MODERN LOVE:

CHANGING NOTIONS OF PARTNERSHIP AND FAMILY ACROSS TIME AND CULTURE

ENG102.0846: Writing through Literature

Mondays 1:00-3:15, Wednesdays 1:00-2:00

Instructor: Beth Schwartzapfel Office hours: Mondays, 3:25-5:35 and by appointment

bschwartzapfel@lagcc.cuny.edu In the E Building Atrium
Mailbox: MB-14 (please email me if you English Dept: 718-482-5656
leave something in my mailbox)

About ENG 102 (From the course catalogue)

This course is a continuation of English 101. Students will reinforce and extend their abilities to write
correct, well-organized essays using various rhetorical strategies and stylistic techniques. Poetry and at
least one other literary genre from among fiction, drama and the nonfiction essay will be studied. Students
will be introduced to a variety of writing strategies used in composing interpretive and analytical essays.
Writing assignments will include a critical research paper.

About ENG102.0846, “Modern Love”

From pop songs to movies to novels, love and romance are some of pop culture’s biggest preoccupations.
And yet, we don’t tend to get a very nuanced picture: boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, marry,
produce two children and live happily ever after. Surely life and love are not that simple! What does it
mean to fall in love? Are love and marriage inextricably linked? Can romantic love, sexual attraction, and
partnership all be found in the same person? What about the love of friends or family? What does it mean
to be a family, anyway? The stories, poems, plays, and essays we will read over the course of this
semester will all grapple with these questions in some way. Although the answers are as varied as we are
as human beings, societal understandings of love, marriage, and the family have changed over time and
across cultures; as such, we will read work that reaches as far back as Shakespeare and as far away as
Nigeria.

The goals of this class are for you to become a person who reads literature actively—someone who
understands, and interacts with, what you read—and who writes about literature with clarity and
insight. All of our readings and written assignments will be designed with these two related goals in
mind. Reading actively will lead to good ideas; good ideas will lead to good thesis statements and solid
evidence; good thesis statements and solid evidence will lead to good papers. Writing good papers about
literature is what ENG102 is all about. That said, the only way to learn how to write is to write. So be
prepared to write. A lot. You will do freewriting, keep a reading journal, write several drafts of three take-
home papers, and sit for two in-class essay exams.

Required texts and materials

Literature: Craft & Voice, edited by Nicholas Delbanco and Alan Cheuse. You must have all three
volumes of this anthology: Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. They are available at a discount as a set.
Keys for Writers: A Brief Handbook, 5th edition, by Ann Raimes
A good college dictionary
3-ring binder and looseleaf paper
*Unless you’re told otherwise, please bring the day’s reading, your handbook, and your binder to every
class.

Requirements
Reading: You will be assigned 20-40 pages of reading each week. You are expected to do the reading on
time and come to class prepared to be an active participant in class discussions about the readings.

Freewriting: We will start each class with 10 minutes of freewriting on a topic that I will give you, usually
relating to the reading you’ve done for that day. Please use your looseleaf paper and keep these freewrites
organized in your binder. These are very informal but they help to get your creative juices flowing and
they do become part of your portfolio.

Class Discussion: A crucial part of digesting and understanding the readings we’ve done and the concepts
we’ve learned is to discuss them as a group. Please use your reading journal and the freewriting at the
start of class to assemble thoughts/opinions/questions about the readings that you’d like to discuss with
your classmates. Your opinion matters! Please don’t deprive us of your thoughts—jump in and share
them. It goes without saying that the class discussion is a respectful space. No personal attacks, no
interrupting or talking over anyone. That said, disagreeing is not disrespecting; to the contrary—a good
academic debate helps everyone to learn.

Papers: You will write 5 formal papers, ranging from 600 to 2000 words: 2 in class (the midterm and the
final exam) and 3 at home. Each of the 3 at-home papers requires several steps, including formulating a
thesis statement and outline and writing a first draft. You will hand in each of these steps, and each will
contribute to your final grade for that paper. At least one of these take-home papers will be a research
paper. Specific instructions for each paper will be handed out at the time they are assigned.
Papers must be typed, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, with 1” margins on all sides.
Papers must be submitted in person; I do not accept papers via email. Grades on papers will be deducted
one half-grade for each day they are late.
Reading journal: As part of your portfolio, you will keep a reading journal. Each time you are assigned a
reading, you will make an entry to your reading journal. Further instructions on your reading journal are
attached.

Portfolio: Your portfolio consists of your reading journal entries, your freewrites, and each of the assigned
steps and drafts of each of your paper. So, PLEASE SAVE ALL THE WORK YOU DO THIS
SEMESTER to include in your portfolio. Please use your three-ring binder to keep everything organized:
make a section for your Reading Journal and freewrites and a section for your paper steps and drafts.
When they’re filed in chronological order, these documents will be evidence of your writing process
unfolding—you’ll be able to look back at the idea taking shape and crystallizing, at your outline and then
your increasingly more polished drafts and revisions. I will collect and review your portfolio twice during
the semester: once during the midterm, and once during the final.

