Writing: Science and Technology

WRA 110.730 * Summer Session 2012 * Michigan State University

INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION
Name: Office Hours: Email: AIM: Skype: Twitter: Julie Platt Wednesday 12:30-2:30pm EST and by appointment plattju1@msu.edu aristotlejulep juliewritesmsu aristotlejulep

COURSE TIMES & LOCATION

14 May 2012 20 July 2012 Course Website: http://aristotlejulep.com/wra110summer
PLEASE NOTE: Section 730 is completely ONLINE. There are four hours of online work time that stand in for face-to-face class meetings. In addition to those four hours, be sure to schedule 10-12 hours a week to work on course material to successfully master the materials and skills.

REQUIRED TEXTS & MATERIALS

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing Vol. 1 & 2 by Charlie Lowe & Pavel Zemliansky (Eds) | http://writingspaces.org/essays (free and open access) The Process of Research Writing by Steve Krause | http://www.stevendkrause.com/tprw/ (free and open access) Additional articles made available on our website A subscription to Eli Review ($25) | www.elireview.com

COURSE GOALS
In this section of WRA 110, we will Learn to see writing as an epistemic process that helps us make new knowledge; Learn to see writing as a recursive process, having no real beginning and end points save for the ones we impose on it; Learn to think critically about how we represent ourselves with writing; Learn to think critically about a multitude of different kinds of technologies (both old and new) and how they impact culture and the way we write about culture; Learn to identify and understand the audience(s) for whom we are writing; Learn to identify and understand the context(s) in and for which we are writing; Learn to analyze and assess the impact of different kinds of arguments; Learn how to evaluate the reliability and appropriateness of sources (print & digital); Learn how to effectively compose in a variety of modes (academic, informal, etc.); and Learn that re-vision is a complex and important act not limited to writing.

ASSIGNMENT DETAILS
Major Projects:
You must complete all assignments to earn a passing grade in this course. I will provide specific grading rubrics for each major project. We may decide as a class to revise these rubrics; I encourage you to collaborate with me on defining criteria for your assessment.
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wra 110.730: writing science & technology

PROJECT 1: CULTURAL ARTIFACT ANALYSIS (20%): In this project, you will choose a writing/literacy technology that interests you, and critically analyze it. You should look at your writing technology as a made thing that has emerged from human culturethat is, a thing produced by particular people, at a particular point in time, for particular reasons, to do a particular job. As a class, you should write about a variety of technologiesI will not accept 15 papers on texting! This alphabetic, word-processed text should be 1250-1500 words and should use MLA format and citations. Blogs and Informal Assignments (5%): Responses to readings, peer review, reflection. PROJECT 2: RESEARCH ESSAY (25%): Writing is used in every industry, every career path, and every academic field of study. As the worlds cultural and political borders change, workers and consumers encounter new writing and communication challenges. In doing so, they negotiate the innovations and shortfalls of rapidly changing technologies. For this assignment, you will be writing a research essay that explores some question connected to writing and/or technology in your major, your future career, or a field of interest to you. This alphabetic, wordprocessed text will be 1750-2250 words with MLA format and citations. Blogs and Informal Assignments (5%): Responses to readings, peer review, reflection PROJECT 3: TECHNOLOGY AUTOBIOGRAPHY (20%): This narrative assignment asks you to think about writing, digital technology, and literacy in a personal or local way while still using the analytical skills you have developed so far in this semester. You may think about these issues in the context of your family, your school, your workplace, your community, your hometown, etc. in order to answer questions such as these: What are the first writing technologies that you can remember using, or those that have made the biggest impact on you? How has digital technology affected or not affected how you feel about writing and literacy? This alphabetic, word-processed text should be 1000-1500 words and should use MLA format and citations. Blogs and Informal Assignments (5%): Responses to readings, essay plan, peer review, reflection. PROJECT 4: RESEARCH, REMIXED (15%): In this project, you will revisit your cultural artifact analysis and your research essay, and you will examine the cultural artifact in the context of your academic discipline. You will use portions of both papers as sources, and you will generate a significant amount of new writing as you examine the new questions raised by this juxtaposition of ideas. This text should be 1250-1500 words and should use MLA format and citations; the mode of delivery for this text will be determined by the content and form. Blogs and Informal Assignments (5%): Responses to readings, project proposal & peer review, reflection. Blogs and Informal Assignments: In this course you will be completing informal writing assignments using Tumblr.com. Sometimes I will give specific instructions for informal blog assignments on the course schedule; sometimes I will ask you simply to respond, whether it be to assigned readings, issues relevant to class, or other material. (wait, waitwhats a blog? help!)

