First-Year Writing Seminar
Prof. Jon McKenzie
ENGL 1168 First-Year Seminar • Fall 2025
Section 110 Google folders
Section 111 Google folders
ZOOM LINK
Cornell Library Catalogue • OWL 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
| Tuesday | Thursday | |
| Week 1 Introduction | 8/26 Welcome | 8/28 Read and discuss Hopkins, et al. It Takes a Village, Part 1 Horton 1-40 Project 1 assignment |
| Week 2 Descriptive Analysis | 9/2 Read and discuss Hopkins, et al. It Takes a Village, Part 2 and Part 3. Slide deck Proj 1 rubric | 9/4 Workshop Draft dialogues due Peer editing |
| Week 3 Conceptual Analysis | 9/9 Project 1 Due Project 2 assignment Sample essays Nguyen – AI: Modern Frankenstein Sakakisara – Atomic Reconstruction | 9/11 Read and discuss Horton 41-50 Birch, “Culturally Competent Care” Borges, “The Fearful Sphere of Pascal” |
| Week 4 Conceptual Analysis | 9/16 Studio Lanham, “Who’s Kicking Who?” Sample abstracts Cornell Library Catalogue | 9/18 Peer editing |
| Week 5 Research Proposal and Annotated Bibliography | 9/23 Project 2 Due Project 3 assignment Project 5/6 assignment Guiding Resources OWL Proposals OWL Abstracts OWL Annotated Bibliography Sample Bibliographies | 9/25 Read and discuss Horton 131-135, 136-147 Watch Victor, “Media for Thinking the Unthinkable” (6 min clip) Victor, “Media for Thinking the Unthinkable” (full 40 min) Slide deck |
| Week 6 Research Proposal and Annotated Bibliography | 9/30 Bibliography Workshop Strengthen your abstracts and proposals with concepts from course readings and external research Gather articles and perspectives Annotate Create conceptual battlelines and spreadsheet Begin outlining paper Slide deck | 10/2 Project 3 drafts due Peer editing |
| Week 7 Information Comic | 10/7 Project 3 Due Ry Ferro/MACRE visit Assign Project 4 Sparkline Rubric Reverse-engineer info comics Water We The Evolution of the Atomic Model Living at the Intersection CDC Zombie Pandemic Scenario workshop | 10/9 Sparklines and Dialogues Read Caldwell, “Information Comics” McCloud, Understanding Comics, i-23 Slide deck Sample sparklines Sample dialogues Writing Dialogue tool |
| Week 8 Information Comic | 10/14 NO CLASS | 10/16 Dialogue Storyboard Workshop Bring in rough draft dialogues to workshop Slide deck Sample storyboard 1 Sample storyboard 2 Install free Comic Life |
| Week 9 Information Comic | 10/21 Studio McCloud, Making Comics 8-57 Madden, 99 Ways to Tell a Story Sample storyboard 1 Sample storyboard 2 | 10/23 Workshop Water We The Evolution of the Atomic Model Living at the Intersection CDC Zombie Pandemic Comic Life How to Guide |
| Week 10 Information Comic | 10/28 Peer editing | 10/30 Peer editing Draft info comics due |
| Week 11 The Longer Essay | 11/4 Project 4 COMICS due Project 5 and 6 assignment | 11/6 Read Horton 155-202 Extended notes Bring in abstract, proj 3 and notes Fri 11/7 4-7 pm Exhibition MACRE, 415 Tioga St, Ithaca |
| Week 12 | 11/11 Read Queneau, Exercises in Style McKenzie, Transmedia Knowledge, Ch 1 Borges, “Borges and I” Slide deck | 11/13 Outline/Sparkline Workshop Outline/Sparkline worksheet Slide deck |
| Week 13 | 11/18 Pecha Kucha workshop Make Media! resources Slide deck of tools | 11/20 Workshop PK examples Canadian Indian Spellers Digital Collaborations StudioLab promos Project-Based Learning, 2020 Lounge Learning, 2022 |
| Week 14 | 11/25 Draft due of Project 6 | 11/27 THANKSGIVING |
| Week 15 | 12/2 Workshop and Evaluations | 12/4 Project 5 Presentations |
| Finals Week | TBD Final paper due in Google Folder |
Readings
Required book
Selections (pdfs downloads)
Horton, Susan R. 1982. Thinking through Writing. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins.
Required readings (pdf downloads)
Borges, Jorge Luis. Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings. New Directions, 1964.
Caldwell, Joshua. 2012. “Information Comics: an Overview.” 2012 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference, Orlando, FL, USA, 2pp. 1-7.
Duarte, Nancy. 2007. Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media.
The Healthy Aboriginal Network. 2012. It Takes a Village. n.p.: The Healthy Aboriginal Network.
Madden, Matt. 2005. 99 ways to tell a story: Exercises in style. Chamberlain Bros.
McCloud, Scott. 2006. Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga, and Graphic Novels. William Morrow Paperbacks.
—. 1994. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. HarperPerennial, 1994.
McKenzie, Jon. 2019. Transmedia Knowledge for Liberal Arts and Community Engagement: A StudioLab Manifesto. London: Palgrave.
Queneau, Raymond. 1958. Exercises in Style. Translated by Barbara Wright, John Calder.
Victor, Bret. “Media for Thinking the Unthinkable.” MIT Media Lab. 4 April 2013.