Category Archives: Instructor Posts

We made it to the last week of class! I don’t want to burden you with any more stuff at this stage, since I know finals are looming, so this week will also be pretty minimal in terms of assignments and activities.

What To Do Before Class (Tuesday, 5/11)

Readings Due: None!

Assignments Due (Structure & Accountability Only): First draft of web genre analysis due

Recommended for Everyone:

Download this Semester Checklist, compare it with your grades in Blackboard, and figure out for yourself what you’re missing, what you plan on making up, and when you plan on doing it.
Write down any questions you have about, well, anything.
Is there anything that came up in our class this semester that you’d like us to talk about more? Or stuff you thought we would talk about this semester that we didn’t talk about?

What We’ll Do In Class

Guided reflection activity on the writing program’s course objectives
Group discussion on the content and design of this class (“Keepers, Dumpers, Fixers”)
Talk about any questions you have, and say goodbye

I know attendance has dropped in the last month or two, and I totally get it, but please make an effort to come to our last session– the more people we have, the more productive/useful our discussions will be.

What To Do Async Thursday (5/13)

Readings Due: None

Assignments Due: Yourself as Reader, Writer, and Researcher (click through for instructions)

Finals Week/Other Instructions

Keep working on your portfolio and mini-project! These are due Thursday, May 20.

How To Do Stuff on WordPress/CUNY Commons:

Creating Your Portfolio
Intro to the WordPress Dashboard
Posts and Pages, Block and Classic Editor
Themes, Customizing, and Home Page Settings
Menus
Uploading/Embedding Files
Privacy Settings/Sharing
How WordPress Is Different On Your Phone

Extra Credit

You can still attend a writing center workshop for extra credit, or sign up for a 1:1 writing center session. There are several workshops between now and the end of the semester. I will receive a log of all attendance at the end of the semester, and I will input these points then.

Late Work

Please be aware that we are getting close to the late work deadline. All late work is due by the end of the day on Thursday, May 20.

If you need an additional extension beyond that day, you must send me an email including the following:

Which assignments you plan to submit after the deadline
Which day(s) you will send them. You will choose your own extension deadline. I recommend taking the day you think you can get it done by and then adding an extra day just in case.

If I don’t receive the assignment before the deadline you choose, I can’t guarantee I will be able to look at it before submitting final grades. This policy exists so that I’m not sitting by my email at 11:50pm the day grades are due wondering if I will receive any last minute things.

If you want to take an incomplete in the class, please let me know as soon as possible so we can work out a timeline/plan.

Last Assignment: Yourself as Reader, Writer, and Researcher

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1-2 double-spaced pages on “Yourself as Reader, Writer, and Researcher” (Submit via the link on Blackboard OR post to our class blog if you want to share your response with your classmates too.) Due for everyone on Thursday, May 13th by end of the day

Please write in paragraph form, rather than a bulleted list of questions/answers.

Prompt:

We all have histories as readers, writers, and researchers, even if you hate these activities. For this assignment, help me get to know you and reflect on your time in John Jay’s writing program by telling me about your history with these activities. Below are several questions for you to consider as you compose your answer. You do not need to address all of them, and feel free to talk about other things related to reading, writing, research, and English classes.

What kinds of things do you read? (Not just books!)
What kinds of things do you love to read or hate to read? Why?
What’s a really good memory you have about reading, or a really bad one?
What about writing?
How much writing did you do in the years/semesters prior to now (including high school/writing for a job/anything else), and what kinds of things did you write?
What kinds of research have you done in the past?
What do you find difficult or confusing about the research process?
What were your past English classes like?
How did you feel about starting this class, and what do you feel like you gained from it? (Or, if you feel like you didn’t gain much, it’s totally okay to tell me about that too. In that case, what did you want to learn but didn’t?)
Did the pandemic change your reading/writing/research habits at all? If so, how?

Optional: More on Misleading Statistics

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Graduate students at NYU and at Columbia are on strike right now. Their demands include better pay, healthcare coverage, and the right to have discrimination and harassment cases evaluated by a third party mediator (instead of an employee of the university). Because of this, I was researching the history of grad student union organizing; in short, I found some data that looked wrong, investigated, and now am going to tell you about it.

We’re taught in school that sites ending with .gov are trustworthy, right? In this case, the data came from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. So it’s literally their whole job to collect accurate information about labor-related topics.

The article I was reading that cited the BLS said that graduate assistants in the United States (like me) made an average of about $35,000 per year in 2015-2016. This immediately rang my alarm bells– the only grad assistants I know who make anywhere near that much money are at private universities in expensive areas (like Columbia). When I was getting my master’s degree in 2016-2018, I was paid $12,000 per year. So that couldn’t possibly be the real nationwide average.

I went to the BLS website, and found their 2020 data, which says the average graduate assistant in the U.S. makes $39,460, and that graduate assistants in the NYC area make an average of $52,170. This is not true!! Through my fellowship as a CUNY PhD student, living in one of the most expensive places in the United States, I am paid $27,548. This is low compared to students at places like Columbia and NYU, but not even the graduate students at those schools make $52,170 per year. I and every other graduate student I know work additional jobs in order to pay our bills.