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Expectations For Blogs and Informal Assignments Your blog is a place to explore and learn what you explore in the readings, what you find in your outside research, and any other topics of interest. If youre completing a specific informal writing assignment, you can use your blogs affordances to respond to that assignment in a creative and critical way. If youre responding to a reading, you may offer an interpretation of that reading, ask questions, respond to, argue with it, or provide contextual information, etc. Ideally, these blog posts should serve as introductory writing toward larger, later assignments. Blogging in this course should be concerned with the regular examination of ideas and provide concise arguments via your unique viewpoint and voice. There should be substantive thought behind the ideas you present. Find new ways of saying what you think you want to say. Push yourself to explore the ways you can get at ideas through the use of different media. Have specific references, including text, hyperlinks, video, images and audio, as means of support. Be sure to explain these references, though; dont just stick them in a post and expect readers to understand why. Formatting Your Blog Entries When creating, designing and writing in your blog, please complete the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. Choose a meaningful title and subtitle. Choose an appropriate theme. For each post, compose a meaningful title written for an audience beyond our class. For each post, include 3-4 tags. (Wait. Whats a tag?)

Experiment with the dashboard area, see how things work and what happens when you make changes. The more you engage with, customize and explore your blog, the more effective it will be and the more you will get out of this assignment. There is no set requirement for the length of a blog post. One of the features of the blogging medium and the characteristics of individual posts is that length is determined by content and goals. Each post you make, though, should be thorough in discussing the subject at hand. Aim for 250-500 words. Blog and Informal Assignments Rubric Grade 4.0 Characteristics Exceptional. The writing is focused and coherently integrates examples with explanations or analysis. The entry demonstrates awareness of its own limitations or implications, and it considers multiple perspectives when appropriate. The entry reflects in-depth engagement with the topic. Satisfactory. The writing is reasonably focused, and explanations or analysis are mostly based on examples or other evidence. Fewer connections are made between ideas, and though new insights are offered, they are not fully developed. The entry reflects moderate engagement with the topic. Underdeveloped. The writing is mostly description or summary, without consideration of alternative perspectives, and few connections are made between ideas. The entry reflects passing engagement with the topic. Limited. The writing is unfocused, or simply rehashes previous comments, and displays no evidence of student engagement with the topic. No Credit. The writing is missing or consists of one or two disconnected sentences.
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3.0

2.0 1.0 0

wra 110.730: writing science & technology

GRADES IN WRA 110.730

Project 1 Project 2 Project 3 Project 4 Blogs and Informal Assignments TOTAL 20% 25% 20% 15% 20% 100%

You will be given a letter grade on each project you complete. In advance you will be notified as to the percentage that each project (and project component, for multi-component projects) counts towards your overall grade. Letter grades will be converted into their GPA equivalent for the purpose of computing the final grade. Here's the procedure: 1. First I convert each letter grade on the project to its GPA equivalent. An A, for example, is 4.0, an A- is a 3.66, a B+ is a 3.33, etc. 2. Next, I multiply the grade score by the % of the course grade each project is worth (we can think of this as the "weight" of each project). An A on a project worth 25% of the final grade, for example, converts to a weighted score of 100. 3. I then add up the scores, yielding a result that maps to the GPA scoring system. Total points earned/400. 4. The cutoff for a 4.0 score will be 366. The most important factors leading to a good grade in this course are consistent participation and intellectual effort. I will assess your effort throughout a project, not only on the final finished product. If you are on the borderline between grades and you have a strong record of participation, you will earn the higher grade. If at any time during the semester you are concerned about your grade in the course or on a specific project, please talk with me.

Feedback, Assessment, & Revision: Writing is complex & messy; it does not have clearlydefined beginning and ending points. However, the demands of everyday life dictate when we must start and finish our writing. In this class, we have first and final drafts of our major projects due at defined points during the semester. As such, I encourage you to seek out help and feedback at any time during your writing process. I am happy to conference with you about your writing, as are the very capable consultants at the MSU Writing Center. MY FEEDBACK POLICY: When it comes to discussing drafts, I prefer synchronous to asynchronous communication. That means that I would much rather CONFERENCE with you via Skype or IM about your paper draft than write a litany of comments that may or may not be understood or even read at all. I also prefer not to force students into mandatory paper conferences; if you dont want to talk, theres no reason for me to listen. Therefore, if you wish to receive extensive feedback on your project, I invite you to conference with me! Between receiving peer review comments and turning in your final drafts of major projects, you will have at least one week to work. The final draft of your project will be receive a letter grade
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and will be assessed according to a rubric that I will provide to you. Informal assignments will also receive a letter grade; I will provide a rubric for assessing these assignments as well. MY REVISION POLICY: Revisions of final drafts are optional but encouraged. You may revise two major projects this semester. My revision policy is as follows: 1. You must turn your revised project no later than a week after the graded final draft was handed back to you. 2. You must also conference with me to discuss your plan for revising your project. 3. Finally, the grade on the revision will be no higher than one full letter grade above the grade on final draft of that project.

