Assignments

  • note: detailed instruc­tions will appear on sep­a­rate pages for Projects and Exercises

 

Project 1:         Dig­i­tal Nar­ra­tive of Belief—multimodal video                                                    

25 points; due 20-Sept

Objec­tive:   Con­vey through cre­ative non­fic­tion nar­ra­tive a belief rec­og­nized, in video form online for pub­lic audience.
 

  • Con­tent: rather than descrip­tion, present a non­fic­tion nar­ra­tive that con­veys belief of some­one other than your­self. The story will com­mu­ni­cate this con­tent for pub­lic (non-academic) audi­ence imag­ined, posted to Web platform(s) for wider view­ing and circulation.
  • For­mat: a mul­ti­modal video, in genre of “dig­i­tal sto­ry­telling,” apply­ing con­ven­tions of nar­ra­tive (stud­ied & discussed).

 
“Once a story is launched directly into the Web, deter­min­ing its begin­ning and end is not always an easy mat­ter.” (Alexan­der 42)
 

  • Warm-up: Exer­cise 1 (due Sept 9)—identify con­ven­tions of Story & Belief examined

 
 


 

Project 2:         Ana­lytic Web­text — Infor­ma­tion & Argu­ment in Discipline

30 points total; due 25-Oct

 

Objec­tive:   Ana­lyze and syn­the­size ideas from crit­i­cal obser­va­tions: dis­ci­pli­nary con­ven­tions, of infor­ma­tion and argu­ment, com­mu­ni­cated to aca­d­e­mic read­ers (imag­ined audi­ence).

Web­text: (20 points, text + media)
— first cre­ated indi­vid­u­ally, expand­ing rhetor­i­cal analy­sis; then com­piled and pub­lished as class col­lec­tion for online readers.
 

  • Con­tent: Present insights in crit­i­cal dis­cus­sion using ana­lytic per­spec­tive & key terms; exam­ples drawn from sources selected (famil­iar and researched) for anno­tated bib­li­og­ra­phy, rel­e­vant and cur­rent for field con­sid­er­ing aca­d­e­mic read­ers (imag­ined audi­ence).
    Offers insights about forms of infor­ma­tion and argu­ments in dis­ci­pli­nary dis­course & com­mu­ni­ca­tion in net­worked media ecology.
  • For­mat: For­mal aca­d­e­mic style; sup­port with both spe­cific exam­ples and mul­ti­me­dia (g. screen­cap images & screen­cast videos)

    Web­texts: “screen-based schol­arly arti­cles that use dig­i­tal media to enact the authors’ argu­ment.” (Ball)

 

Dig­i­tal Rhetoric —c rit­i­cal prose with advanced con­tent knowl­edge & per­spec­tive (sep­a­rate com­po­nents from webtext)

  • Sum­mary (300−400 words, 5 points): describe your Web­text design and ratio­nale con­sid­er­ing audi­ence, pur­pose, and publication
  • Reflec­tion (400−500 words, 5 points): expe­ri­en­tial insights from over­all project, about discipline/field and Web writing
    Prepara­tory Work:
  • Anno­tated Bib­li­og­ra­phy (Exer­cise 2)—5 sources, aca­d­e­mic research & Web publications
  • Rhetor­i­cal Analy­sis (Exer­cise 3): crit­i­cally read and dis­cuss one selected

 


 

Project 3         Screen-Self-Portrait (mul­ti­modal web­pages)                                        

25 points; due 07-Dec

Objec­tive:              Use aes­thetic forms & tech­nol­ogy that medi­ate expe­ri­ence to express your dig­i­tal iden­tity (per­sonal & public)

Part I      Expres­sive web­pages: apply lessons and insights about aes­thetic mode and cul­ture forms. Com­pose mul­ti­me­dia expres­sion (“screen self–

por­trait”) of your expe­ri­enced iden­tity, public/private & quantified/qualitative, strictly for per­sonal reflec­tion. Omit­ting descrip­tion in favor of cre­ative logic, dis­cuss in Poet­ics the design attempts and rationale.

  • This “self expres­sion” will include ele­ments in mul­ti­ple modes, beyond sim­ply illus­trat­ing; aes­thetic logic and net­work rhetoric; and mate­ri­als from your “per­sonal data­bases”: sto­ries and details from auto­bi­og­ra­phy, school, com­mu­nity, and enter­tain­ment (no research/sources). The mul­ti­me­dia used—audio, video, images of all sorts—will be com­bi­na­tion of found & original/created, dig­i­tally manip­u­lated (sam­ple, remix, mash-up). We will test and prac­tice using var­i­ous soft­ware dur­ing and out­side class; no prior expe­ri­ence with dig­i­tal author­ing is necessary!
  • Warm-up: Exer­cise 4 (due 14-Nov): Sen­sory Expe­ri­ence Quan­ti­fied & Unclas­si­fi­able (10 points)

