About the Course
In this course, you will learn the expectations and strategies of academic writing by writing about cultural interactions in society. We typically value cultural identity as integral to who we are as individuals, but in contemporary society, we all “belong” to multiple cultural identities at once. For example, in modern American society, I can identify or am identified as “biracial, female, teacher, bilingual, etc.” As noted by cultural theorist Stuart Hall, we assume various identities and behaviors to transform ourselves into what is appropriate to locations and social situations. But even though these multiple cultural identities and conflicts can provide opportunities for individuals to fit within communities, they can contradict one another and lead to internal, interpersonal and intergroup conflict. This semester, to write about how cultural identity functions in contemporary society, we will examine it through the lenses of race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, nationality, class, and power.
As a freshman in a liberal arts college, you are tasked with adopting yet another cultural identity, that of the academic. As an academic, you will use writing to participate in the many conversations that exist in our intellectual communities at QC and beyond. Therefore, in College Writing I, you will learn and practice a dependable, manageable, and reproducible writing process that allows you to find and develop your own strong ideas and express them clearly and persuasively. Over the course of the semester, you will read and discuss texts from several source types, complete regular informal reading and writing exercises, and write three longer essays in which you analyze cultural identity and growth, in correlation with historical events. To do so, you will pay special attention to the practices of close reading and analysis, research, collaboration, and revision. My hope is that you will see writing as a thoughtful conversation and develop the confidence to enter such conversations, or, even better, start ones of your own.
About the Instructor
Professor Patricia Wu is a proud product of New York City (Queens in particular) & CUNY, having going to Queens College for her B.A. in English and Sociology, and Hunter College for her M.A. in English Language and Literature. Aside from teaching this section of English 110, she’s also teaching an ESL course at here Queens College. She’s also teaching two courses at Queensborough Community College. She loves Japanese culture and is very “kawaii” ; she also loves manipedis, dogs, her iPhone 8+, iced coffee and a lot more!
Random Fact: She loves reading Reddit.
English 110 @ Queens College | Fall 2018 