COURSE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Attendance/Tardiness:
All courses in the Tier 1 Writing Program are interactive and require high levels of student participation. Attendance at all class sessions is expected. If you miss more than one week of class, your final grade for the course will be lowered by 0.3 for each additional individual absence. In an online class, each submission date is equal to a day in reference to this policy, meaning you can miss one Wednesday submission and one Sunday submission before you start to lose 0.3 of your grade. Please be smart and reserve your absences to address the observance of religious holidays not acknowledged by the University calendar, family events, serious illnesses, etc. To find out more information on university-wide attendance policies and for guidelines in special situations, consult your student handbook or university Ombudsmans web page (http://www.msu.edu/~ombud/) under classroom issues and attendance.

Late Assignments: All work is due on the date specified on our course schedule. Any
assignment turned in past the specified time will not be accepted. If you have to miss a deadline when something is due, you must to make plans to turn that work in (or have made other arrangements with me) BEFORE the due date. If you miss an assignment and do not communicate with me as to why you missed it, you will not receive credit. There is no reason to miss a due date without contacting me.

Completing the Course: WRACs First Year Writing Program requires that students produce
a significant amount of writing to fulfill their First Year Writing requirement. You must complete all writing assignments to fulfill the First Year Writing requirement and receive a passing grade in this course.

Academic Honesty: Plagiarism is a serious issue in academia, and we will discuss it

throughout the semester. Michigan State University has adopted the following statement about academic honesty: 1.00 PROTECTION OF SCHOLARSHIP AND GRADES The principles of truth and honesty are fundamental to the educational process and the academic integrity of the University; therefore, no student shall: 1.01 claim or submit the academic work of another as ones own. 1.02 procure, provide, accept or use any materials containing questions or answers to any examination or assignment without proper authorization. 1.03 complete or attempt to complete any assignment or examination for another individual without proper authorization.
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1.04 allow any examination or assignment to be completed for oneself, in part or in total, by another without proper authorization. 1.05 alter, tamper with, appropriate, destroy or otherwise interfere with the research, resources, or other academic work of another person. 1.06 fabricate or falsify data or results. Procedures for responding to cases of academic honesty and possible repercussions are outlined in Spartan Life: Student Handbook and Resource Guide. They can also be found on the web at: http://www.msu.edu/unit/ombud/honestylinks.html. My official policy is that plagiarism is intellectual stealing, and if you engage in such a practice knowingly in my classroom you will receive a zero on the assignment in question. If you arent sure if youre using too much of an outside source, or if you can use something for your project, PLEASE meet with me and we will discuss it. Composing in digital environments brings up special concerns and considerations related to plagiarism, copyright, and fair use. We will discuss these issues in class throughout the semester.

Civility in Class: The classroom is a place for exploring issues, obtaining knowledge, and
engaging in critical thinking. Challenging issues and ideas may arise, but none of these should be expressed in an inappropriate or offensive manner, whether verbally, through body language, or in writing. One of the goals of a university is to challenge us to think again about what we know (and all that we dont know). This demands that we all share responsibility for creating and maintaining a civil learning environment in our classrooms and in the larger university community. We will be conscious of and accept responsibility for what we say and do, how we act, how our words and actions have consequences, and how our words and actions affect others. Respect is vital in this classroom, and a non-hostile learning environment is everyones right. This goes for online time your discussions and interactions with members of this class in the online atmosphere should be done with the same respect you would give in an face-to-face situation. If you feel that derogatory comments are being made please inform me first so that we can work to resolve the issue and prevent any further escalation of the matter.

Contacting Your Instructor: I will use your MSU email address, and you should use mine if
youd like to email me. Please note, however, that email can sometimes be unreliable. As a result, I cannot be responsible for any email messages that are lost or addressed incorrectly. If you email me something, I will email you back, ordinarily within 48 hours, to tell you that I have received your message. However, if you dont receive my email reply, this means that I did not receive your message and that you should discuss the content of your email with me personally. I answer emails Monday Friday from 9am to 5pm, EST. Expect a reply within 48 hours. I use AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) and Skype off and on throughout the day, and my office hours are conducted via AIM and Skype. You are welcome to IM me or Skype me with questions or concerns during that virtual office hour or if you see me online outside of those scheduled times. FYI: If you email at, say, 3:00am EST expecting a reply from me at 3:05am EST, you will be sorely disappointed.

