will learn the fundamentals of college-level writing as you compose argumentative essays about these works.¶ Course Objectives and Goals¶ This course is an introduction to college-level writing that will teach you to develop, organize, and present your ideas. It will begin with a close reading essay of a poem: either Wisława Szymborska’s “Utopia” or Alicia Ostriker’s “Utopian.” Following this will be an essay comparing Ursula Le Guin’s short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” to N.K. Jemisin’s “The Ones Who Stay and Fight,” a reimagining of Le Guin’s story. The course will conclude with a research argument about one of the primary sources covered in the course, including the film adaptation of The Hunger Games, or a topic of your choosing. Throughout, we will emphasize that writing is an ongoing process of thinking and learning. This process begins when you ask questions about a text or subject, continues through note taking and other forms of pre-writing, and develops into a presentable product through cycles of drafting, feedback, and revision. These techniques will apply to writing beyond this course, to any subject demanding clear, logical, and cogent exposition. ¶By the end of the course, students will: • Become more effective writers in their academic and professional lives • Learn to assess the content and quality of their own ideas • Develop sound research skills to structure and inform their thinking • Practice critical thought in relation to classic works of literature
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    ENGL 1200H: Writing in Academic Prose
    (Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-09) O'Malley, Seamus
    This class will explore the various assumptions and protocols of academic writing. Academic writing is your passport to success, both within the academy and in much of the professional world. It is a form of writing with its own codes and rules, and it is imperative that we begin our semester acknowledging that no one is born a good academic writer, just as no one is born already knowing English, French, Chinese or Hebrew. Academic writing must be learned by the hard work of practice and requires the skills of dedication and patience. The other forms of writing at which you are already adept—personal essays, emailing, blogging, texting, note-taking, etc.—will be of help with academic writing, but always be aware that academic composition is its own unique form.¶ Academic writing is defined by its methods, not by its chosen subjects. You can write academically about professional wrestling, and writing about literature is not automatically academic. Through an exploration of various forms of expression, students will learn key aspects of academic writing such as ways to strengthen ideas and lines of inquiry, support argument positions and write clear and persuasive arguments. The essay sequence, which builds on itself, is designed for students to demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of a particular skill. In the first essay, students will close a short story and generate a thesis. The second essay will offer the opportunity for students to showcase their comparative analysis strategies by putting in relation two short stories. The third and final essay, a research paper, asks students to demonstrate an ability to engage with secondary sources and enter into the ongoing academic conversation about literature. Each of the essays will stem from a genuine question about the texts that students develop through their reading of the material, a question that arises through intrigue, confusion or curiosity and is revised, honed and reframed through discussions, prewriting exercises and revisions.
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    ENGL 1100-D1: Composition and Rhetoric: Utopian and Dystopian Fiction
    (Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-09) Spencer, Stephen
    In the twenty-first century, utopian and dystopian fiction is everywhere. This type of fiction portrays imaginary worlds that are either “utopian”—societies that are ideal but that may not be realistically achievable in the real world—or “dystopian”—societies that intensify the most troubling aspects of the real world and serve as warnings for audiences. Sometimes, however, artists will create worlds that blur the boundaries between utopia and dystopia, prompting us to question our own preconceived notions about individual morality, social justice, and the power of fiction itself. In this course, we will engage with a sampling of utopian and dystopian poems, short stories, and films, and you will learn the fundamentals of college-level writing as you compose argumentative essays about these works.¶ Course Objectives and Goals ¶This course is an introduction to college-level writing that will teach you to develop, organize, and present your ideas. It will begin with a close reading essay of a poem: either Wisława Szymborska’s “Utopia” or Alicia Ostriker’s “Utopian.” Following this will be an essay comparing Ursula Le Guin’s short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” to N.K. Jemisin’s “The Ones Who Stay and Fight,” a reimagining of Le Guin’s story. The course will conclude with a research argument about one of the primary sources covered in the course, including the film adaptation of The Hunger Games. Throughout, we will emphasize that writing is an ongoing process of thinking and learning. This process begins when you ask questions about a text or subject, continues through note taking and other forms of pre-writing, and develops into a presentable product through cycles of drafting, feedback, and revision. These techniques will apply to writing beyond this course, to any subject demanding clear, logical, and cogent exposition. By the end of the course, students will: • Become more effective writers in their academic and professional lives • Learn to assess the content and quality of their own ideas • Develop sound research skills to structure and inform their thinking • Practice critical thought in relation to classic works of literature
