W350: Advanced Expository Writing
Topic: Digital Writing
W350 is an advanced composition course that fulfills IU’s intensive writing requirement, and it
is intended to help students work polish their writing skills in the context of academic study. To
that end, instructors develop their own topics, so I decided to focus my class on the rhetorical
analysis and production of writing in digital environments, and particularly within online
communities. Students composed rhetorical analyses, genre analyses, mini-ethnographies, and
wikis in order to explore how online communities use digital writing to move others to action.
In the first unit, I introduce students to a toolkit for rhetorical analysis, taken liberally from
classical rhetoric, Kenneth Burke, Richard Lanham, and others. Students’ main task in this unit,
which culminates in Paper 1, is to use these tools to analyze digital writing—most often blogs,
forums, and websites. This work provides a rhetorical foundation for subsequent units, which
require increasingly complex kinds of analysis. In unit two, students read genre scholarship by
rhetoric and composition scholars like Carolyn Miller and Charles Bazerman, which I ask them
to use to analyze a digital genre. In the process, I want them to understand the historical
development of and social action performed by whatever genre(s) they study in their papers.
Because communities tend to use genres in fairly regularized ways, genre analysis sets them up
to study online communities in more detail. In unit three, I ask students to perform a miniethnography of an online community, focusing in particular on how members of that community
use genres rhetorically to move others in their communities to action. While they research, we
read Ilana Gershon’s The Breakup 2.0, an ethnography about new media and interpersonal
relationships. Students use her methods and key concepts to study how “digital-only”
communities or real life communities use digital genres.
Although students use <emma> throughout the semester to compose, share, and analyze texts,
unit four represents their fullest opportunity to apply the course’s rhetorical tools as they produce
their own digital texts. Specifically, students’ task in the final unit is to design and compose a
wiki, aimed at a specific audience to achieve a specific purpose. Moreover, students must
“repurpose” their earlier projects into this new genre. For example, students who hope to become
teachers might build a wiki that introduces principles of rhetoric using digital examples. Other
students might choose to produce a rhetorical history of an online community, aimed at
marketing researcers. Whatever they choose to produce, the ultimate goal is for students to
understand the rhetorical changes that are necessary and possible in moving from traditional
academic essays to digital genres like wikis.
In this way, my W350 course employs tools for fostering students’ rhetorical awareness. Indeed,
my dissertation research drives the design of this course: throughout, I not only give them
rhetorical tools for analysis, but also I work to show them the rhetorical relations and distinctions
among the genres they must produce, whether rhetorical analyses, genre analyses, or wikis.
W350: Advanced Expository Writing
Topic: Digital Writing Instructor: Chris Basgier email: [email protected]
Office: BH 531 Office Hours: Tu 11-12:30, Th 10:30-12:00
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will focus on the ways online communities use
writing, often combined with images, sound, and hypertext. In
the first three units, we will ask: How do blogs, forums, and
videos work rhetorically? What tropes (figures of speech or
conventional ways of writing) do individuals use when they
write online? How do writers use genres and tropes to move
others in their online communities to action? What do these
common rhetorical practices reveal about online communities,
including their values and beliefs? In the final unit, we will
produce a series of collaborative wikis in small groups, based
on the research from the first two units. One of our primary
aims in producing this wiki will be to consider how academic writing might change when we adapt it to a
digital environment.
This course fulfills the Intensive Writing requirement. Students will improve their writing skills by
composing and revising papers and a course wiki. In the process, students will receive useful feedback
from the instructor and from peers, and they will learn to write collaboratively in digital environments.
REQUIRED TEXTS
1. Gershon, Ilana. The Breakup 2.0: Disconnecting over New Media.
2. A grammar handbook. I recommend the IUB Rules for Writers, 6th edition, by Dianna Hacker.
ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING
Assignment
Paper 1
Paper 2
Paper 3
Paper 4
Final Project
Forum
Total:
Description
Rhetorical Analysis
Analysis of an Internet Genre
Mini-­‐Ethnography of an Online Community
Group Wiki Design Plan
Wiki, Presentation, and Reflection
Short analytical assignments (5 @ 20 pts)
1000
Length
4-­‐5
5-­‐6
6-­‐7
2
4-­‐5
-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐
Points
100
150
250
100
300
100
<emma> During the semester, we will build our own writing community using <emma>, an online writing
environment. All course documents will be located on <emma>, and we will use it to upload, share, and
evaluate writing. Please visit http://iu.calliopeinitiative.org/cocoon/emma/home_iu and register ASAP.
