Writing in a Networked World
ENGL 527
Contact: ctracy1@ninthmuse.org
527 Syllabus
ENGL 527-000
Instructor: Christine Tracy
E-mail address: ctracy1@emich.edu
Office: 603E
Phone: 487-0148
Office Hours: Tuesday 12:30 to 3 p.m; Thursday 12:30 to 1:30, 5:30 to 7 p.m. and by appointment.
Course materials will be on the Web at:
www.ninthmuse.org/teaching/527.html
Course Goal:
Students will learn the theory and practice of creating discourse for both print and digital audiences and how visual and verbal conventions shift within different media environments.
Course Objectives:
Networking technologies offer writers the opportunity to design the form as well as the content of discourse. By observing rhetorical strategies and studying writing practices when content is remediated from one form to another, students will develop fluency creating functional texts that meet the constantly changing demands of networked environments.
Building on current rhetorical theory, critical media studies, and information design, we will study rhetorical invention, information structure, and emerging technologies to learn how to identify and modify conventions, which often signal the emergence of a new media form. Students will analyze remediated texts, learn how to re-engineer content for digital delivery and display, and practice the invention process of emergent media.
Course Readings:
Selected chapters from the following texts will be required:
Invention as a Social Act, Karen Burke LeFevre
Modern Rhetorical Criticism, Roderick Hart
Shaping Information: The Rhetoric of Visual Conventions, Charles Kostelnick and Michael Hassett.
The Language of New Media, Lev Manovich.
The Social Life of Information, John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid.
Visual Language, Robert Horn
The Network Society, Jan van Dijk
Major Assignments:
1. Re-Engineering Project
Find a text that you find interesting, engaging, and well written. Draw a flowchart that shows how the information is structured in the text you select. Next, analyze its audience, purpose, and focus and identify the rhetorical, aesthetic, and technical objectives operating. Devise a plan (on paper, as a flowchart or sketch) for adapting the text to a different medium (ie: Web to print, DVD to Web, Web to print, etc.) Finally, implement your plan: design a new text that meets the needs and expectations of your audience using a new form.
2. Rhetorical Analysis
Find a text that exists in multiple forms. Use our class discussion of Manovich and the artistic theories of installation artists to navigate space-- creating a well-define path, choosing particular narratives and where to position text, and alternating between details and the whole-- to write a paper analyzing the form and content of the texts you have chosen. Decide if these strategies for navigating physical spaces work for digital and print texts.
3. Analysis and Application Project
Each student will be required to go further with the reading of one of the texts on our reading list, which represent current work in Media Ecology theory, Hypertext theory and Visual Rhetoric. Based on your reading, write a short but thorough analysis. (3 to 5 pages) You will share your findings and interpretation of the text you read in a 15-minute presentation to the class. You must illustrate your analysis with an example that helps us better understand and apply the theories and ideas you studied. Selected members of the class will be required to write a response to these analyses, which we will use for class discussions. This presentation can be done as a team or by individuals.
4. Discussion Contribution
Students are required to regularly read and contribute reasoned and informed comments to the course's Web-based discussion forum. These contributions are worth 10 points toward the final grade.
Course Grades
- Re-engineering Project-30 points
- Rhetorical Analysis-30 points
- Analysis and Application Project - 30 points
- Web-based discussion Contribution-10 points
Grading, Attendance and other Policies
The most important factors leading to a good grade in this course are consistent attendance and intellectual effort. If at any time during the semester you are concerned about your grade in the course or on a specific project, please set up a meeting with me early in the semester to discuss your concerns. I am also available by phone or e-mail to discuss your work and progress with you.
It is critical to the structure of the course that you come to class prepared, especially on the day(s) you are presenting material. If you are unable to come to class on a day when work is due or when you are scheduled to present, please let me know in advance.
Academic Integrity
The EMU Student Handbook defines various forms of academic dishonesty and procedures for responding to them. You are responsible for familiarizing yourself with these policies. All forms are violations of trust between students and teachers. In a course on communication, failing to acknowledge accurately the work of another person whose writing you use (whether published author or a student) raises serious ethical concerns.
Student-teacher relationships are built on trust. For example, students must trust that teachers have made good decisions about the content and structure of the course, and the teacher should assume that the assignments you hand in are yours (that you are the one who produced them). Acts that violate this trust undermine the educational process.
Course schedule
The remainder of the course schedule will be posted on the class Web site.
www.ninthmuse.org/teaching/527.html
Please also check and use the myemich space for class discussion materials and announcements.
Week One-January 12
Course Introduction
Week Two-January 17
Reading Due: Kostelnick, Chapter One: Shaping Information
Assignment: Please post a one or two paragraph summary of the reading in the discussion space of myemich.