So WTF is going on with this data? How is the “average” higher than anyone’s actual pay?

The answer was in the footnotes, at the very bottom of the page. This is why they tell you to always read the fine print. The BLS calculated these salaries by taking hourly wages and multiplying by 2,080 — the number of hours worked if you work 40 hours a week, 52 weeks per year. But this is not how graduate students are actually paid. We are part time employees, paid part-time salaries, who are expected to spend the rest of our time studying/doing our PhD program responsibilities. Yet the income data they are reporting is how much we would make if we were paid full time salaries. So, the data they are reporting doesn’t represent anybody’s actual experience. (Lots of people who are graduate students do work full time jobs on top of their studies, but not as part of their fellowships. Fellowships are always part time.)

Why does this matter?

Anyone who doesn’t have direct knowledge of grad student pay probably wouldn’t bother looking at the fine print and probably would just trust that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics was reporting accurate– and not misleading — information.

This means that newspapers, policy institutes, and other people/organizations looking for this info are reporting misleading information, likely without knowing it. The ALICE Project estimates that a basic necessities + emergency money budget for a single adult living alone in Manhattan is $53,844 per year. By the BLS’s numbers, graduate students in New York are pretty close to that! But in real life, we are not — unless we work extra jobs. This is especially important when it comes to grad student strikes, since the NYU and Columbia workers are demanding a living wage. When discussing salary and whether or not people are paid enough, it’s important to have accurate information about how much money people are actually getting paid!

In Conclusion

Always read the fine print– information can be technically “true” but still misleading depending on what’s in the fine print
Just because information is from the government doesn’t mean you can take it at face value
If you need a math credit and aren’t sure what to take, take statistics. You’ll learn about many of the funky ways you can make real numbers say fake things.

Week 14 (5/4 and 5/6): Beginning Your Portfolio

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These last couple weeks of class, we’ll primarily just be focusing on getting your final portfolios together. This week will hopefully be a pretty lowkey week with limited new work for you to do, and plenty of time to just work on your portfolio, do makeup work, or just focus on other things in your life.

Click here for the End of Semester Overview

What To Do Before Zoom Class (Tuesday, 5/4)

Readings:

If you do not plan on attending class:

Watch this video and follow the instructions to create your own portfolio site

What We’ll Do During Class

Talk through the portfolio and mini project
I’ll walk you through how to make your own sites
We’ll talk about anything else y’all want to talk about

What To Do Async Thursday (5/6)

Structure & Accountability Folks:

Email me a plan for your portfolio. This should include which unit project you plan on revising, what you plan on doing for your mini-project, ideas for how you want to design your portfolio website, when you plan on doing the work, and anything else you want to tell me.

Recommended for Everyone:

Download this Semester Checklist, compare it with your grades in Blackboard, and figure out for yourself what you’re missing, what you plan on making up, and when you plan on doing it
Begin working on your portfolio! Even though a lot of the components are just building off of work you’ve already done, it takes time to design and build a website.

I’ve made a bunch of videos to show you how to do different stuff on the Commons if you would like some audiovisual guidance:

Intro to the WordPress Dashboard
Posts and Pages, Block and Classic Editor
Themes, Customizing, and Home Page Settings
Menus
Uploading/Embedding Files
Privacy Settings/Sharing
How WordPress Is Different On Your Phone

Preparing for Next Class (Tuesday 5/11) – Last Class!

Begin working on your mini-project! Folks on the Structure & Accountability Plan should turn in a draft of their web genre analysis by the end of the day on Tuesday.

Final Mini-Project Instructions

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The final mini-project is one of the required components for your portfolio. It is due May 20 along with the rest of your portfolio. I’m just uploading instructions separately. Click here for full portfolio instructions.

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More Detailed Instructions

On the instructions sheet, I’ve provided some examples of internet genres in the instructions for the project. Other scholars of the internet have identified the following as some other examples of internet genres:

The home page
The hotlist (hotlists are often but not always automatically-generated. examples of hotlists are your bookmarks bar, or the “frequently accessed” menu when you open a new web browser window or open Google Docs)
The FAQ page
The About page
The Contact Us page
The business email
The academic email
The blog post (subtypes include journal blog, travel blog, food blog, etc.)
The spam email
The advertising email
The sidebar ad
The Wiki page (both on Wikipedia and on other kinds of wikis, pages are constructed in a similar manner)

You could choose any of these, any of the examples I gave on the assignment sheet, or another genre of your choosing. (Here’s a tweet about the “genre” of “ads for bedding” — like the ads for Brooklinen, Casper, Parachute, etc. you used to see on the MTA).

Writing Your Web Genre Analysis

After you’ve collected and examined many different examples of your chosen genre, please write approximately 2 (or more) pages analyzing the rules and norms of that genre. Please write this in paragraph form.

