This class will provide a bridge between the kind of writing you did in high school and the writing you will do for college, offering space to address changing expectations. Like any other skill, writing requires practice. The successful student will remain open to new ways of thinking and doing, will do thorough revisions, and, most importantly, will put in the time required to make a good-faith effort to improve their writing. (We can all stand to improve!)

Reading Material

Most of the novels, articles, essays and chapters we’ll be reading are either Open Educational Resources (OER) or Open Access (OA), meaning that digital versions are available for free. You will, however, have to purchase or borrow one novel (Sula by Toni Morrison). Here are the novels we’ll be reading in full:

• Sula by Toni Morrison

• Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

We will also be reading excerpts from Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, and Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. All these novels are available for free online.

Important note: This is a course site created during the Open Knowledge Fellowship, hosted by the Mina Rees Library of the CUNY Graduate Center. Funding for this program is provided by New York State in partnership with Office of Library Services, to support the use and implementation of Open Educational Resources (OER) across the University.