COURSE POLICIES
Attendance. You are permitted six absences, no questions asked, without detriment to your grade;
subsequent absences, however, will each lower your overall course grade by a full letter (10%). If you
are absent on a peer review day or do not have a completed draft for review, your final assignment grade
will be lowered by one letter. If you must be absent on a peer review day, you must make arrangements
with me in advance to complete your peer review requirement outside of class.
Late Work. All assignments are due at the beginning of class on the due date listed. Assignments
submitted any time after the beginning of class on the date due will be penalized by 10% for each
calendar day late, including weekends. Late Forum posts will receive an automatic 0.
Technology. Students are required to check <emma> regularly for updates and materials. Please keep
back-up copies of all your work; computer glitches or long lines in the labs will not be accepted as
excuses for late or missing work. I welcome laptops in W350, but I reserve the right to mark you absent
if they are being used inappropriately.
Plagiarism. I expect you to know what constitutes plagiarism, in its forms both as outright theft and as
failure to give proper credit due to inadequate or inaccurate source citation. If it is discovered that you
have represented the work of another as your own, you will fail the course. Please see me if you have any
questions whatsoever about source documentation or about plagiarism in general.
Disability Services. Students requiring assistance or appropriate academic accommodations for a
disability may contact me after class, during office hours, or by appointment. You must have established
your eligibility for disability support services through the Office of Disability Services for Students in 006
Franklin Hall (812-855-7578).
Writing Conferences and email. Please meet with me during my office hours or by appointment to
discuss your work or any aspect of the course. I check my e-mail at least once a day, and you can expect
a response within 24 hours. For conversations about your drafts and/or grades, please see me in person.
Writing Tutorial Services. I encourage you to visit Writing Tutorial Services (free to all IU students) to
work on papers at any stage of the writing process. WTS is not a proofreading service; rather, tutors
assist you in developing your ideas and improving your ability to communicate by writing. WTS is also a
great resource for helping clean up your prose and assisting with proper citation. Call WTS at 855-6738
for appointments in the Wells Library Information Commons, and check their website
(www.indiana.edu/~wts) for further information.
DAILY SCHEDULE OF ASSIGNMENTS
The schedule may be subject to revision throughout the course of the semester. Any changes will be announced in
class and over <emma>.
All assignments are DUE the day listed on the syllabus!
Unit 1: Rhetorical Analysis of Digital Writing
Week 1
T 8/21 Introduction to the course
R 8/23 Lanham, “Rhetoric”; Wilhoit, “Rhetorical Analysis” (articles located on <emma>); By the beginning of
class, register for <emma>. Locate and complete the “Introductory Writing Assignment.”
Week 2
T 8/28 Burke, “Terministic Screens”
R 8/30 Forum 1; Carter and Williamson, “Diogenes, Dogfaced Soldiers, and Deployment Music Videos” (link
located on <emma>)
Week 3
T 9/4 Explore the online reference guide, Silva Rhetoricae (link located on <emma>)
R 9/6 Forum 2; Wysocki and Lynch, Compose, Design, Advocate (excerpts posted on <emma>)
Explore thebestdesigns.com (link located on <emma>)
Week 4
T 9/11 Bring Paper 1 materials to class
R 9/13 Draft of Paper 1 Due for Peer Review on <emma>
Unit 2: Analyzing Digital Genres
Week 5
T 9/18 Paper 1 Due on <emma>
R 9/20 Miller and Shepherd, “Blogging as Social Action” (article located on <emma>)
Week 6
T 9/25 Forum 3
R 9/27 Bazerman, “Genre and Identity” (article located on <emma>)
Week 7
T 10/2 Medway, “Fuzzy Genres and Community Identities” (article located on <emma>)
R 10/4 Forum 4
Week 8
T 10/9 Draft of Paper 2 Due for Peer Review on <emma>
R 10/11 Paper 2 Due on <emma>
Unit 3: Writing in Online Communities
Week 9
T 10/16 Print and bring McCudden, “Selling Out,” and Devitt, Reiff, Bawarshi, Scenes of Writing (excerpts), to
class (articles located on <emma>)
R 10/18 Gershon, Introduction
Week 10
T 10/23 Gershon, Chapter 1
R 10/25 Forum 5; Gershon, Chapter 2
Week 11
T 10/30 Gershon, Chapter 3
R 11/1 Forum 6; Gershon, Chapter 4
Week 12
T 11/6 Gershon, Chapter 5, Conclusion; Bring research materials for Paper 2 to class
R 11/8 Draft of Paper 3 Due for Peer Review on <emma>
Unit 4: Academic Writing in the Wiki World
Week 13
T 11/13 Paper 3 Due on <emma>
R 11/15 Garza and Hern, “Using Wikis as Collaborative Writing Tools” (link located on <emma>)
