Master Syllabus — Systemic Analysis for Everyday Life

SYSTEMIC ANALYSIS

for

EVERYDAY LIFE

Welcome to Systemic Analysis for Everyday Life, a writing course designed for transfer students. To introduce our course, I want to tell you about our method and how we’ll use it in writing.

What is Systemic Analysis?

Systemic Analysis is a method that helps us understand why our world is the way it is. It gives us historical knowledge to see how the present society was built and tools to comprehend social tensions at play in our lives.

You will learn and apply this method by reflecting critically on your journey, on problems you experienced or witnessed, on your work in and beyond the university. Such reflection will lead to insights worth sharing. Writing will be our vehicle to do so.

In the past, students wrote about their immigrant or refugee journeys; being on the frontlines of wars, wildfires, pandemic; climbing out of poverty or falling into debt; parents falling and not getting back on their feet; being on the clock and burning out; falling into pits of anxiety or chasing algorithmic highs; feeling overwhelmed or feeling nothing but the numbness of life on autopilot. Writing about these topics was not easy. But doing so allowed students to reach a deeper and more genuine understanding of life. They saw what shaped the cracks and fissures of their lives. And sometimes they found hope, as lived reality or future possibility. More often, it was enough just to share their stories with readers who saw themselves reflected in the mirror of their words.

Why do I teach this method?

Good things are meant to be shared. And this method brought good to my life.

It revealed hidden depths of my world. I saw my parents in a new light. I saw traumas they inherited from histories written long before they were born. I saw their resilient roots. I saw what set their journeys in motion, what drew them to the States, what kept them up at night, what made us distant when we came home from work and school. I saw our hometown, in Queens NY, in deeper ways too. I saw that the divisions between neighborhoods was built long before we walked those streets. I saw how our attitudes and behaviors mirrored those divisions. I saw what manmade forces shaped the tragedy of fallen towers, super hurricanes, pandemic. I saw myself in deeper ways too. I saw what shaped my insecurities, longings, and confusion. In short, I saw the context surrounding me, shaping my life. I saw I wasn’t alone in this context.

This method empowered me. I saw that I didn’t have to be an isolated spectator going through the motions of living. I could be an active participant in something bigger than myself, something more fulfilling than what I was allowed to imagine. I won’t name that bigger thing here. But perhaps you know it already. Maybe you witnessed it in a crisis¾a crash, wildfire, pandemic¾where people helped each other without expecting a return. Maybe you felt yourself part of it when you walked out, spoke up, or sat in with others who couldn’t ignore suffering. Maybe you felt it in quieter ways: a small gesture that closed the gap between you and another, a night under stars when you felt no distance between you and the source of light. Or maybe you know nothing of this bigger thing. That’s okay. This course is designed to trace its shape in your own lives, to give you the language to name it.

What type of writing will we be doing?

I was taught to write in ways that might be familiar to you: I hid myself behind an objective tone. I molded myself to formulaic structures. I regurgitated what experts said in ways that made me sound smart. I wielded words as weapons to win arguments.

Writing in that way earned me good grades. But it didn’t give me a real love for writing. Instead, I felt dread at the prospect of laboring, often mindlessly, on yet another essay to get me through the gates and past the gatekeepers.

We will take a different approach to writing that allows you to reclaim the power of the written word. We will call this approach revelatory writing.

Revelatory writing reveals what we see as we put our method into practice. It reveals the conditions that give rise to our world and contradictions that allow life to change.

This approach is rooted in an ethic of care. Revelatory writing articulates a deep vision to a reader trapped on the surface, a reader whose misperception leads to misunderstanding and damaging action. Our words can guide that reader to the hidden depths. It can show them perspectives that free them from misdirected blame or unfocused rage. It can connect them to lineages and communities that buoy them and allow them to breathe more freely and fully.

Herein lies a power of writing often denied us: the power to reach and guide another, the power to illuminate a deeper well from which to draw thought and action.

What the machine cannot do

This approach to writing will allow us to reclaim what cannot be outsourced to Artificial Intelligence: our history and experiences, our sensations and voice, our roots and connection to others. AI may try to emulate humanity, but it can never replicate these elements. AI may produce objects that seem created by human hands, but these creations will always lack the spark of life moving your hands.

Revelatory writing will allow us to reclaim the word as a symbol that, when infused with your spark, is capable of enlightening, moving, transforming your reader.

