FAMILY TIES

ENG102.2311: Writing through Literature

Spring I 2010
LaGuardia Community College
City University of New York
Mondays 11:45-12:45, Wednesdays 10:30-12:30

Instructor: Beth Schwartzapfel Office hours: Mondays 9:15-10:15

bschwartzapfel@lagcc.cuny.edu 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 ENG102.2311, “Family Ties”

The Russian writer Leo Tolstoy began his novel Anna Karenina with the words, “Happy families
are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Surely it’s meant partly as a
joke, but does the phrase have a ring of truth to it? What does it mean to be a ‘happy family’?
What does it mean to be a family at all? Is blood really thicker than water, as they say? Or can
our friends and our chosen communities know us better and more intimately than our relatives?
Readers and writers have been grappling with these questions for centuries. This semester we
will read fiction, poetry, and a play that explore issues of kinship, love, obligation, guilt, joy, and
lots of other complicated, messy feelings that accompany our family ties.

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. This book comes in
three volumes; we will be reading primarily from the Fiction volume and some from the Poetry
volume. We will not be using the Drama volume.
Keys for Writers: A Brief Handbook, 5th edition, by Ann Raimes

1 of 7
ENG 102.2311 | “Family Ties” Spring I 2010, LaGuardia Community College
Syllabus Instructor Beth Schwartzapfel

Twelfth Night, or What You Will by William Shakespeare. You can use any edition that you like,
but I recommend the Signet Classics edition; it’s cheap, easy to read, and has good notes.
A good college dictionary
*Unless you’re told otherwise, please bring the day’s reading and Keys for Writers to class every
day.

Requirements
Reading: You will be assigned 40-80 pages of reading for each class. 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.
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.
Informal writing:
Freewriting: We will start most classes with 10 minutes of freewriting on a topic that I will give
you, usually relating to the reading you’ve done for that day. This is very informal, meant to get
your thoughts going before we begin our class discussion.
Reading journal: Each time you are assigned a reading, you will for homework write a 400-word
response to what you’ve read. This is slightly more formal than freewriting, but more free-form
than a paper; it’s meant to get you into the habit of reading actively, and help you start
formulating ideas for your papers. Further instructions on your reading journal are attached.
For both freewriting and the reading journal, due diligence will earn you a ✔; extra effort earns a
✔+, and sloppy or incomplete work earns a ✔-.
Formal writing: 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. 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. If you are absent on a day that a paper
is due, the paper is still due on that day; you must make arrangements to get your paper to me.
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

2 of 7
ENG 102.2311 | “Family Ties” Spring I 2010, LaGuardia Community College
Syllabus Instructor Beth Schwartzapfel

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.
Plagiarism and academic honesty
Passing off others’ work—their writing, their ideas, their research—as your own is a waste of
your time and mine and an insult to your intelligence and mine. It’s also a serious breach of
ethics and has serious consequences, both in this class and at LaGuardia Community College.
When in doubt, consult the College’s Academic Honesty Policy and/or the English Department’s
Statement on Plagiarism or ask me. It’s never worth it, folks. Just don’t do it.

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%
Paper #2 15%
Midterm 20%
Paper #3 20%
Final exam 0% (you simply must pass)
Portfolio 15%
(includes freewrites, Reading Journals and other homework, and the steps of your paper
writing process, such as thesis statements, outlines, bibliographies, and rough drafts.)
Class participation 20%
(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.)