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    ENGL 1100: Composition and Rhetoric
    (Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-01) Nachumi, Nora; 0000-0002-4151-9605
    COURSE DESCRIPTION: This class will explore the various assumptions and protocols of academic writing. Academic writing is your passport to success, both within the academy and in much of the professional world. It is a form of writing with its own codes and rules, and it is imperative that we begin our semester acknowledging that no one is born a good academic writer, just as no one is born already knowing English, French, Chinese or Hebrew. Academic writing must be learned by the hard work of practice and requires the skills of dedication and patience. The other forms of writing at which you are already adept—personal essays, emailing, blogging, texting, notetaking, etc.—will be of help with academic writing, but always be aware that academic composition is its own unique form.¶ Academic writing is defined by its methods, not by its chosen subjects. You can write academically about professional wrestling, and writing about literature is not automatically academic. Through an exploration of various forms of expression, students will learn key aspects of academic writing such as ways to strengthen ideas and lines of inquiry, support argument positions and write clear and persuasive arguments. The essay sequence, which builds on itself, is designed for students to demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of a particular skill. In the first essay, students will close a short story and generate a thesis. The second essay will offer the opportunity for students to showcase their comparative analysis strategies by putting in relation two short stories. The third and final essay, a research paper, asks students to demonstrate an ability to engage with secondary sources and enter into the ongoing academic conversation about literature. Each of the essays will stem from a genuine question about the texts that students develop through their reading of the material, a question that arises through intrigue, confusion or curiosity and is revised, honed and reframed through discussions, prewriting exercises and revisions.
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    English 1100: Composition and Rhetoric
    (Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-01) Trapedo, Shaina
    COURSE DESCRIPTION: In 1967, as the civil rights and feminist movements continued to make waves, Gerry Goffin and Carole King co-wrote “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” and Aretha Franklin turned their song it into a power ballad for the ages. While artists including Celine Dion and Adele have covered this anthem of female agency and self-acceptance, the chorus begs the question: who is the “you”? Why must the “natural woman” rely on another to “feel” authentic in her own womanhood? Although the lyrics imply that the “you” is an individual man, what happens when we read “you” as a collective pronoun? While the selected readings for this class will only scratch the surface in addressing these questions, we will engage with writers who consider how the notion of a “natural woman” is defined in relation to patriarchal order, science and medicine, the media and fashion industries, and other social norms.¶ The premise of this course is that critical thinking and careful reading are the bedrock of successful writing, and we will do plenty of writing. In discussions and assessments, you will examine texts as products of the writer’s decision-making process, and then be given ample practice in applying those techniques in your own work to create a distinctive verbal style, convey meaning, and project identity. By approaching writing as a process involving multiple stages, this challenging course will strengthen English language and grammar proficiency as it trains the student writer to present and develop a thesis-driven argument in a clear, logical, and convincing manner. While I look forward to the intellectual engagement and aesthetic pleasures literature affords, the primary goal of this course is to equip students with analytical tools, writing skills, and heightened self-awareness through humanistic inquiry that will serve you across disciplines and beyond.¶ GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:¶ The goal of this class is for students to develop proficiency in textual analysis and academic writing. Instruction simultaneously focuses on writing strategies, such as revision, summarizing, structuring, as well as the usage of academic English.¶ Upon successful completion of this course: 1. Students will be able to apply strategies for the developing and revising of their academic essays. a. create an outline or plan of ideas for an academic essay. b. show evidence of idea development through peer review and collaboration. c. demonstrate successful revision strategies.¶ 2. Students will be able to produce clear writing that employs appropriate conventions for academic discourse. a. produce clear and effective organization, paragraphs, and transitions. b. demonstrate mastery of syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling. c. choose evidence and detail consistent with the purpose of the essay. d. follow MLA formatting instructions.