 Part II

  • Poet­ics (300−500 words, 5 points): dis­cuss how address­ing key aims and using media forms pur­pose­fully (dig­i­tal rhetoric)
  • Reflec­tion (400−500 words, 5 points): insights from com­pos­ing, includ­ing aes­thetic mode and self-knowledge (most impor­tant)

 

Exer­cises (short com­po­si­tions)                                                          

500 words unless noted

Posted to per­sonal blog (or D2L), these infor­mal com­po­si­tions illus­trate atten­tive read­ing of assigned mate­ri­als, progress toward project, and engage­ment with class top­ics rel­a­tive to sched­ule. Credit is assigned for (1) sub­mit­ting on-time; (2) demon­strat­ing atten­tion to class top­ics, con­tent knowl­edge, and crit­i­cal think­ing, par­tic­u­larly by describ­ing insights and con­nec­tions; (3) pro­vid­ing thought­ful and rel­e­vant responses to prompts, through spe­cial­ized dis­course; (4) with spe­cific exam­ples from per­sonal knowl­edge and/or respec­tive read­ings, (5) while extend­ing rhetor­i­cal knowl­edge and mas­tery of writ­ing con­ven­tions, prac­tic­ing effi­cient prose (i.e. min­i­miz­ing /avoiding sum­mary, rep­e­ti­tion, digres­sion, and unnec­es­sary discussion).

Prompts and ten­ta­tive due dates:

Exer­cise 1 (due 09-Sep):      Story & Belief Con­ven­tions —project 1 warm-up (10 points)
Instruc­tions Page

Exer­cise 2 (due 03-Oct):      Anno­tated Bib­li­og­ra­phy — project 2 warm-up (3 sources, 5 points)

Exer­cise 3 (due 10-Oct):      Rhetor­i­cal Analy­sis — for web­text project 2 (10 points)

Optional Exer­cise             Trans­for­ma­tion: Belief-Story into Info –or– Info/Argument into Story
Instruc­tions page

Exer­cise 4 (due 14-Nov):    Sen­sory Expe­ri­ence Quan­ti­fied & Unclas­si­fi­able (10 points)

Optional Exer­cise (bonus points)
Par­a­digm Rhetoric — Another Worldview

Exer­cise 5 (due 12-Dec):     “World­view Screen” (port­fo­lio + reflec­tion; 5 points)


 

Extra Credit Opportunities

1) Dis­cus­sion par­tic­i­pa­tion: post (addi­tional) com­ments reply to class­mates with mul­ti­me­dia (audio/video)

* Note: all com­ments must be pro­duc­tive, rel­e­vant, per­cep­tive, and above all respect­ful in order to receive credit.

2) Blog credit: com­pose an addi­tional entry; e.g. about readings/culture, or Project self-evaluation & reflection

3) Assign­ment credit: com­pose an additional/optional exer­cise (see prompts); revise/resubmit Project 1 or Project 2


 

Blog Writ­ing                                                               

  • 6 infor­mal entries (min­i­mum) through­out term
  • 200 words + class­mate com­ment
  • Credit/no credit assigned

Through­out the semes­ter, due when spec­i­fied, you will write infor­mal entries to engage con­tent, apply con­cepts, and prac­tice acquired dis­course (key terms) as progress in units toward projects. These entries are longer and more thought­ful than “dis­cus­sion com­ments,” but not for­mal aca­d­e­mic essay style; they are ungraded, receiv­ing full/partial/no credit. Con­sider as low-stakes oppor­tu­nity to dis­cuss and test new ideas relat­ing to our read­ings and cul­ture stud­ied: note rel­e­vant obser­va­tions, post asso­cia­tive links & media, pose ques­tions, describe insights—particularly con­nec­tions between texts/issues and infor­ma­tion or exam­ples exter­nal to class. Occa­sion­ally, spe­cific prompts, sug­ges­tions, or fur­ther instruc­tions will be pro­vided. The sim­plest approach is com­bin­ing one spe­cific point from class with observed/personal exam­ple. An enjoy­able and pro­duc­tive effort toward our study, blog­ging offers oppor­tu­nity for sev­eral objec­tives: prac­tice engag­ing issues crit­i­cally; artic­u­lat­ing ideas, devel­op­ing schol­arly voice in writ­ing; dis­cussing mate­r­ial with classmates.

* For each assigned due date, one brief com­ment respond­ing to a classmate’s entry is also required.

 

  • Blog­ging serves a key func­tion in our learn­ing process, par­tic­u­larly for reflex­ive knowl­edge: gen­er­at­ing & shar­ing notes on assigned mate­ri­als, for later appli­ca­tion; rec­og­niz­ing rel­e­vant content/examples for project; using spe­cial­ized terms, test­ing new types of writ­ing, and using media forms.