Brian Schwartz jbs321@nyu.edu N.Y.U. Poly
Expository Writing Program
Dibner 110
Office hours by appointment

Writing the Essay
Fall 2012

Writing the Essay is a workshop-style writing class, a forum for students to develop complex ideas, think about the characteristics of effective and compelling writing, and engage in a conversation about the essay form. The goal of the course is for you to improve as a writer, reader, and critical and creative thinker, and for you to write essays that are finished products of high quality.

An essay must turn a question into a quest, to borrow the words of the writer John Fowles. A truly engaging essay shows the movement of the writer’s thinking—every new piece of evidence becomes an
Documented medical conditions and the observance of religious holidays are legitimate excuses for an absence. Please get in touch with me about each absence.

Academic Integrity and Plagiarism: Students are expected—often required—to build their work on that of other people, just as professional researchers and writers do. Giving credit to someone whose work has helped you is expected; in fact, not to cite the work is a crime. Plagiarism is the severest form of academic fraud. More specifically, plagiarism is presenting as your own a phrase, sentence or passage from another writer’s work without using quotation marks; presenting as your own a paraphrased passage from another writer’s work; presenting as your own facts or ideas gathered from the Internet; another student’s work with your name on it; a purchased paper or “research” from a term paper mill. Other forms of academic fraud include “collaborating” between two or more students who then submit the same paper under their individual names; submitting the same paper for two or more courses without the knowledge of all teachers involved; giving permission to another student to use your work for a class. Consult the Little, Brown Essential Handbook for accepted forms of documentation. When in doubt about whether your acknowledgement is proper and adequate, ask me.

The academic community takes plagiarism very seriously. Teachers in Expository Writing Program courses must report to the Directors of EWP any