To reclaim that power please avoid generative AI and other popular writing applications such as Grammarly. This will allow us to use parts of our self that risk atrophying and disappearing as we are forced to outsource our writing to machines. This will lead to more genuine essays. “Genuine” doesn’t mean perfect. In fact, the imperfections are far more appreciated than the polished gleam of algorithmic writing.

Materials

Ronald Takaki. A Different Mirror for Young People
Fall 2024 Course Reader
Systemic Analysis website
Notebook for Journaling

What We’ll Write

Journal and Discussion Board

For each day of class, please write down a short but substantial insight you had while reading or watching the materials. Please share that insight in class, office hours, or on the discussion board.

You will also respond to peers’ discussion posts. This extends the conversation beyond the classroom.

Essay 1: My Story, Our Story

Requirement: 1000 words, written and recorded as audio

Option A

Recount your family’s American story. Include stories you heard told and retold. If you are the first to immigrate or study here, you can give a first-hand account of your journey.

Option B

Interview a family member about their journey to the United States and what they experienced when they arrived here. Write an oral history essay that ties together what they told you in the interview.

Final Project

Requirement: 4,000+ words written and recorded as audio, integrate three course sources and three outside sources, use key concepts in reader-friendly ways.

Option A: A People’s History

Write and record an essay that tells a family member’s history. Work with the course materials from the class to show how that person fits into history.

Option B: Self in Context

Write and record an essay that reveals the systemic dimensions of your lived experience or struggles. Engage with the course materials to provide your reader with context and analysis that helps them see the deeper layers of your story.

Option C: Word and Image

Pair writing with original visual media (photography, drawing, etc.) to reveal the systemic dimensions of a social problem facing your generation. Reduced word count for this option.

Option D: Original Idea

Work on another original idea that gets at the systemic dimensions we explored this quarter. Please discuss your idea with me before starting.

Grading

We use a contract grading system in this class. What this means is that I won’t award grades for each essay. I won’t score what you say or don’t say in class. I won’t mark you up or down for attendance. I won’t rank you against each other. Instead, I’ll show you what labor goes into grasping the method and using it in your writing. You’ll then determine what path makes sense given your conditions. I hope this process demystifies the grade and makes the course values and expectations transparent. Here are the paths:

Grade Paths

Path to an A

Fully present in the course.

Complete materials and journal before class.

Participate in class, office hours, or discussion board.

Post to discussion board at least once per week.

Respond weekly to one or more peer discussion posts.

Essays 1 and 2 demonstrate a humane engagement with the materials and clear understanding of key concepts.

Make any suggested revisions to essays 1 and 2.

Final project demonstrates a clear understanding of the method and reader awareness.

Path to a B

Mostly present in the course.

Complete materials and journal by week’s end.

Participate in class, office hours, or discussion board.

Post to discussion board at least once per week.

Respond biweekly to one or more peer’s discussion posts.

Essays 1 and 2 demonstrate a humane engagement with the materials and some understanding of key concepts.

Unable to make suggested revisions on essays 1 and 2.

Final project demonstrates an understanding of the method and reader awareness.

Path to a C

Partial presence in the course

Conditions make it challenging to participate in class, office hours, or discussion boards.

Partial engagement with course materials and some understanding of key concepts.

Unable to make suggested revisions on essays 1 and 2.

Final project does not demonstrate the method or reader awareness.

D or F

Absent from course.

Conditions make it impossible to complete materials.

Conditions make it impossible to participate in class, in office hours, or on discussion boards.

Writing reflects these situational difficulties.

Pledge

Please pledge to a path by week 2. Be honest with yourself when choosing, but don’t yield to internalized doubt. There’s no judgment in needing to take the B or C path, especially if doing so removes the guilt of devoting yourself to pressing needs or obligations. If you can’t pledge to at least a C, I advise taking the course when conditions change.

Presence

Being present is more than “being in class.” It means coming at the materials with your full self, as a person with history, experience, and sensation. It means putting the tools to use rather than regurgitating data. It means asking questions and listening more than saying the most or the best. It means writing your story in your voice rather than relying on formulae or algorithms.

All of this is hard. I know. Our minds pull us to the past or future. Our work and obligations tire us. Data streams numb us. Our schooling gets us to race on autopilot. I just ask you to try to be present in your own way and to your own needs and abilities.

More than two physical absences make it hard to stay connected to the course. That said, we are human. Emergencies happen. Fatigue sets in. Sometimes the course material is too heavy. Please give me a sense of your situation and I will accommodate as best as I can.