Submitting Your Work: You will be submitting all of your assignments electronically.
Because of this, it is very important that you pay attention to file names and file formats. You are responsible for making sure that I can open and read your work. I will give you specific instructions for submitting your projects when each comes due.

Technology Usage: An increasing amount of writing and reading occurs online, so we will
engage a range of computer tools and web-based applications. No prior skill is needed, only a willingness to engage and learn. If we need to take extra time to engage and learn, all you need to do is ask. A majority of the tools we will be using in and outside of class are web-based, so
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you will not need any special software. I might, however, have some recommendations (not requirements) that I will provide at appropriate intervals. Furthermore, you must have access to your MSU email account; you will check it regularly for this class. While technology makes life easier, it can also be difficult (computer crashes, deleted work, unavailable Internet connections, etc.). So, plan accordingly. "The computer ate my homework" or "the Internet was down" are not reasons to forgo the work assigned. It is in your best interest to leave extra time, especially in the first few weeks, to ensure that technology does not get in the way of your coursework. A special issue we may come across this summer is the censorship of particular websites in countries where students are living. If a particular website we are using is blocked in your country, let me know right away and we will develop some kind of workaround.

Learning Disabilities and Compliance with ADA: If you have a documented learning
disabilityor an undocumented learning disabilityplease consult with the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities. You must register with RCPD to utilize their services. This is the critical first step to getting assistance. MSU complies with all federal and state laws and regulations regarding discrimination, including the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). If you have a physical disability that could affect your performance in this class or that requires an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, please see me as soon as possible so that we can make appropriate arrangements.

Online Evaluation of this Course: Michigan State University takes seriously the opinion of
students in the evaluation of the effectiveness of instruction, and has implemented the SIRS (Student Instructional Rating System) process to gather student feedback. This course utilizes the online SIRS system. You will receive an e-mail sometime during the last two weeks of class asking you to fill out the SIRS online form at your convenience. Please note the final grade for this course will not be accessible on STUINFO for seven days following the University grade submission deadline published by the Office of the Registrar unless the SIRS online form has been filled out. You will have the option in the online SIRS form to decline to participate in the evaluation of the course we hope, however, that you will be willing to give us your frank and constructive feedback so that we may instruct students even better in the future.

SHARED LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR FIRST YEAR WRITING

WRITING READING RESEARCH
Use writing for purposes of Engage in reading for the Apply methods of inquiry and reflection, action, and participation purposes of reflection, critical conventions to generate new in academic inquiry analysis, decision-making, and understanding inquiry Work within a repertoire of genres Understand that various academic Demonstrate the ability to locate, and modes to meet appropriate disciplines and fields employ critically evaluate, and employ a rhetorical purposes varied genre, voice, syntactical variety of sources for a range of choices, use of evidence, and purposes citation styles Exercise a flexible repertoire of Read in ways that improve writing, Demonstrate the ability to generate invention, arrangement and especially by demonstrating an and apply research strategies that revision strategies ability to analyze invention, are purposeful, ethical and arrangement and revision balanced strategies at work in a variety of texts wra 110.730: writing science & technology j.platt * msu * summer 2012 7

Demonstrate an understanding of writing as an epistemic and recursive process and effectively apply a variety of knowledgemaking strategies in writing Understand diction, usage, voice and style, including standard edited English, as conventional and rhetorical features of writing

Demonstrate an understanding of reading as an epistemic and recursive meaning making process

Demonstrate an understanding of research as epistemic and recursive processes that arise from and respond back to various communities Understand that academic Understand the logics and uses of disciplines and fields employ citation systems and documentation varied genre, styles, syntactical styles and display competence with patterns, uses of evidence, and one citation system/documentation documentation practices that call style for a variety of reading strategies

UNIVERSITY RESOURCES FOR WRA STUDENTS:

http://writing.msu.edu - The MSU Writing Center http://lrc.msu.edu - The Learning Resources Center @ MSU http://elc.msu.edu - The English Language Center @ MSU http://www2.lib.msu.edu - MSU Libraries http://computing.msu.edu - Computing at MSU http://computerlabs.msu.edu/ - MSU Computer Labs http://www.couns.msu.edu - MSU Counseling Center http://www.rcpd.msu.edu - MSU Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities http://msu.edu/~ombud/ - MSU Ombudsman

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