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    ENGL1100: Composition and Rhetoric
    (Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-01) Miller, Matt
    COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES: This course is an introduction to college level writing—a class designed to teach you ways of developing, organizing, and presenting your ideas. Our writing and thinking will focus on the topic of education, but the techniques you will learn apply to every subject that demands clear, logical, and cogent exposition. Throughout, we will approach writing as an ongoing process of thinking and learning that begins the moment you start to ask questions about a subject, continues through note-taking and other forms of “pre-writing,” and develops into a presentable product through cycles of drafting, feedback, and revision.¶ Students will be guided through prominent forms of academic writing, culminating in a significant project involving research and formal argument. We will also develop more effective approaches to researching, paying special attention to recent trends and innovations related to online research and electronic databases. I hope for students to emerge from the course with confidence in their ability to write at a high level in their personal and academic lives—and that we will come to have bold ideas and be able to clearly articulate this new thinking in writing, as well as in speech.¶ GOALS FOR THE COURSE: • Students will become more effective writers in their academic and professional lives. • Students will learn to assess the content and quality of their own ideas. • Students will develop sound research skills to structure and inform their thinking. • Students will develop analytic skills in relation to classic essays on the nature, role, and best practices for education in American society.
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    English 1200H: Freshman Honors Seminar
    (Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-01) Peters, Ann
    COURSE DESCRIPTION:¶ This is an honors writing seminar designed to teach you ways of developing, organizing and presenting your ideas in writing. Although I’ve chosen a subject for you to write about (short stories by American writers), the techniques you will learn will apply to every subject that demands clear, logical and cogent exposition. Throughout the course, we will approach writing as an ongoing process of thinking and learning that begins the moment you start to ask questions about a subject, continues through note-taking and other exploratory writing, and develops into a full thesis argument.¶ The focus of the course this semester is writing – but we do need to write about something. This semester, we’ll be reading some classic short stories, poems and a novel about family and community. We’ll be reading short fiction by Sherwood Anderson, Willa Cather, Mary Wilkins Freeman, and George Saunders and some poems by Robert Frost. We’ll end the course with a novel, Sula, by Nobel prize winning author Toni Morrison.¶ In this course, you will learn important aspects of academic writing that will teach you to develop your ideas, support your arguments, and make your insights clear and convincing to other people. We will begin by writing about one of five short stories (your choice). Through reading and discussing the story, you will learn how to talk and think about fiction, and practice a key skill called “close reading,” which you will use throughout the semester. For your second essay, you will practice writing a comparison essay, this time focusing on two stories. The final paper is a research paper about Ishiguro’s novel and will include secondary sources to help you in strengthening and developing your argument.¶ GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:¶ The goal of this class is for you to learn to write a thesis-driven academic essay that articulates a complete, clear, logical thesis, and supports that thesis through a logical series of claims supported by well-chosen evidence and effective analysis.¶ SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES include  learning the elements of a complete thesis;  learning how to identify and articulate claims;  learning how to support claims with evidence and analysis;  learning how to logically arrange and relate claims;  learning how to close-read and comparatively analyze texts;  learning and practicing the principles of academic integrity;  learning basic techniques for scholarly research;  and learning to utilize secondary as well as primary sources to support an original thesis
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    ENGL 1501: News Writing
    (Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-01) Gewirtz, Jason
    Fundamentals of journalism, featuring news writing skills and reporting techniques. This course will teach the basics of news writing.