Syllabus

instructor: Dr. Vyshali Manivannan (preferred name: Dr. Mani; pronouns: she/her/hers)
🏫 room: Hamilton 703
📩 E: See Canvas/Syllabus
🕑 office hours: By appointment at Calendly (see Canvas/Syllabus)
💬 asynchronous chat: Canvas Chat (responses within 48 hours between 9am-5pm EST)

✅ By remaining enrolled in the course, you agree to adhere to the policies outlined in this syllabus.

👋🏾 WELCOME STATEMENT

I’m Dr. Mani (pronounced “money”), and I want to warmly welcome you to ASP CC Writing. I feel I can’t do so without acknowledging the elephant in the room: the COVID-19 pandemic has not abated, and people from many parts of our city, state, country, and the world are still suffering from the public health crisis. You may be reeling from loss and lack of closure. You may be at-risk and anxious about how to navigate physical spaces. You may feel confused by virtual ones. You may be worried about and resentful of how the pandemic will alter your college experience. You may be all or none of the above. I acknowledge this to say that we are learning in unprecedented times, and our learning will reflect the need for flexibility, adaptation, collaboration, and empathy. Together we’ll reimagine what learning, writing, and revising looks like for us as a class in this unusual situation while getting to know each other and building community.

✍🏾 COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course will facilitate your entry into the intellectual life of the university by helping you to become a more capable and independent reader and writer. As an introduction to University Writing, this course is organized into two progressions, each consisting of class activities, readings, and writing exercises that will prepare you to write a particular kind of essay. In Progression 1, you will learn to critically respond to texts by distilling their primary claims, concepts, or methods. In Progression 2, you will learn to create and enter into a conversation with multiple texts. The course will culminate with a portfolio of revised work. This class is a seminar and workshop, meaning that its success depends on your constructive participation, openness, and considerateness. Don’t be afraid to reveal your weaknesses and your strengths. Your regular attendance and participation are essential to both your own and your classmates’ learning. You and your classmates will learn from each other through our discussions and through reading each other’s work.

📚 TEXTS AND INDEX OF MATERIALS

Here is the index of materials for our class, organized by the platforms where they are located.

CANVAS

• Syllabus & Calendar
• Announcements
• Google Doc for Collaborative Note-Taking (see Canvas/Syllabus for link)
• Discussion Boards
• Assignment Guidelines & Submission Dropboxes
• Readings, Videos, Handouts, Peer Review Forms

COURSE BLOG

• Diagnostic Exercise
• Class Agendas
• Essay Feedback
• Writing Resources
• Tech Guides
• Syllabus, Calendar, Assignment Guidelines

All required readings and handouts are available for free as PDFs or links on our Canvas course site. You must have each day’s assigned reading on hand, in print or electronic form, during class sessions. 

We will regularly use technology in the classroom, so please bring your preferred learning/writing device—laptop, iPad, smartphone—to every class. All assignments must be typed and submitted through Canvas. 

We will make use of a collaborative note-taking page for this class. If you want to take notes by hand, you’ll need a notebook for in-class writing exercises.

 💻 ASSIGNMENTS

You will be asked to write two 1000-1200 word essays and one 500-800 word retrospective essay. You will also revise your work and compile a short portfolio by the end of the course. Except for essay drafts, assignments due on class days are due before class that day.

This course is ungraded. For all major assignments, I will write a “General Feedback” blog post commenting on patterns, areas of improvement, and errors that I see in the majority (90%) of all the essays I receive. You will use these blog posts to try to identify, locate, and improve on these issues in your papers, as a way to help you improve your own editorial sensibility. We will reflect in subsequent classes about your process of locating these issues and reworking your drafts. I may also provide personalized feedback on Canvas on issues that are unique to your work.