Week 14
T 11/20 No Class—Thanksgiving Break
R 11/22 No Class—Thanksgiving Break
Week 15
T 11/27 Paper 4 (Design Plan) due on <emma>; In-class workshop: course wiki structure and wiki syntax
R 11/29 In-class workshop: page content, structure, and linking
Week 16
T 12/4 In-class workshop: revising language for audience
R 12/6 Group Wiki Presentations
Paper 3: Wiki and Reflective Essay
300 Points (from Fall 2011)
Description: 3 pages for Reflective Essay (about 750 words)
Due: Drafts will be ongoing
Reflective Essay and all wiki revisions/edits due Thursday, 12/8
<emma> file: Paper 3; Stage: Final; Access: Private
Assignment—The Course Wiki (200 Points):
For this assignment, we will work as a class to develop a course wiki that answers our operative course
questions: What is digital writing? How do individuals and online communities use genres like blogs,
social networks, and wikis rhetorically? How do they put tropes, rhetorical figures, appeals, and other
writing “moves” to use, and to what effect? To answer these questions, you will complete individual and
collaborative work.
Individual article (100 points): On our wiki, you will compose an article whose purpose is to answer
one or more of the above questions by focusing on a particular digital genre or online community. This
page should be based on at least one of the assignments you wrote earlier this semester—either a paper or
a microtheme. However, I will expect substantial revision: articles that are simply copied and pasted
from an earlier assignment will receive a poor grade. To revise, you should:
• Take into account my comments and suggestions on your graded draft(s);
• Answer one or more of the operative course questions as explicitly as possible;
• Organize your article using the common page structure we will design as a class;
• Include at least one link to another article on our wiki, being sure to make the connection between
them—the reason for linking—clear and explicit.
Collaborative article (50 Points): Working in a small group, you will compose an article on a relevant
topic of your choosing, such as themes, key terms, tropes, etc. Your collaborative group article should be
organized according to the common page structure we will design as a class. It should also include links
and direct quotes from at least two other articles on our wiki, along with explanations/analysis of the
quotes. This article will be worth 50 points, awarded evenly to group members.
Article Edits (50 Points): Working independently (but still collaboratively), you will make edits to 5
articles (other than your own individual or collaborative articles), for 10 points each. Edits might include
proofreading, reorganizing, linking to other pages, adding additional content, clarifying analysis, etc. The
only caveat is that you cannot do the same “type” of editing more than twice (i.e. you cannot simply
proofread five articles). The goal is to make the five articles better—which should ultimately help
everyone receive a better grade (karma!). When you make an edit, be sure to use the “short description of
changes” function.
Assignment—The Reflective Essay (100 Points):
The goal of this reflective essay is to compare your experiences writing academic essays to your
experiences writing our course wiki. In your essay, you should answer the question, how is composing an
academic paper similar to and different from composing a wiki? To answer this question, you may
reference both the “finished products” (i.e. your original paper versus your revised wiki article) and your
actual writing process (i.e. what you do when you sit down in front of the computer to write). Whatever
you decide to focus on in your reflection, I ask that you include concrete examples from your own writing
and your wiki edits, explaining the choices you made as you wrote. Appended to your reflective paper,
you should also include a log of any edits you made to others’ wiki articles, with dates and brief
descriptions.
Criteria for Evaluation:
•
Wiki:
Individual and collaborative articles clearly answer one or more of our operative course
questions
o Articles include concrete evidence in the form of direct quotations
o Articles analyze the significance of evidence in answering the course questions
o Articles include the requisite number of links
o Include references where appropriate, following the guidelines for our common page
structure
o Make edits to five different articles, using a variety of editing “types”
Reflective Essay
o Offers an overall “thesis” or main claim about the similarities and differences between
writing academic papers and writing the wiki.
o Includes concrete examples of these differences.
o Appends a log of edits on others’ wiki articles
Use correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. throughout.
o
•
•