Class policies and information

Website: I’ve set up a website for the class: http://eng1022311.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 after each class.
Peer group: At the start of the semester, 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

3 of 7
ENG 102.2311 | “Family Ties” Spring I 2010, LaGuardia Community College
Syllabus Instructor Beth Schwartzapfel

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.
I do not differentiate between excused and unexcused absences. You’re all adults, and I leave it
up to you to decide what is and isn’t a good reason for you to miss class. That said, you may be
absent for four hours of class time before your absences begin to affect your grade. You are
responsible for making up any work that you miss due to absence.
Lateness: Arriving in class late is disrespectful to me and disruptive to your fellow students. If
you arrive more than 5 minutes late for a class, I will mark you ‘late.’ Three latenesses equal one
hour of absence. Arriving more than 30 minutes late (or departing more than 30 minutes early)
will count as one hour of absence.
Office Hours: I want you to succeed and I’m here to help! The only time you must come to office
hours is if you want to rewrite a paper, but I encourage you to come any time. You can ask
questions you may have about the reading, review a draft of your paper, or get extra help with a
concept or skill you’re struggling with. If you can’t make it during my regularly-scheduled office
hours, feel free to arrange an alternate time.
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. 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!

4 of 7
ENG 102.2311 | “Family Ties” Spring I 2010, LaGuardia Community College
Syllabus Instructor Beth Schwartzapfel

INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUR READING JOURNAL

The first section of your reading journal should always be a list of words or phrases from the
reading that you didn’t know or understand, along with their definitions. Look the words up in
the dictionary and paraphrase their definitions in your own words.
For the second section, sometimes I will give you a specific question to answer or passage to
respond to. Other times, I’ll leave it up to you. Below is a list of ideas and suggestions for what
to write about; you may choose to use your entire journal entry to answer a single question, or
you may go through the list and answer all of them one by one. The only hand and fast rules for
your reading journal entries are:
 You must do a thoughtful, conscientious job.
 You must refer to at least one specific sentence, passage or idea from the reading. (In
other words, don’t use the entire journal entry to write about your cousin Mohammad
without first explaining specifically why your cousin is relevant to the reading.) Use page
numbers and/or quotations to direct me to the sentence, passage, or idea to which you’re
referring.
 You must write at least 400 words (this works out to about a page and a half, typed and
double spaced, or between 4 and 8 handwritten pages, depending on the size of your
handwriting).
This is meant to be informal and unedited, so don’t stress about doing a “perfect job.” I’m not
going to correct grammar, and I’m grading for effort only, not content. That said, your reading
journal will be the raw material for your papers, so the more work you put in now, the better
prepared you’ll be later.

Possible topics
1. List words you do know but that stand out for some reason (slang, puns, dialect, words used
in unusual or striking ways). Reflect on why the author might have used them and whether it
was effective.
2. What are the key themes and/or main ideas of this reading? What were the author’s goals?
How can you tell? Did s/he achieve these goals? How? Why/why not?
3. What struck you about the character(s)? Would you say the story had a “hero”? Perhaps it
had an “anti-hero”? What were his/her main flaws/strengths? Why do you think the author
created him/her that way?
4. Disagreements: Did the author make a statement or observation that made you say, but!, or,
that’s not true? Write down the things with which you disagree, or about which you’re
suspicious or disbelieving, and explain why.
5. Agreements, or resonances with your own life: Did the author say something that you agree
with, or something that reminded you of your own opinions or experience? Explain how or
why.
6. Questions: Did the author leave you wondering, or wanting to know more about a particular
subject? Make a list of your questions. If possible, do a little research to answer them.
7. Connections: Did this reading remind you of another reading we’ve done this semester?
How/why are they similar? How/why are they different?

5 of 7
ENG 102.2311 | “Family Ties” Spring I 2010, LaGuardia Community College
Syllabus Instructor Beth Schwartzapfel

CLASS SCHEDULE
This schedule is accurate as of the start of the semester but is subject to change; please check the
website for the most up-to-date information. Readings are due on the day indicated. In addition
to the reading, always assume there is also a reading journal or other writing assignment due; if
they’re not listed here, these will be announced in class and posted on the website. The reading
journal must always be about the work of literature, which is the bolded reading assignment.

