Geneseo INTD 105 10 Syllabus

Instructor: Doug Baldwin
Office: South 307
Phone: 245-5659
Email: baldwin@geneseo.edu
Office Hours: Any time Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, when I’m not committed to something else. See my Google Calendar for details of when I’m free and to make appointments electronically. You don’t need to make appointments to see me, but I recommend it in order to be sure I’ll be available. I find that office hours are most effective when they’re in-person in my office, but if you need to, I’ll be happy to meet in other ways or places. Finally, office hours don’t need to be just about this course — feel free to come see me any time you have something you’d like to talk about.

Welcome to “Writing Seminar,” a title that perhaps suggests you’ll get nothing out of this course if you already write well. Fortunately, I have another interpretation in mind. Although this course is centered on writing, it’s more about what and why people write than it is about how to write. So while we might spend some time on things like how to state a thesis, the real purpose of the course is to change the way you think about writing: to think of, and practice, it as a tool for refining ideas, whether those ideas are ultimately meant for others or just for yourself. And this view isn’t just about writing, it works for language in any form. Thus, I also hope that we’ll have a lot of conversations in this course, as places to explore both other people’s ideas and your own — maybe before writing, maybe afterwards, during, or even without writing at all.

Of course, it’s hard to have ideas without them being about something. We will therefore use secret codes as a context for thinking, writing and discussing. Much of this activity will actually deal with issues surrounding the codes in our readings rather than with the codes themselves, although we’ll also look at some of the history, mathematics, and technology of cryptography.

Learning Outcomes: On completing this course, you should be able to…

Read significant texts carefully and critically, recognizing the author’s positions and claims
Write sustained, coherent and effective essays responding to issues that arise from readings or discussions, in particular…
1. Write arguments that persuade a reader of some claim (including a statement of an arguable claim, a valid argument for it, supporting evidence, and a conclusion that goes beyond restating the claim and argument)
2. Write reflections — i.e., author’s reactions that don’t necessarily argue for a claim — on an issue (including the endpoint you reach, reasons for it, and implications for yourself or others)
3. Revise arguments and reflections to improve their substance
Use appropriate summaries, paraphrases, and quotations to incorporate, with proper credit, information gleaned through library research into writings
Clearly state your positions, and understand those of others, in respectful verbal discussion of significant ideas
Use language in ways that communicate both objective logic and emotional or personal tone from author to audience.

By achieving the above learning outcomes, you will also fulfill Geneseo’s “Basic Communication” general education requirement, namely that students will…

Research a topic, develop an argument, and organize supporting details
Demonstrate coherent college-level communication (written and oral) that informs, persuades, or otherwise engages with an audience
Evaluate communication for substance, bias, and intended effect
Demonstrate an awareness of authorial positionality and individual linguistic variations along with those of peers in an academic context
Demonstrate an understanding of three modes of writing that are conditioned by different purposes, audiences, genres, conventions, the writer’s identity, and context. Every student will practice writing
- Addressed to the self (reflection)
- Addressed to others (analytical/persuasive)
- Addressed to the dynamic text
Locate information effectively using tools appropriate to their need and discipline
Evaluate information with an awareness of authority, validity, and bias
Demonstrate an understanding of the ethical dimensions of information use, creation, and dissemination.

Teaching Mode

This is a face-to-face course. That means that class meetings, office hours, etc. will be in person as much as possible, although it doesn’t rule out occasional online activities.

Learning will happen and be supported in a number of ways in this course, including readings, homework, discussions, lectures, meetings, and online class notes. You will get the most out of the course if you engage with all of these things. However, there’s enough overlap between them that if you can’t do one, especially if it’s only for a limited time, you can probably make up for it by working a little harder with the others. So if, for example, you have to miss some class meetings for illness or family emergencies, don’t panic! You should still be able to participate and succeed in the course through the other channels. Naturally, not engaging with enough of the course will eventually lead to an unrecoverable situation, but the course format deliberately accomodates occasional situations in which you can’t do everything.

Books and Other Resources

Books

We will read the following works in this course. Some are available online, and others in print. I have given URLs for the online readings below. The print ones are available from the College bookstore and other sources.

Supplemental Materials

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Gold Bug” makes occasional use of the racial epithet “n----.” This word is an overt symptom of a much deeper racist thread running through much American entertainment, which we will look at in detail when we read the story. Until then, if you would prefer to read a version of the story in which the word is censored (as in the preceding sentence), you can find one at

Other supplemental readings that you may find interesting, and that I may assign at least parts of, are…

A technical description of the German Enigma cipher and techniques used to break it

Other Resources

Course Schedule

I’ve organized this course around three essays that you will write. For each, you will write an initial draft, and then revise that draft. I’ll hand out detailed assignments for each essay as the time gets closer, but you can expect a similar course structure around each:

Note that the following dates are best estimates. They may change as our actual needs become apparent. Refer to the Web version of this syllabus for the most current information; I will keep it as up-to-date as possible.

Grades and Such

Grading in this course will be very different from what you are used to. The main reason for the unusual grading is that I am trying to consciously undo some of the small ways in which conventional grading unconsciously disadvantages certain students. But beyond removing disadvantages for some, I believe that what I am doing also offers significant advantages to everyone.

Key Ingredients

There are 3 main ways in which grading in this course will probably differ from what you have seen before.

