Welcome to The Seminar in Academic Inquiry and Writing! I am Dr. Mary Isbell, and I’ve created this syllabus to communicate what we’ll learn and how we’ll learn it this semester.
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
- All readings will be made available for free online or through Canvas
- A notebook and pen
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
- 25% Preparation and Participation
- 35% Process Assignments
- 25% Argumentative Research Paper
- 15% Final 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.
I will be providing copious feedback on your work and submitting mid-term and final grades for this course and you will be given an opportunity to assign yourself a grade for primary assignment of the semester: the argumentative research paper.
After you submit this 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 project reflection that responds to my feedback, describes your experience completing the assignment, and assigns a grade to your work. The instructions for the project reflection is in Canvas; it will be due (via upload to Canvas) at the final exam.
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 project reflection. One issue I have encountered with this approach to grading is that students sometimes do not submit revised work by the deadline. If this happens, I will assign a grade to the original submission. I will also assign grades for students who do not complete a project reflection by the deadline.
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 for this course) 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 write in a shared Word Online document 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, please get in touch with me so we can brainstorm strategies for active participation.
It is natural to occasionally be distracted during class. Life can present all sorts of drama that doesn’t end when class begins. I do ask that while you are in class, you take care not to become a distraction to me or your classmates. If you have an emergency, you can certainly leave the room to address it. If I am distracted by something you’re doing in class, I will write you an email to this effect: “your [texting/snoring/meowing] in class today was distracting. This is a warning. If I notice this again, I will lower your overall grade in the course by one letter.” I hope that I never have to write a second email.
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 stay up to speed. The university permits up to two weeks of absence (two class periods) for illness and emergencies. Students who miss more than two classes before the withdrawal period will be administratively withdrawn from the course. After the withdrawal period, each absence beyond two 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!
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.
Hypothesis
Adding notes in the margins of the texts you read (annotating) is one of the best ways to understand what you are reading and begin to formulate your own ideas in response. Many of you have probably discovered that it is hard to take notes when reading online. Hypothesis is an annotation tool we will use to annotate readings for this class. When you open an assigned reading in Canvas (including this syllabus!), you’ll notice that when you select text, you are prompted to make an annotation. Please annotate actively as you read and respond to the annotations of your classmates. If you run into any technical issues, please send an e-mail to support@hypothes.is and copy me on the message.
Note: We’ll be using hypothesis from inside Canvas at the start of our class because it makes things simpler in a course setting, but I will introduce you all to Hypothesis “in the wild” when the time is right. Some of you may find that you want to use it as you begin exploring texts that you find on your own.
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 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.
Word Online
Word Online documents are accessible via a link (they live in “the cloud”) and any changes made to them are available in real time. You can use Word Online without downloading Microsoft Office for your computer, but you will need to Office on your computer for 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. I don’t require students to use Zotero, but I 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 for each of you depending on your computer and the internet browser you use most often. I am happy to help if you have trouble.
