Syllabus

Contact Me

I love talking to students. Please get in touch often to ask questions, share ideas you’re having about the course, or discuss something interesting you’ve read or watched.

• E-mail: misbell@newhaven.edu
• Office: Harugari Hall, room 300A
• Office Hours: By appointment (via zoom or in my office). Send me an e-mail to set something up!

Course Description

The Seminar in Academic Inquiry introduces students to the conventions of academic writing and the habits of critical inquiry they will need in university courses and beyond. Students read and annotate texts on a topic selected by the instructor, develop original avenues of inquiry through classroom discussion, and transform their questions into well-supported academic arguments. Assignment sequences incorporate opportunities for research, drafting, revision, editing, and reflection to help students find writing processes that can be replicated in future courses and workplace projects that require only polished work. Because different disciplines and career paths present different scenarios for critical thinking and writing, this course also teaches students how to adapt the conventions of academic inquiry to a variety of contexts.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

• Interpret and analyze any text through annotation
• Produce clear and effective writing that demonstrates an understanding of the relationships among audience, purpose, and voice
• Formulate a response reflecting insights gained through critical reading and textual analysis
• Craft a written response to a text that puts the student’s ideas in conversation with those in the text
• Adapt to varying contexts and writing conventions across disciplines through attention to tone, format, and style

Required Materials

• Any assigned reading will be made available for free online or through Canvas
• A laptop or tablet for use during class
• A notebook and pen for use when devices are put away

Registrar Forms and Deadlines

The university registrar maintains a webpage in myCharger that includes add/drop and withdrawal deadlines as well as links to the necessary forms. You can access this site at:

https://mycharger.newhaven.edu/web/mycharger/registrar-forms

Major Assignments

• 20% Preparation and Participation
• 20% OpenLab Posts
• 20% Responding to feedback
• 20% Research Project
• 20% Wikipedia Project

My Approach to Grading

In order to truly learn, I think we all need the freedom to make mistakes. In the past, when I’ve graded student work by assessing its quality, I’ve found myself inadvertently discouraging students who were trying very hard but had made a mistake or gotten stuck on something. While low grades have occasionally motivated my students, I have encountered students who get so discouraged that they stop engaging in the work of the course. I don’t want this to happen.

After you submit each project, I will prepare feedback on your work (most often in video form, but I will ask what you prefer). I’ll ask you to read or watch my feedback and compose a response to my feedback. If the assignment meets all requirements, it will receive full credit. If your response to my feedback indicates engagement with feedback, it will receive full credit. The instructions for these assignments are in Canvas and you will submit them in Canvas.

Occasionally a student submits work that does not meet assignment requirements (usually this is because the student has gotten stuck or misunderstood the assignment). When this happens, I offer guidance and an opportunity for the student to revise before submitting their response to my feedback. One issue I have encountered with this approach to grading is that students sometimes do not submit revised work within the week allotted. If this happens, I will assign a grade to the original submission. I will also assign grades for students who do not respond to my feedback by the deadline (and they will receive no credit for the feedback response).

Open Educational Practices

One of my highest priorities as an educator is to help you all see that a classroom is a space to collaborate in the pursuit of new knowledge. We all bring knowledge and experience to the classroom and, if we put in the effort to build a collaborative learning community, we all benefit. I draw on strategies known as open educational practices or open pedagogy to help me in this pursuit. You will notice that we take advantage of open educational resources in this course (you don’t need to purchase any textbooks) and you’ll also notice that some of your assignments invite you to create resources that can be used by future students. I will frequently ask you to complete brief anonymous surveys to share how particular things are working for you and make adjustments based on that feedback. I hope you’ll share ideas even when I don’t explicitly ask. This is your class too!

My Course Policies (read carefully!)

Diversity Statement

I value human diversity, whether expressed through race and ethnicity, culture, political and social views, religious and spiritual beliefs, language and geographic characteristics, gender, gender identities and sexual orientations, learning and physical abilities, age, and social or economic classes. I respect the value of every member of the class, and everyone in the class is encouraged to share their unique perspective as an individual, not as a representative of any category. I intend to present material and classroom activities that respect and celebrate diversity of thought, background, and experience.