The Details

The graded exercises in this course will mostly be writing exercises, and the handout for each will identify the learning outcomes that it addresses. I will give you a numeric grade for each outcome in an exercise, based on your goals and plans for the exercise, and the writing you do for it — in other words, the finished product matters, but is not the only, or even the main, determiner of your grade. Grades range from 0 to 3, as follows:

Although I will grade each exercise, mastery grading isn’t about how you do on any specific one. It’s about how well you’ve achieved outcomes by the end of the course. To that end, there are two other important points about exercises and their grades:

You will “turn in” each exercise by sharing your solution with me during one of your individual meetings. During that meeting, we’ll go over your solutions and answer any questions you have about them, and we’ll also discuss how you came up with those solutions and how you would approach similar problems.

Finally, when this course ends I will give you a letter grade for it based on the numeric grades. Specifically, I will add up your averages for each learning outcome, treat that total as a percentage of the maximum possible total (21 points), and use the following table to turn the percentage into a letter grade (but I reserve the right to adjust the cutoffs slightly to avoid people with nearly identical numeric grades getting different letter grades):

Major course modules and activities
Aug. 28 - Aug. 31	Introduction
Aug. 31 - Oct. 5	“The Gold Bug” and Substitution Ciphers
Sep. 27	Draft “Gold Bug” Essays Due
Sep. 28	Peer Edit “Gold Bug” Drafts
Oct. 11	Revised “Gold Bug” Essays Due
Oct. 5 - Oct. 31	Enigma and the Enigma Cipher
(Oct. 9 - Oct. 10	Fall Break)
Oct. 18	Draft Enigma Essays Due
Oct. 19	Peer Edit Enigma Drafts
Oct. 29	Revised Enigma Essays Due
Oct. 31 - Nov. 30	Breaking the Code and Alan Turing
Nov. 13	Draft Turing Essays Due
Nov. 14	Peer Edit Turing Drafts
(Nov. 22 - Nov. 24	Thanksgiving Break)
Nov. 27	Revised Turing Essays Due
Nov. 30 - Dec. 7	Modern Cryptography

General mastery rubric
3	Goals/plans and execution fully meet the learning outcome
2	Goals/plans meet the outcome, but execution falls short
1	Goals/plans and execution exist, but fall short of meeting the outcome
	OR Writing (execution) meets the learning outcome with little or no goal/plan
0	No understanding of this outcome yet

How numeric grades translate to letter grades
94 - 100	A
90 - 93.9	A-
85 - 89.9	B+
75 - 84.9	B
70 - 74.9	B-
65 - 69.9	C+
55 - 64.9	C
50 - 54.9	C-
Under 50, with effort	D
Under 50, no effort	E

Working Together

Assignments in this course are fundamentally learning exercises. You are therefore welcome to help each other with them, unless specifically told otherwise in the assignment handout. However, solutions that you turn in must represent your own understanding of the solution and must be written in your own words, even if you got or gave help on the assignment.

Artificial intelligence is now widely available as a tool for lots of college-level work, and you may use it as you would use any other technology tool. But like any tool, you, as the human user, are responsible for everything you produce with it.

If you use sources other than this class’s textbook or notes in order to do an assignment, you must include a comment or footnote citing those sources in your solution. Similarly, if you get help from anyone other than me you must acknowledge the helper(s) somewhere in your solution. (But note that I generally think learning from outside sources and people is a good thing, not a bad one.)

I will penalize violations of this policy. The severity of the penalty will depend on the severity of the violation.

Students’ Right to Self-Expression

To foster a more inclusive, diverse, and safe space in this class, you have a right to express who you are in the classroom, in meetings, etc. This includes, but isn’t limited to, the right to speak, write, and think in the language forms or dialects you grew up with or identify in, the right to share your prefered name and/or pronouns if you wish and have others use them, etc.

Corresponding to your right to self-expression is a responsibility to exercise that right in ways that don’t limit others’ right to express themselves, nor their right to learn in a safe and welcoming environment.

Academic Support Services

The college provides a range of support services to help students thrive in their classes. Of these services, the one best suited to this course is the Writing Learning Center. For more information, including hours and procedures for scheduling a visit, see the WLC website at https://www.geneseo.edu/english/writing_center.

Also, the SUNY-wide STAR-NY system (www.starny.org/tutoring_schedule) provides online tutoring in a wide variety of subjects.

For more information on these and other academic support services, see the Academic Support Services website at https://www.geneseo.edu/academic-support-services.

Accommodations

SUNY Geneseo is dedicated to providing an equitable and inclusive educational experience for all students. The Office of Accessibility (OAS) will coordinate reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities to ensure equal access to academic programs, activities, and services at Geneseo.

Students with approved accommodations may submit a semester request to renew their academic accommodations. Please visit the OAS website for information on the process for requesting academic accommodations.

Questions? Contact the OAS by email, phone, or in-person:

Office of Accessibility Services
Erwin Hall 22
585-245-5112
access@geneseo.edu

Under state law (Education Law, Section 224-a) students are excused from course requirements, such as examinations, class attendance, or other academic study and work requirements, for religious observance. You can make up any work missed in such circumstances without penalty. Geneseo’s complete policy on religious observances, with links to common holidays, is available at https://www.geneseo.edu/apca/classroom-policies.

Individuals on active military duty (including National Guard and Reserve service) are entitled to excused absences from classes during their period of service and will not be penalized in any way. See the College Bulletin for more on this policy.

If there is anything else I can do to make this class or its materials easier for you to access or use, please let me know.

INTD 105 10 — Writing Seminar: Secrets and Secret Codes