Here are some questions to guide you:

How would you describe this genre to someone who has never used the internet before?
What kind(s) of content is included?
How is that content typically presented or arranged?
What design/formatting choices are typical of this genre?
What observations have you made about the style of writing in this genre?
If you were to instruct someone about how to write in this genre from scratch, what is the step-by-step process?
What is the purpose of this genre?
Who is the intended audience of this genre?
How is the genre well-suited (or not well-suited) to that purpose and audience?

Another suggestion: If you can convince someone in your life to participate, try teaching someone how to write in this genre. See what they do that feels “wrong” to you, that you may not have thought of when doing your initial analysis.

Final Portfolio Instructions + Rubric

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This week (4/27), just focus on finishing your Unit 3 stuff. But, here’s the instructions for your final portfolio if you want to take a peek at what’s coming up.

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End of Semester Overview (5/4-5/20)

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Last stretch! Last unit overview! We’re almost there!

We only have 2 weeks of class left in the regular semester, and then 1 week of “finals.” In this class, we don’t have a final exam. Instead, you’ll be creating a digital portfolio showcasing your work this semester. Part of that portfolio will be a final mini-project, where you get to show off your genre analysis skills.

Scheduling Notes: We will have Zoom class Tuesday 5/4 and 5/11. 5/11 will be our last class time together.

Writing for the End of the Semester

Just like you did in English 101, you will be making digital portfolios showcasing your work this semester. Your portfolios will include a mini-project based around a genre of your choice and some additional reflections.

Grading/Checklist for the End of the Semester

The portfolio is worth 20% of your final grade. All other assignments from this section of the semester will belong to the “Beginning/End of Semester” grading category (20%). I’ll write out the full list separately so you can have a clear view.

Structure & Accountability Plan (End of Semester)

Email me a plan for your portfolio- 2 points, completion
Web genre analysis draft — 2 points, completion
“Yourself as a reader and writer” assignment — 2 points, completion
Portfolio

Maximum Flexibility Plan (End of Semester)

Just the “Yourself as a reader and writer” assignment– 2 points, completion
Portfolio

Extra Credit

Late Work

Please be aware that we are getting close to the late work deadline. All late work is due by the end of the day on Thursday, May 20.

Week 13 (4/27 and 4/29): Finishing Unit 3!

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Click here for an overview of the whole unit.
Click here for the Unit 3 project instructions/rubric.

What To Do Before Zoom Class (Tuesday, 4/27)

Prepare an update on your project to share with the class — you don’t need to turn anything in, just plan what you want to say. What is your topic? How are things going? What writing difficulties have you run into, or what questions do you have?
If you haven’t started yet, do some brainstorming and share what you plan to do

Due By End of Day: Peer review comments for those of you participating, due to me and to your partner

What We’ll Do During Class

Share project updates
Revisit rubric, instructions, APA formatting
Look at and discuss End of Semester Overview
I expect we will end early, but we’ll see.

What To Do For Async Thursday (4/29)

Readings: None!

Assignments, due for Everyone:

Revised drafts of your Unit 3 projects
Unit 3 Reflections

Preparing For Next Class (Tuesday, 5/4)

Read over the “Portfolio Instructions”
If you are not planning on attending class, watch the “Creating Your Portfolio” video (I will also upload this later in the week)

Unit 3 Reflection Prompts

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Reflections are due Thursday, 4/29

Please respond to the following questions in your reflection.

What do you feel like you learned this unit that you didn’t know before?
What did you already know , but now understand better or learned more about?
What (if anything) do you feel like I wanted you to learn, but you still aren’t sure about?
What are the strengths of your unit project? What are you most proud of?
If you were to revise your unit project, what would you want to do differently?
How would you describe or rate your participation/engagement in this unit?
What did you do this unit that helped make you successful?
What skills or habits do you want to bring with you to next semester, and what habits do you want to leave behind?
What was your favorite unit this semester and why?
Do you have any suggestions for what I should change when I revise this class for next semester?

Week 12 (4/20 and 4/22): Writing and Feedback

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Click here for an overview of the whole unit.
Click here for the Unit 3 project instructions/rubric.

Scheduling Note: NO ZOOM CLASS on Tuesday, 4/20.

What To Do For Async Tuesday (4/20)

Readings (Optional):

More examples of student ethnographies

An example from one of my students last semester– now, this is much more in-depth than what I am requiring you to do, since she used her entire time in the US Army as her fieldwork, rather than conducting new fieldwork for this unit. So, her project and analysis are much deeper than yours needs to be. But, it’s also an excellent example of ethnographic writing and analysis.

Another example from last semester — this student chose to do an ethnography of a restaurant he and his friends went to eat at

Assignments Due (Structure & Accountability Plan, AND anyone else who signs up for peer review):

First draft of mini-ethnography due by the end of the day! Please send to me AND to your peer review partner.

If you are not participating in peer review, you are still welcome to turn in a draft and I will send you feedback. 🙂

What To Do for Async Thursday (4/22)

Nothing except for continuing to work on your projects!

Preparing for Next Class (Tuesday 4/27)

We will have Zoom class on this day.

Readings: None!

Assignments: For those participating, Peer Review Reports + comments are due to me and your partner by the end of the day.