Attendance, Preparation, and Participation

I will ask you to do significant reading and thinking in preparation for class and to participate actively in workshops and class discussions. Preparation and participation assignments not completed by the deadline will not receive credit.

If you have one, please bring your laptop or tablet to every class. We will often use a shared Word Online document and a Shared Excel Spreadsheet during class. If you don’t have a laptop or tablet or you forget it, you can complete your work by hand and type it up after class for credit. Please talk to me after class if you’ll need extra time to get your handwritten work into the appropriate place.

When our goal is in-person discussion, I will ask everyone to put screened devices away and take notes by hand. I will also encourage everyone to voluntarily contribute to class discussion. Some of my best students have been quiet and not initially inclined to jump into our group conversations. If you are nervous about joining our discussion, you’ll have ways to share your ideas that don’t require speaking during class (I’m also happy to brainstorm strategies if you want to learn how to speak up).

If you are behaving disrespectfully to your classmates (like sleeping or looking at your phone when it should be away), I will write you an email with some tips on how you can avoid being disrespectful going forward and a request that you confirm getting the message. If I don’t hear back from you, I’ll try to talk to you in person before or after class because…if you are a disruption a second time, I will lower your overall grade in the course by one letter. 

If you are unable to attend class, please let me know in advance so I can make arrangements to record our class session for you to access after the fact. Watching this recording does not cancel your absence, but may help you keep up. The university permits up to two weeks of absence for illness and emergencies. Students who miss more than two weeks before the withdrawal period will be administratively withdrawn from the course. After the withdrawal period, each absence beyond the allowed number will reduce your preparation and participation grade by ten points.

Deadlines

There is no penalty for requesting an extension in this course, but you must request it before the deadline. If you don’t request an extension and have not completed a formal assignment by the deadline, you may complete it within 24 hours of the due date and I will accept your work, but lower the highest possible grade by one letter. If you have not contacted me before the end of this 24-hour window, you will receive no credit for the assignment. I am strict about this policy because I am very generous about deadline extensions. If you have a busy week when an assignment is due in this course, I would much prefer you ask for more time than miss a deadline or turn in an incomplete assignment. Really!

Academic Integrity

Every item you turn in with your name on it should be your own work with all sources clearly cited. If you use generative AI, please make sure it is clearly acknowledged with a signal phrase (“In a paragraph generated by ChatGPT, ____”)  and with a clear citation. Here’s how the MLA suggests citing generative AI.  In short, treat generative AI as a source and do not present it as your original work.  For the university policy on academic integrity, see the Student Handbook.   

Online Tools (to reference as needed)

I will be introducing a number of free online tools for reading, writing, and researching over the course of this semester. I include instructions for each of these tools below and I will also introduce them in class. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have trouble navigating this technology.

OpenLab

OpenLab is a platform where University of New Haven faculty, students, and staff come together to teach, learn and share ideas. Anyone with a University of New Haven e-mail account can join this virtual community, and we’ll be using the platform to build a website together this semester. I will be demonstrating how to create an account and join our course site in class, but you can also check out the written resources for OpenLab at any time.

Office 365

Office 365 makes it possible for me to create Word and Excel documents that I can share with a link (they live in “the cloud”). Any changes made to these shared documents are available in real time. You can use documents I’ve created without downloading Microsoft Office for your computer, but you will need to set up Microsoft Office on your computer to create formal assignments in this and other classes. Instructions for getting set up with Office 365 and downloading the applications for your computer are at this link.

Zotero

Zotero is an excellent free tool for gathering, annotating, and citing sources, (zoterobib is a tiny version that is also helpful!). I don’t require students to use Zotero, but I will encourage you to try it out. Most of my students who have experimented with Zotero wind up using it for research projects in other courses. I will demonstrate how I use Zotero in class, and you can watch the video below (I created it for faculty) or the instructions provided by Zotero.

The process will be slightly different depending on your computer and the Internet browser you use most often. I am happy to help during class if you’d like!