8 March First day of class

10 March From the Fiction volume of your textbook:
 “Why I Live at the P. O.” by Eudora Welty
 Reading a Story for its Elements (2-3, 9-12)
 Plot (74-5, 83-5, 100-1)
 Character (102-3,111-6, 140-1)
 Use Reading Strategies that Support Writing (H-26-30)
From Keys for Writers: What it Means to Read Critically (5-7)
15 March From the Fiction volume of your textbook:
 “Brownies” by Z. Z. Packer
 Point of View (182-3, 195-9, 230-231)
 Setting (142-3, 150-152, 181)
17 March From the Fiction volume of your textbook:
 “Optimists” by Richard Ford
 Develop an Argument, Form a Dependable Thesis (H-30-38)
From Keys for Writers:
 Developing a Focus and a Thesis (18-22)
 Constructing an argument: thinking critically about arguments, formulating a
good argument, formulating a thesis (51-59)
22 March From the Fiction volume of your textbook:
 “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan
 Language, Tone, and Style (232-3, 238-43, 258-9)
24 March To be handed out in class: “This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona”
by Sherman Alexie
From the Fiction volume of your textbook: Create a Plan (H-38-40)
From Keys for Writers:
 Developing paragraphs and essays (27-34)
 Supporting your claim with reasons and evidence (57-9)
 Reasoning (63-66)
29&31 Mar SPRING BREAK—NO CLASS
5 April Paper #1 workshop: rough draft due
7 April Paper #1 DUE
From Keys for Writers: Avoiding plagiarism (126-144)
From the Fiction volume of your textbook:Quoting, Paraphrasing, Summarizing,
and Avoiding Plagiarism (H-69-82)
12 April From the Fiction volume of your textbook:
 “The Magic Barrel” by Bernard Malamud
 Symbol (312-313, 324-7)
To be handed out in class: a critical essay about “The Magic Barrel”

6 of 7
ENG 102.2311 | “Family Ties” Spring I 2010, LaGuardia Community College
Syllabus Instructor Beth Schwartzapfel

14 April From the Fiction volume of your textbook:

 “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin
 Writing the Research Paper, Avoiding Plagiarism, and Documenting Sources
(H-83-102)
To be handed out in class: a critical essay about “Sonny’s Blues”
From Keys for Writers: Part 3, MLA Documentation
19 April From the Fiction volume of your textbook:
 “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri
 Theme (260-1, 270-273)
21 April Paper #2 workshop: rough draft due
From Keys for Writers:
 Transitions and Links (35-6)
 Introductions and conclusions (36-9)
26 April PAPER #2 DUE
Please bring the Poetry volume of your textbook.
28 April From the Poetry volume of your textbook:
 Reading a Poem in its Elements (2-3, 6-7)
 Fixed Poetic Forms (242-3, 246-9, 251, 253, 255, 257, 285-7)
 Sound, Rhyme, and Rhythm (211, 214-6, 219-223, 228-9, 231-2, 234, 238-41)
 “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas
 “Woman’s Work” by Julia Alvarez
3 May From the Poetry volume of your textbook:
 “Most Like an Arch This Marriage” by John Ciardi
 “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke
 “My First Theology Lesson” by Edward Hirsch
5 May From the Poetry volume of your textbook:
 Open Form (289, 292-3, 297, 324-5)
 “Eating Alone” and “Eating Together” by Li-Young Lee
 “After Making Love We Hear Footsteps” by Galway Kinnell
10 May From the Poetry volume of your textbook:
 “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes
 “Sadie and Maud” by Gwendolyn Brooks
12 May MIDTERM EXAM
17 May To be handed out in class: introductory information about Shakespeare and
Twelfth Night
19 May Twelfth Night, Act II
From Keys for Writers: Part 6, “Style”
24 May Twelfth Night, Act III
26 May Twelfth Night, Act IV
Paper #3 workshop: rough draft due
31 May MEMORIAL DAY—NO CLASS
2 June PAPER #3 DUE
Twelfth Night, Act V
7 June Semester/Final exam review
9 June FINAL EXAM
14 June Last day of class: grades distributed

7 of 7