Grades
Per English Department policy, I must apply the same grading standards to your work throughout the
semester. That means that your first paper, which you will write in the first few weeks of class, will be
graded by the same set of standards as your last paper, which you will write after having spent the entire
semester learning and practicing. To account for this policy, the relative weight of each paper to your
overall grade increases over the course of the semester. So don’t be discouraged if your grades are lower
than you had hoped early on in the semester. Instead, see it as inspiration to work harder and commit
yourself to learning and improving your skills.
Paper #1 10%
Midterm 15%
Paper #2 20%
Paper #3 20%
Final exam 0% (you simply must pass)
 Portfolio 15%
Class participation (includes participating in class discussions, coming to class prepared and ready to
learn, visiting the Writing Center when necessary, re-writing your papers even when you are not
required to do so, and generally demonstrating that you are committed to learning and improving your
writing.) 20%

Class policies and information

Website: I’ve set up a class website: http://eng1020846.blogspot.com. After every class, I will post the
day’s homework here. I will also post announcements, links, and documents relevant to what we’ve
discussed in class. Please check the website at least twice a week.

Peer group: On the second day of class, you will be assigned a peer group of 3-4 other students. Please
exchange email addresses and phone numbers. Throughout the course of the semester, you will help each
other develop ideas and critique drafts of each other’s work. Use your classmates as a resource! These are
also the people you should turn to if you miss class and need to be filled in on what you missed, or if you
need someone to hand in a paper for you.

Attendance: It goes without saying that you can’t learn from what we do in class or participate in class
discussions if you’re not here. So you are expected to be in every single class, awake, alert, and ready to
learn. Of course, life doesn’t always go as we planned and things come up that we can’t foresee.
Excused absences: If you have an important appointment that cannot be rescheduled, a religious holiday,
or a pressing family or health concern, email me in advance of the class you need to miss to request that
your absence be excused. You are allowed up to four hours of excused absences over the course of the
semester.
Unexcused absences: Any absence that you did not contact me about in advance, and that I did not
explicitly excuse, is an unexcused absence. Per English Department policy, you may not have more than 4
hours of unexcused absences and still pass the course. This means that you cannot be absent for more than
two classes throughout the course of the semester.
Lateness: Arriving in class late is disrespectful to me and disruptive to your fellow students. If you arrive
more than 10 minutes late for a class, I will mark you ‘late.’ Three latenesses equal one absence. Arriving
more than 30 minutes late (or departing more than 30 minutes early) will count as one hour of absence.
You are responsible for making up any work that you miss due to absence or lateness. Reading Journal
entries and other homework due on that day can be handed in on the class immediately following. Not so
for papers: If a paper is due on a day you are absent, you are still responsible for getting that paper into
my hands (or into my mailbox) on the day it is due.

Re-writes
Revising is an essential part of the writing process. You will have the opportunity to re-write four of the
five papers you will hand in this semester (the final cannot be re-written). Those with a failing grade are
required to re-write, but everyone else—even those who got an ‘A’ or ‘B’ the first time around—is
encouraged to do so. There’s always room for improvement! In order to re-write a paper, you must first
meet with me during office hours to map out a strategy for your re-write. I will not accept re-writes from
students who haven’t met with me first. You must hand in all your previous drafts along with your re-
write. The grade on your re-write will be your new grade for the paper. However, a re-write grade can’t be
more than a full letter grade higher than the grade on your original paper.
The Writing Center
Tutors at the Writing Center, in E-111 (718-482-5688) can help you work on essays for this class, develop
your writing skills, and study and practice grammar in specific areas of difficulty. Based on your
diagnostic exam and/or other writing we do in and out of class, I will require some of you to visit the
Writing Center, whether for one-time help or for weekly tutoring sessions. Even those who are not
required to go can benefit from extra help, so please use this wonderful resource available to you!

Respect
Please be respectful of me. This means: turn off your cell phone, put away your iPod and other gadgets or
distractions. (If you have children or some other pressing reason that you must leave your phone on,
please leave it on vibrate and take the call out in the hall; this is for emergencies only—no more than once
or twice during a semester.) Anyone texting during class will be marked as ‘late’ for that day. Nap at
home, not during class. When I’m talking, please listen and take notes.

Please be respectful of each other. This means listening attentively when others are talking, putting your
opinions and thoughts into the mix, not interrupting or talking over anyone, and being sensitive to cultural
differences. LaGuardia is one of the most diverse colleges in the country—our students come from over
160 countries, and countless communities and identity groups—so you will almost certainly run up
against someone who is different from you in terms of gender, language, cultural, racial and ethnic
background, nationality, religion, class, sexual orientation, and abilities. See this for what it is—a gift and
a privilege—and learn from each other’s ways of seeing and being in the world!

Plagiarism and academic honesty

All students of LaGuardia Community College are responsible for preparing and presenting original
work. In accordance with the college’s policy on Academic Integrity, the penalty for papers which are
plagiarized and any cheating during exams is grounds for immediate course failure. Please refer to your
college catalog for a more complete discussion of Academic Honesty.