🙏🏾 WHAT I EXPECT FROM YOU

I value enthusiastic participation in the form of risk-taking and experimentation, off-the-cuff opinions and well-thought-out comments, and connections between class material and your prior experiences. I have a lower tolerance for unnecessary amounts of goofing off during class activities and resistance to practicing new skills and engaging with new ideas. Overall, I expect you to push yourself to learn, a process that I recognize takes many forms.  As part of this, I expect that you’ll:

• Read everything! It’s important for your success that you closely read and frequently refer to all course documents, assignment guidelines, blog posts, and communications from me.
• Communicate early and often about unexpected situations that might impact your ability to engage in the course.
• Attend regularly (and communicate promptly if you can’t) and be attentive.
• Make time to read, write, reply, and revise.
• Contribute productively to discussion, whether out loud, in the collaborative note-taking Google Doc, or in small groups. There are many ways to participate in class, and I expect you do so in whatever ways you can.
• Complete your assignments punctually, with attention, care, and creativity.
• Conduct yourself respectfully in the classroom. When we disagree in class, as we inevitably will, we will do so in a calm and courteous manner, targeting ideas, not individuals. Bigoted, ableist, incendiary, or otherwise offensive language will not be tolerated.
• Be respectful and use appropriate email etiquette when emailing or direct messaging me (i.e., identify yourself, your course section, your questions). I prefer to be addressed as “Dr. Mani” or “Dr. Manivannan.”
• Work towards excellence, not perfection—don’t be afraid to experiment, “fail up,” and improve!
• Assume responsibility for reviewing general feedback posts after each draft and revising your essays accordingly; and coming to every conference and appointment you’ve scheduled with me.
• Actively ask for clarification or assistance if you need it in advance of a deadline, via class participation, private Canvas chat, or email (i.e., don’t passively wait for me to come to you).
• Check your email and Canvas daily, since this is how I’ll communicate with you outside of our class sessions. Make sure to forward your Columbia email account to the one you use on a daily basis if your Columbia account isn’t your primary one.
• Ask your classmates for missed content if you’re absent, since we do important work every day.
• Submit work on time and in the appropriate file format (.doc, .docx, .pdf).
• Accept that I respond as promptly as I can but rarely before 9:00 or after 5:00 and not as promptly on weekends. It may take me up to 48 hours to reply to any electronic communication.

I allow food and drink during class time provided you quickly replace your mask between bites or sips and that it doesn’t interfere with your ability to participate or distract others. If you need to get up and stretch, move around, or otherwise get your blood flowing if you find yourself drifting or nodding off, feel free to do so. We will take short breaks during class time as well.

👌🏾 WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM ME

From me, you can expect:

• An interest in your projects and how the writing skills you’re acquiring connect to your other classes or career interests.
• An enthusiasm for challenging your views and habits of writing and critical engagement with the world around you.
• A personalized approach to teaching process-oriented writing (i.e., real-world examples culled from my experiences as a novelist, scholar, and professor).
• An ability to adapt to the flow of discussions, pursue interesting tangents, and create learning scenarios that might initially seem disorganized or quirky but will demonstrate the skills at hand.
• A willingness to accommodate your learning style(s), disability-related issue(s), and/or accessibility issues (with the expectation that you’ll accommodate mine).
• A desire to celebrate our accomplishments this semester, whether they pertain to class or not.
• A desire to help you!

You may always reach out to me with any concerns or questions. I do ask that you wait at least one day before contacting me about material I have just handed back, as we are all human and can become emotional over things as personal as writing. Also, keep in mind that different courses take different approaches to teaching the same skill sets, so the assignments in one section of this class might not align exactly with the assignments in a different section.

🤹🏾 BEING A STUDENT IS HARD WORK

College asks you to juggle multiple classes and responsibilities, and it can be a struggle to stay on track. In case it helps, I’ve created a calendar for you at the end of this document. Additionally, here are some of my best tips:

• Set a consistent time each week to sit down and focus solely on this class (and put that in your calendar or planner too, in addition to any scheduled appointments!). Our classes follow a similar rhythm, but establishing a routine will help you stay organized.
• Make use of my office hours if you need to! You can schedule with me using my Calendly link.
• Coordinate with your workshop groups and peers. This will increase your sense of belonging to a learning community.
• If you find yourself falling behind, reach out to me! I’m happy to work with you individually to get you successfully across the finish line!

