First-Year FIQWS Writing Composition Section Mission Statement: First-year composition courses at CCNY teach writing as a recursive and frequently collaborative process of invention, drafting, and revising. Writing is both personal and social, and students should learn how to write for different purposes and audiences. Since writing is a process of making meaning and communicating, FYC teachers respond mainly to the content of students’ writing as well as to recurring surface errors. Students should expect frequent written and oral responses on the content of their writing from their teachers and peers. Classes rely heavily on a workshop format. Instruction emphasizes the connection between writing, reading, and critical thinking; students should give thoughtful, reasoned responses to the readings. Both reading and writing are the subjects of class discussions and workshops, and students are expected to be active participants in the classroom community. Learning from each other will be a large part of the classroom experience.
Description of FIQWS Topic Section: This course aims to introduce students to basic concepts in psychoanalysis and to explore their power and limits as tools of literary and cultural analysis. We will begin by studying Sigmund Freud’s Five Introductory Lectures. In this short book, Freud tells the story of how he came to develop psychoanalysis as a theory and a method of treatment for mental illness, and he introduces and explains such concepts as the unconscious, repression, the dreamwork, infantile sexuality, the Oedipus complex, transference and sublimation. At the same time, we will be looking at a variety of stories, poems, novels and films to see how they are illuminated by Freud’s ideas and illuminate those ideas in their turn. Throughout the semester, students will develop their own skills as critical readers and writers through a wide variety of reading and writing activities.
| Composition Section Learning Outcomes |
| In the composition section, you will:
* Explore and analyze in their own and others’ writing a variety of genres and rhetorical situations * Develop strategies for reading, drafting, revising, and editing * Practice systematic application of citation conventions * Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations * Develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes * Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences * Locate research sources (including academic journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles) in the library’s databases or archives and on the internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias * Compose texts that integrate the student’s stance and language with appropriate sources, using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation. |
| Content Section Learning Outcomes |
| In the content section, you will:
*Gather, interpret, and assess information from a variety of sources and points of view; *Evaluate evidence and arguments critically or analytically; *Produce well-reasoned written or oral arguments using evidence to support conclusions. *Identify and apply the fundamental concepts and methods of psychoanalysis exploring the relationship between the individual and society within the scope of literature; *Through the study of works of literature, examine how an individual’s place in society affects their experiences, values, and choices; *Drawing on psychoanalytic and other perspectives, assess ethical views and their underlying premises. |
| General Education Learning Outcomes Benchmarks for FIQWS |
| Students will compose essays such as personal narratives/reflections, summary and response, and critical analysis accomplishing the following:
Writing: * Present context of and state purpose for writing * Develop appropriately organized essays containing a clear thesis statement and credible, relevant evidence * Use appropriate language that conveys meaning and is grammatically correct Critical Thinking: * Clearly state issue/problem * Analyze and/or synthesize evidence derived from appropriate sources * Develop logical conclusions based on evidence Information Literacy: * Demonstrate a clear understanding of information needs and ability to search efficiently (within assigned texts and/or by source search) * Demonstrate an understanding of scholarly sources (library visit) * Articulate credibility of sources or as appropriate to the discipline * Use information ethically by citing sources and not plagiarizing |
