Prof. Jon McKenzie
ENGL 1168 First-Year Seminar Spring 2025
Section 110 • TuTh 1:25-2:40 • 110 Google folders
Section 113 • TuTh 2:55-4:10 • 113 Google folders
Cornell Library Catalogue • OWL MLA citation guide • Knight Institute • Make Media! resources
Graphic novels and comics have long mixed research and storytelling. From Maus to Logicomix to Fun Home, graphic novelists often tackle complex historical, scientific, and literary issues. The For Beginners and Introducing… comic books series include such titles as Quantum Theory, Mind and Brain, and Einstein. Finally, the field of graphic medicine translates medical science into info comics for patients and other at-risk communities.
Supporting Cornell’s public mission of community engagement, this First-year Writing Seminar teaches students to read and compose argumentative essays, info comics, multimedia presentations, and other genres of transmedia knowledge. Transmedia knowledge translates ideas, stories, and images across different media in order to engage different audiences and produce different rhetorical effects.
We will focus on writing as thinking, learning to analyze, create, and share concepts through both argumentation and storytelling across different scholarly genres. Descriptions of evidence often take narrative form, as does the history of any field, institution, or community. Moreover, specialized knowledge often applies and legitimates itself through the stories it shows and tells in the broader world. We will study and write about this process through examples drawn from graphic medicine, science communication, literary studies, and media studies.
Projects
Students complete six writing projects—descriptive analysis, conceptual analysis, information comics, comparative analysis, and a term paper and formal presentation—focusing on skills of reading, outlining, drafting, reviewing, revising, and finalizing texts.
Traditional and emerging scholarly genres often seek to inform, enlighten, convince, persuade, and sometimes entertain and move readers. You will learn critical and creative skills for thinking, sharing research, and creating impact with different audiences, including specialists, community members, and the general public.
Evaluation
All projects are worth 10% of your final grade, except for the term paper, which is worth 30%, and the final presentation, which is rolled into participation. Participation, which also includes attendance, discussion, and contribution to revisions, is worth 20%. Two absences may result in final grade reduction; three in failure.
Learning outcomes
| Conceptual analysis and synthesis Argumentation and narrative Individual and collaborative problem-solving | Outlining, storyboarding, sparklining Presentation and discussion skills Media skills in software such as Word, Comic Life, and PowerPoint |
Cornell Writing Centers: The Cornell Writing Centers (WC) is a free resource available to everyone on campus for nearly any kind of writing project: applications, presentations, lab reports, essays, papers, and more. Tutors serve as responsive listeners and readers who can address questions of confidence, critical reading, analytic thought, and imagination. Writing tutors also have experience working with non-native speakers of English. The WC are open Mon-Thurs, 3:30 – 5:30pm (Mann Library & Rockefeller Hall 178) and Sun-Thurs 7:00 – 10:00pm (Olin library Room 403; Uris Library Room 108; Tatkon Center Room 3343). Writers can schedule appointments or drop in at a convenient time. For more info: https://cornell.mywconline.net/
Academic Integrity: Each student in this course is expected to abide by the Cornell University Code of Academic Integrity. Any work submitted by a student in this course for academic credit will be the student’s own work.
Inclusivity: The English department is committed to providing an atmosphere for learning that respects diversity. While working together to build this community we ask all members to:
| Share their unique experiences, values and beliefs Be open to the views of others Honor the uniqueness of their colleagues | Appreciate the opportunity to learn from each other Keep confidential discussions of a personal (or professional) nature Discuss ways we can create an inclusive environment |
Accommodations for students with disabilities: In compliance with the Cornell University policy and equal access laws, I am available to discuss appropriate academic accommodations that may be required for student with disabilities. Requests for academic accommodations are to be made during the first three weeks of the semester, except for unusual circumstances, so arrangements can be made. Students are encouraged to register with Student Disability Services to verify their eligibility for appropriate accommodations.
Schedule
Readings
Required books 
Horton, Susan R. 1982. Thinking through Writing. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins.
Required readings (pdf downloads)
Baetens, Jan and Hugo Frey. 2015. The Graphic Novel: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Czerwiec, MK, Ian Williams, Susan Merrill Squier, Michael J. Green, Kimberly R. Myers, and Scott T. Smith. 2015. Graphic Medicine Manifesto. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press.
Duarte, Nancy. 2007. Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media.
Flowers, Ebony. 2017. “Experimenting with Comics: Making as Inquiry.” Visual Arts Research 43: 2 Winter, pp. 21-57.
McCloud, Scott. 2006. Making Comics. New York: Harper.
Horton, Susan R. 1982. Thinking through Writing. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins.
McLaughlin, Jeff. 2017. Ed. Graphic Novels as Philosophy. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi.
Mickwitz, Nina. 2016. Documentary Comics: Graphic Truth-Telling in a Skeptical Age. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
The Healthy Aboriginal Network. 2012. It Takes a Village. n.p.: The Healthy Aboriginal Network.
Recommended for term paper topic:
Wyrick, Deborah Baker. 1998. Fanon for Beginners. Danbury, CT: For Beginners.
Bechdel, Allison. 2006. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Redness, Laura. 2011. Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout. New York: !t Books.
Ware, Chris. 2012. Building Stories. New York: Pantheon Press.
The Healthy Aboriginal Network. 2012. It Takes a Village. n.p.: The Healthy Aboriginal Network.