🦠 COVID-19 AND GENERAL ILLNESS POLICY

With Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants of COVID-19 now dominant, New York City is poised for a sixth wave of high community transmission. Public health agencies that have resisted politicization continue to recommend high-quality masks, such as tight-fitting KN95 and N95 masks, in indoor settings. Medical guidance is that cloth masks are not effective. Tight-fitting N95 masks can be purchased at Cambridge Masks (reusable), Bona Fide Masks, 3M, or Project N95, and are recommended to reduce community transmission and avoid getting sick. Elastomeric respirators (reusable with filter replacements) that are NIOSH certified or test equivalently include Flo Mask and Envo Mask. If you are on a budget, disposable N95 masks can be reused if you follow these steps.

We must work together to protect others and ourselves from the transmission of COVID-19. If you enter class without a mask, you’ll be asked to put one on (if you have one) or go to the ASP office to obtain one (if you don’t). You must wear your mask such that it covers your mouth and nose. You’ll be asked to leave class if you don’t comply. Additionally, we will maintain social distancing at all times. If you must eat or drink during class, I ask that you either step out of the room to do so or replace your mask between bites and sips. 

In the interest of public health safety, I highly recommend that you regularly take rapid tests or PCR tests, particularly 3-5 days before or after traveling or exposure. Free COVID testing is available at mobile testing and brick-and-mortar sites as well, with both walk-in and pre-registered appointments. Information about locating a testing site and/or scheduling an appointment can be found at NYC Health + Hospitals and COVID-19 Express Testing. It might be best to call 311 to make sure a testing site is still open before you go. If you can afford it, you can purchase over-the-counter rapid tests at local pharmacies that have them in stock. 

Out of an abundance of caution, as soon as you feel symptomatic, even if you suspect it is a cold or allergies, please get tested. If you test positive, inform the ASP office, your professors, and Columbia’s Contact Tracing program, and quarantine. (The CDC and WHO have found that 1 out of 5 people contract permanently disabling post-viral disorders after catching COVID-19, and in the U.S. healthcare system, treatment for long COVID may be contingent on having a positive test result as “proof” that you had COVID-19 in the first place.) 

Community transmission of any disease should be taken seriously. If you do not feel well, whether or not you test positive for COVID, do not come to class. If you contract COVID-19, be aware that you are contagious until you test negative on a PCR test. The average length of time for contagiousness is 9 days after symptom onset, but for the safety of our community, do not return to the classroom until you receive a negative PCR test result. Do not worry about participating in class or making up any coursework until you are well again.

If I contract COVID-19, we will pivot to an online asynchronous modality. You will have materials on Canvas—such as texts, discussion boards, videos, and other resources—to help you continue with your learning. I will provide feedback on your work when I am well enough.

Finally, be advised that monkeypox cases are on the rise in NYC as well. Monkeypox is both airborne and transmissible through skin-to-skin contact. Testing and vaccines are not currently available to the general public, so self-monitor and take potential symptoms seriously. Refer to NYC Health for information about symptoms and reporting.

📢 FINAL THOUGHTS

To ensure your success in this class, we will be clear, communicative, and accommodating. If you have questions or concerns, are uncertain regarding an assignment or a deadline, or feel you are not receiving adequate support and need to speak with me about your progress, let me know! My “door” is always open during my office hours; and I am more flexibly available over email or Canvas Chat throughout the week. We can work on or talk about whatever you’d like during an appointment. Don’t hesitate to contact me so we can resolve whatever issue you may be facing. No problem is too big or small and there’s no such thing as a silly question. My job is to support you as best as I can while teaching you about critical thinking and writing, and the only way I can do this is if I know what you need. I look forward to teaching you and learning from you during this course!