Macaulay Honors College
Springboard, Spring 2017
Syllabus
Professor Elizabeth Reis
Class Meetings: Fridays 1:00-3:30
Office Hours: Fridays 12:00-1:00 and by appointment; call me when you get to the building: x2908
Contact info: Elizabeth.Reis@mhc.cuny.edu
Instructional Teaching Fellow
Gwen Shaw: Gwendolyn.shaw@macaulay.cuny.edu
Office Hours:
The Macaulay Springboard Project
Last semester we worked on focusing your topic, developing a research strategy, building a working bibliography, and generating and evaluating portions of the project itself. This semester you will write and rewrite. The class will be held workshop-style, meaning that it will emphasize collaborative thinking and supportive mutual criticism. Though each of you will be developing your own independent project, the class meetings will provide platforms for you to test ideas, refine arguments and debate the results of your research. To this end, you must come prepared to participate in discussion, whether your work is specifically on the week’s agenda or not.
Writing and producing a Springboard project is the most challenging work you will do as an undergraduate and the most exhilarating. The conversations you will have with one another over the course of the semester about your disparate topics can spark new ideas and insights and shape your writing. By sharing your writing with a community of informed and caring readers, you can–if you make the necessary investment of time and energy–produce your very best work.
Students enrolled in the Springboard class will apply and (hopefully) attend the National Council for Undergraduate Research conference. This year it will be held at the University of Tennessee in Memphis on April 6-9. Please arrange your work and school schedule now so that you can take these days off: Wednesday, April 6 to Sunday, April 9.
Required Texts
Spring semester:
On Writing Well, William Zinsser
Quack This Way, David Foster Wallace and Bryan A. Garner
Course Requirements:
Attendance and readings are mandatory. Not doing the readings and being unprepared to participate in class discussions is tantamount to being absent.
Plagiarism: All work completed for this class must be your own. If you cheat (hand in your friend’s work or copy directly from the internet or a book, etc.) you will (at the very least) fail the class and your name will be registered with the University. For guidelines and the Macaulay Honors pledge, see: http://macaulay.cuny.edu/community/handbook/policies/honors-integrity/
CLASS SCHEDULE
Week 1: Friday, February 3; NO CLASS today
Please send your first five pages to your writing fellow. If you have them done sooner and can give your fellow more time, that’s better. You should discuss with your fellow how much time they need to read these pages so that you have plenty of time to work on revisions before you send your pages to me.
Week 2: Friday, February 10
Finish and discuss Quack This Way
5 pages of writing due to me by class. Please email them so I can do track changes.
Incorporate all of the writing mentor’s suggestions for revision before you submit them to me.
Week 3: Friday, February 17
Discuss William Zinsser, On Writing Well, pp. 3-45
Send another 5 pages to your writing mentor
Week 4: Friday, February 24
William Zinsser, pp. 49-91
Send another 5 pages to your writing mentor
Week 5: Friday, March 3
William Zinsser, pp. 95-227
10 pages of writing due to me by class (after your writing mentor has seen them)
Week 6: Friday, March 10
William Zinsser, pp. 231-303
Week 7: Friday, March 17
Send another 5 pages to your writing mentor
Week 8: Friday, March 24
Practice presentations for the conference:
Laura, Lilo, Kelsy, Ashwini, Aissatou, Lisa
Send another 5 pages to your writing mentor
Week 9: Friday, March 31
Practice presentations for the conference:
Jeremy, Oneeka, Tiffany, Joyce, Sara, Lauren, Alina
10 pages of writing due to me by class (after your writing mentor has seen them)
Week 10: Friday, April 7
We’ll be in Memphis at the conference!
Week 11: Friday, April 14
SPRING BREAK!
Week 12: Friday, April 21
Based on your experience at NCUR, what needs to be done to improve your projects?
Week 13: Friday, April 28
Reverse Outlines due (write down the topic sentences for each paragraph. Are they in the right order? Please bring these to class)
Send a complete rough draft to your writing mentor.
Week 14: Friday, May 5
Class will start after the senior lunch: 1:30.
Week 15: Friday, May 12: No class today
Send me a complete rough draft (after incorporating the writing mentor’s suggestions)
Final papers due via email and upload to E-Portfolio: Monday, May 22
Your final papers/projects must include your bibliography.
