Assignments

Class Participation (10 Points)

This part of your grade covers how well you participate in our discussions within the face-to-face classroom. To prevent me from carrying discussions during the semester, I will be assigning each of you to lead a class discussion based on the assigned reading for that day. A schedule of classes will be drawn up the first week of class. Your class presentations can be based on a mini-lecture summary of that day's reading as reflected in your reading logs (see below), or can take the form of an advanced PowerPoint presentation exploring issues raised in the reading. Whatever you should decide to do, the end result should result in an interesting conversation between you and your peers about themes and ideas from that day's reading.

Reading Logs (30 Points)

To prepare for class discussions, you will submit over the course of the semester a total of 20 reading logs, each of which will be 300 words in length (or about two double-spaced pages). Because these logs are designed to help you prepare for class, they will be due the day we discuss a particular reading and will not be accepted after that class. Because I will not accept more than two logs during any given week, you must write these logs on a weekly basis. NOTE: Any attempts to write these logs during the final two or three weeks of the semester will result in failure on this section of the course.

The logs should generally try to address the following questions:

• What are the author's central claims in this piece of writing?
• What is the author's purpose in making this argument?
• What assumptions does the or she make about language and its uses in human affairs?
• What assumptions does he or she make about technology and its role in our society?
• What is your personal analytic reaction to the ideas expressed by this author?

Not every log needs to address all five of these questions, however. These are provided only as a suggestion, not an exact formula. The main purpose is to identify the author's main claims and examine them analytically. You should avoid making purely evaluative comments about whether you "liked" the author's writing style or ideas. Instead you should focus on explaining the author's position and then exploring the implications of this position on the way we view language and technology.

When submitting your logs, you should number them in sequential order and retain an electronic copy on your hard drive in case I somehow misplace a log. For each log, you should submit both a printed copy and an electronic copy in Word format to the class Novell drop box (I'll explain later how to submit these electronically).

Your grade on the reading logs is determined by how many you write and how well you write them. I place only brief comments on the logs and grade them as a check, check plus, or check minus, with final grades assigned as follows:

• A = 18-20 logs, all or close to all check pluses
• B = 15-17 logs, check pluses and checks
• C = 12-14 logs, checks and some check minuses
• D = 7-11 logs, check minuses and checks
• F = 0-6 logs

The 20 logs that you turn in during the semester average out to one log per week most weeks and two logs per week in a few others. You can stack these up a little bit by turning in two per week for several weeks running, but you cannot cram them all into the final four weeks of the semester and expect to receive a passing grade on this portion of the course. Bottom line? Keep up with these logs throughout the semester.

Rhetorical Analysis (25 Points)

One of the best ways to understand the aims of technological culture is to analyze the ways in which it represents itself. For this assignment, you will be asked to analyze the visual and textual rhetoric of five separate advertisements for the computer and electronic industries. The main purpose is to look behind the scenes to examine and critique how these companies are pitching their products.

Analyzed ads can include newspaper, magazine, and billboard print ads, as well as radio and television ads. In each case, you must submit a copy of the ad along with your analysis. Newspaper and magazine ads must be photocopied, billboard ads must be photographed and printed out, and radio and television ads must be recorded and submitted in an easily replayed analog or digital medium.

While any rhetorical analysis contains a fair amount of description of the artifact being analyzed (consider this the what), the lion's share of your analysis should contain an examination of how -- both linguistically and visually -- the advertiser attempts to persuade the audience. Look at how the textual and visual message either plays on or contradicts our society's attitudes about computers and electronics. In other words, you should examine what these rhetorical devices have to say about the role that technology plays in American culture. Additionally, how do these assumptions contradict or reinforce expressed ideas about class, gender, or socio-economic divisions in our society.

Your analysis should be 5-6 double-spaced pages, not including copies of any print ads. Due Thursday, Feb. 15th.

Research Paper (35 Points)

At this point in your academic careers, most of you have written a research or term paper before, but I can say with some confidence that few of you have written one that is 15 double-spaced pages in length. If you haven't, don't let the length requirement of this paper scare you. Fifteen pages is not much more difficult than 10 and in many ways is easier to write because it gives you more room in which to write a refined intellectual argument.

Though the research paper is not due until the final exam period, you will be expected to turn in a proposal for this project on March 6th, shortly before Spring Break. This way, I can see what topic you are starting to concentrate on and give you advice (ungraded) on how you might conduct your research. After the break, we'll meet to discuss the research projects in greater depth and help you chart out a plan for conducting the research and composing the paper. Additionally, we'll be holding a research paper workshop on Tuesday, April 24th to prepare drafts for a peer review workshop on Thursday, April 26th.

The format for these papers is typed, double-spaced with a font size of 12 points (no larger or smaller). You should use the citation style of the Modern Language Association (MLA) when citing all resources. We'll be covering some aspects of MLA style during our workshop, but you are responsible for making sure your Works Cited page adheres to MLA style. Though you can use some Web sites as sources, you can use no more than three (3) and you should make sure these sources are relevant to your topics. Otherwise, you should use only books, magazine articles, journal articles, and organizational reports. If you have any questions about the validity of a source to be used in your paper, please bring it to class so we can discuss it.