Semester Overview of due_dates Category

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Topic: Of Interaction and Knowledge in the Amazon/Google Era

Demonstrate your ability to relate what you have learned so far to a recent magazine article or news feature that describes a current trend or a recent innovation (within your lifetime) that relates to the development of the book (or related concepts, such as authorship/publication/reading/archiving).  By "relate" I mean please quote from, and use meaningfully, the assigned readings in order to defend a position on a current topic.

• Defend a specific, debatable claim (rather than explaining a situation or describing progress).
• Note that I am going to ask you to speculate about the future in Ex 5, so stick to the recent past and the present for Ex 4. 
• While "interaction" and "knowledge" are both very broad subjects, note that were are exploring those topics from within the perspective of the history and future of the book, so please try to keep some grounding in issues of reading/writing/authorship/publication/reproduction, while still making room for a treatment of the characteristics of new media.
• Demonstrate your ability to apply the readings to your chosen topic. 
• You may choose a popular source such as Wired, or a source that relates to your career or cultural interests.  You may also choose to respond to an academic article.
• Cite your sources according to MLA style  (including a Works Cited list).
  

At this stage, I'm asking for 8-10 pages.  (The final version will be at least 15 pages long.)

Use brief, direct quotations from scholarly sources to support a debatable claim -- something that a reasonable person would disagree with -- that arises from the readings.

Avoid vague references to what "some people may say" -- give the name of a person who holds that view, and quote the exact words that make you think the person holds that view. (You may paraphrase, but you still need to cite the source of a paraphrase.)

In keeping with Aarseth's observation (from Ch 1) that reading about an interactive work is no substitute for interacting with a work, this reading assignments asks you to spend 1 hour interacting with "electronic literature" (plus about a half hour blogging your reactions).

Visit the Electronic Literature Organization's online anthology.

1. Spend 10 minutes sampling the offerings, and blog your initial reactions.
2. Choose 3 works you'd like to explore in greater detail, and explain why. (If you took "Writing for the Internet" in 2008, when we did a very similar activity, please pick different works.)
   
3. Spend 10 additional minutes exploring each work. (If you exhaust the work before 10 minutes, pick a different work to fill out the time.) Blog your reactions to each.
   
4. Spend 20 more minutes interacting with the works in the anthology; spend this time any way you wish. (You may spend 20 minutes on a particular work, or flit from work to work as whimsy moves you.) Explain why you chose to spend your time this way, and explain what you learned.
5. Apply some aspect of Aarseth's writing to what you learned through this activity. (Come to class ready to discuss this experience.)
   

Paper 2 (minimum 15 pages) is a research paper that demonstrates your ability to research at an advanced college level.  Personal experiences and journalistic interviews must take a backseat to scholarly information from peer-reviewed sources, textual analysis, literary interpretation.

Quick Overview
1) Brainstorming (a half a page; informal; feel free to post it on your blog)
2) Preliminary Research Questions (what will you need to research?)

The Details

The evaluation criteria will be the same as CP2.

I have not distributed any special media to use, but I am asking you to use analog technology (not digital technology) in a 7-min presentation that defends some part of printing press technology.

From the syllabus:

CP3: In Defense of Print Culture
(use analog tools; rubber stamps, typewriter, cut-and-paste, etc.; no computer

Exercise 3 is a three-page essay that demonstrates your ability to apply, analyze, and evaluate the ideas you have encountered in the readings so far, with a special focus on any reading of your choice from Unit 3 (print culture). 

Submit your exercise by uploading it to Turnitin.com.

Review the feedback and suggestions I gave you on earlier assignments.  Feel free to quote from or build on anything you've written in class; cite those earlier papers when appropriate, but Ex 3 is not designed as a revision of any earlier work.

As was the case with the other exercises, I am looking for your ability to come up with a clear thesis statement, organize your argument around a blueprint, and how to integrate brief quotations from your sources.

Write for a reader who already knows the readings well, and has a copy in reach.  Quote brief passages, or consider simply referring in passing to "Havelock's treatment of Plato (24)" rather than attempting to repeat Havelock's ideas in detail.

Exercise 2 is a three-page essay that demonstrates your ability to apply, analyze, and evaluate the ideas you have encountered in the readings so far, with a special focus on any reading of your choice from Unit 2 (manuscript culture). 

Submit your exercise by uploading it to Turnitin.com.

Review the feedback and suggestions I gave you on Ex 1.  Ex 2 is not designed as a revision of Ex 1, but please feel free to quote from your papers or blog entries if you would like to build on (or question) any statement you have already made.

As was the case with Ex 1, I am looking for your ability to come up with a clear thesis statement, organize your argument around a blueprint, and how to integrate brief quotations from your sources.

Write for a reader who already knows the readings well, and has a copy in reach.  Quote brief passages, or consider simply referring in passing to "Havelock's treatment of Plato (24)" rather than attempting to repeat Havelock's ideas in detail.