Syllabus for English 411

Dr. Betty L. Hart                        Office Hours: MF 12:00 – 1:00
3039 LA Center                                  and by appointment
Phone: (812) 465-1669            E-mail: blhart@usi.edu

Writing in the Digital Age is a course designed for writers who use a variety of technical formats for composing documents. Students will examine the rhetorical features and textual constraints of writing composed in digital formats. Students will receive instruction and some practice in using contemporary applications of these formats. Students will also examine the impact of digital technology upon print and other information media, as well as the audiences and cultural contexts for these media.

Holeton, Richard. Composing Cyberspace: Identity, Community,
and Knowledge in the Electronic Age. Boston: McGraw-
Hill, 1998.

Students will need media with large storage capacity; i.e., CD-ROM (writable) or ZIP disks. The lab computers do not have the ability to record CD’s or take ZIP disks, so it is still necessary to transport files either by a series of high density (HD) diskettes from home to school and back.

As for computer power: the bigger, the better! You will need an e-mail account, an ISP, and certainly enough speed to keep up with others in the class. Most of us do not have broad-band access yet, so a 56K/bps modem will most likely do for the course. In order to standardize the software, most applications used in this course will be from the Microsoft Office group: Word, Publisher, Front Page, Power Point, and Outlook. We will use a graphics editor also, possibly the Microsoft Photo Editor.

Students are expected to have basic computer literacy skills at the start of this class: word processing, windows navigation, Internet browsing, graphics manipulation, e-mailing, and some desktop publishing and online-research skills. We will cover more advanced procedures for all of the preceding skills as well as preview new communications and writing software and applications.

We will also use USI’s Pipeline and Blackboard sites for asynchronous and synchronous chat and bulletin board sessions. We will cover, as well, visual rhetoric of multimedia formats, appropriate stylistic features of on-screen writing for word processing, and syntax and style for all forms of digital writing. With sufficient outside resources, we will also look at hardware that allows for non-PC media exchanges (cell phones, PDA’s, etc.).

As a Tuesday and Thursday class, we will meet in the classroom on Tuesdays and in the lab on Thursdays. On Tuesdays, we will discuss the assigned reading selections and theoretical and rhetorical approaches to digital writing. Thursday classes will be held in the lab, unless otherwise announced, and will be devoted to practice and applications using the lab computers.

The following are required in this course and will each be averaged equally for a final grade.

Students are expected to attend class regularly. There is no need to present excuses or justify an absence. If a student requires an extended absence, he or she may document that absence. Students are excused for institutional representation, provided they have turned in work ahead of the required due date. Late work on major exams and projects (the essay, the research report, and site visits) may be turned within one week of the due date for a one letter-grade reduction. After the week, the grade is F. Short assignments may not be made up under any circumstances.

All work is due at the beginning of class. Your papers should be typed according to the standard format of papers (double spaced, 12pt. Courier New, 1 inch margins). Papers received after instruction has begun or after class are late.

(All work submitted outside of class must have proof of time and date of submission and is considered late.)

We will cover a consecutive chapter a week for three weeks at a time. The fourth week will be devoted to workshops and conferences. Thus weeks one through three, five through seven, and nine through eleven will be focused on readings and lab applications, and weeks four, eight, and twelve will be workshop and conference weeks. Week thirteen will also be a workshop class; week fourteen will be for speakers and/or panel discussion (pending, of course, on availability of speakers), and week fifteen will be a wrap-up and review week. Students should frequently consult the Black Board announcements for any changes in the schedule.

Week	Reading Selection and/or Activity (always read “Forward Thinking”

1	Charles Platt, "What's It Mean to Be Human, Anyway?" Iain A. Boal, "Body, Brain, and Communication: An Interview with George Latkoff"
2	Barbara Ehrenreich, "Put Your Pants On, Demonboy" Miller, "Women and Children First: Gender and the Settling of the Electronic Frontier"
3	Kornbluth, "{you make me feel like} A Virtual Woman" Martin, "Internet Indian Wars" ( Personal Literacy Narrative due on Tuesday)
4	Shirley, "Wolves of the Plateau" Lyles, "CyberFaith: Promoting Multiculturalism Online"
5	No reading assignment from Holeton (First short essay due on Thursday)
6	Ramo, "Finding God on the Web" Barlow, "Is There a There in Cyberspace?"
7	Schwartz, "The American Dream, and Email for All" Rodriguez, "A Future of Faith and Cyberspace"
8	Grossman, "The Shape of the Electronic Republic" Winner, "Mythinformation" (Software ReviewDue on Thursday)
9	Spender, "Social Policy for Cyberspace" O’Connor, "Africa, The Unwired Continent"
10	Katz, "The Netizen: Birth of a Digital Nation" Rude, "Birth of a Nation in Cyberspace" (second short essay due on Thursday)
11	Borges, "The Library of Babel" Laurel, "Virtual Reality: A New Opposable"
12	Barry, "Selected Websites: At Last, Proof That Civilization Is Doomed" Orkerson, "Who Owns Digital Works?"
13	Bank, "The New Corporate Know-It-Alls: Chief Knowledge Officers Stoll, "Computers in the Classroom: What's Wrong with This Picture?"
14	Wallis, "The Learning Revolution" Card, "The Giant's Drink" third short essay due on Thursday)
15	Finish up Lab Work