Published by Richard Parent on 01 Sep 2008 at 01:31 pm
Syllabus
| English 005-E Fall 2006 CRN: 90382 TR 3:30-4:45pm Omanex A206 www.uvm.edu/~reparent/005/ |
Dr. Richard Parent Office: 435 Old Mill Ph: 656-3312 REParent@uvm.edu IM: digitalrhetor Office Hrs: T/R 9:30am-12pm, And by appointment |
Literature in a Wired World
Required Texts:
- N. Katherine Hayles: Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary
- Ben Peek: Twenty-Six Lies / One Truth
- Online works as noted on the schedule and course blog
Course Overview:
What is literature? That simple-sounding question will be the focus of our work this semester in English 5. Of course, the answer(s) to that question are anything but simple.
In this course we will explore the ever-evolving world of digital narrative in its many forms, including hypertext, hypermedia, flash animation, live-action movies, and yes, video games. This will allow us to grapple with each narrative format on its own terms, and also to compare each form with the others and with the more traditional narrative media of the codex and motion pictures. All of this will provide us with a wealth of material on which to write, as well as a critical and reflexive vocabulary with which to think about the forms of storytelling going on all around us.
This is not a course in learning or summarizing the content of the texts we will be reading and viewing, but rather a course in learning how to read those texts critically and reflexively and with an eye toward using their ideas to generate writing of your own.
A first-year composition seminar is, of necessity, intensive. We have a lot of material to work with and a lot of writing to accomplish in a short time. Be prepared for the heavy commitment that the time spent reading and writing for this course will require. As you can see from the Course Calendar, we will be quite busy.
Assignments:
Weekly Blogging
According to recent data, over 70,000 new blogs are created every day. In this class, you’ll be adding to that number. You’ll be creating a group blog with 2-3 of your classmates, and then each of you will be posting to your blog at least twice a week. One of your weekly blog posts must be about the course reading(s) for that week, but the other post’s topic is up to you. Both weekly posts should be substantive in both length (at least 3 multi-sentence paragraphs) and thoughtfulness. In addition, each week you will comment (substantively, of course) on two other posts from your classmates’ blogs. That is, posts by your classmates on other blogs, not your own.
Blogging is one of the major innovations made possible by the Internet and digital technology – instant publishing with multimedia capability and a theoretically infinite audience. But one of the toughest questions about blogging (and about all writing), is how to generate and keep an audience interested. In this course you’ll have a captive audience of myself and your classmates, but how can you make me and your classmates want to check your blog and comment on your posts? To motivate our exploration of this sticky question, every two weeks we’ll be voting for our favorite blog of the past two weeks. The winners of each vote will receive extra credit for the course.
Digital Story & Analysis
You won’t merely by reading/watching/playing digital narratives in this course – you’ll also be creating your own. Our first digital narrative will be a digital story using images, text, and sound. We’ll compose these in class using iMovie on the classroom computers. You will need to assemble or create 10 or so meaningful images to use in your story. We’ll discuss this in more detail as we approach the project.
You will also write an analysis of your digital story that addresses the structure (how is it put together and sequenced?), rhetorical strategies (how does it try to affect its viewers?), and effectiveness (how well does it succeed at its goals?). Your analysis should be 4-5 pages long, double-spaced.
Twenty-Six Lies / One Project?
Ben Peek’s book Twenty-Six Lies / One Truth is an adaptation of his digital blog into non-digital print. It’s a complex work, and our response to it will share in this complexity. You will have options regarding the form your project takes: you may compose a structural analysis of Peek’s book; you may compose a thematic analysis of Peek’s book; you may choose to analyze Peek’s book within the context of other blogs; or you may choose to focus on a single entry you feel to be important to understanding the work. Each of these approaches (and this is not an exhaustive list) explores a different way of making sense of the work. How do you approach and make sense of it? Your analysis should be 5-7 pages long, double-spaced.
Final Project
Continuing the trend from the Digital Story Analysis to the Twenty-Six Lies Project, the Final Project will present you with the opportunity to choose from many distinct options. Think back to the questions that guide this course:
- What is “literature”?
- How does digital technology affect literature and literariness?
- What is “reading” in a digital age?
There is no single answer to any of these questions. Likewise, there is no single approach to answering them. Your final project will engage these questions in a way that feels appropriate and interesting to you. You may choose to compose an analysis of one or more digital and/or non-digital literary works. You may choose to compose a digital work yourself. You may choose to adapt a non-digital work into a digital format.
You will propose a Final Project and turn in that proposal on November 18th. I will respond to your proposal and you will be able to begin work on your Project over the week-long Thanksgiving recess. We will then work on completing, revising, and polishing your Project in the final class meetings. I will give you more detailed information and instructions on the Final Project as we approach it.
Class Participation:
Attendance is mandatory. This course is designed to function as a seminar – which means that your participation in class discussion is necessary for the success of the course. Because of this, students who miss three or more classes risk failing the course. We have a lot of material to create and work with in a short amount of time. Be prepared for the heavy commitment that the time spent reading and writing for this course will require. As you can see from the Course Calendar, we will be quite busy. Come to class on time and prepared to take part in conversation about the materials under study. If you cannot come to class, it is your responsibility to communicate directly with me, to arrange to turn in written work on time, and to find out about subsequent assignments. You may be considered absent if you do not turn in a written assignment the day it is due. Students who miss more than two classes should consider withdrawing from the course and taking it again under better circumstances.
This attendance policy means that you have two “no-questions-asked” absences allowed. Use them strategically. I do not want to know where you were or why you were there for your first two absences. Any absence after that, however, will require extensive documentation to avoid having a negative impact on your grade.
Students who feel that they are too shy to participate in class discussions must meet with me during my office hours to receive full credit for class participation. If you would feel more comfortable sharing your comments with me than with the entire class, I am willing to discuss your ideas with you and then bring your comments (anonymously reported) to the class’ attention for further exploration. This may be your first university seminar, so if you have any questions about class participation in a seminar course, or about my attendance policy, I encourage you to ask me.
A Note on Religious Observation:
Students have the right to practice the religion of their choice. Each semester students should submit in writing to their instructors by the end of the second full week of classes their documented religious holiday schedule for the semester. All work missed due to absence for religious observation must be made up in a timely fashion.
Grading:
I will grade your writing on the following bases: willingness to grapple with difficult and complex ideas, clarity in communicating ideas, and the ability to use effectively the conventions of standard written English. Assignments will be docked 1/3 letter grade for each day they are late.
Final grades will be calculated as follows:
- Digital Story – 10%
- Digital Story Analysis – 15%
- Twenty-Six Lies Analysis – 25%
- Final Project – 25%
- Weekly Blogging – 15%
- Class Participation – 10%
Academic Integrity:
THERE IS A ZERO TOLERANCE PLAGIARISM POLICY IN THIS COURSE. Do not do it, do not even consider it—if you copy another’s work, published or unpublished—you will fail the assignment, and quite possibly the course. I cannot emphasize this enough. Usually, it is desperation that drives a student to plagiarize—so if you are having problems, please contact me and I will help you.
All instances of plagiarism will be referred to the Center for Student Ethics and Standards for investigation and adjudication.
I expect you to have read the University’s Academic Integrity Policy before the second class meeting. You may find that policy here:
http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmppg/ppg/student/acadintegrity.pdf.
An Important Note:
If you have (or suspect that you may have) a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, I encourage you to contact both myself and UVM’s Office of Accommodation, Consultation, Collaboration & Educational Support Services (ACCESS), A-170 Living & Learning Center, 656-7753 (http://www.uvm.edu/~access) as early as possible in the term. The ACCESS Office will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodation for this course.