After two long days of conferences with all of you, I should be exhausted, but instead I’m energized by your great ideas for the Scholarly Webtext assignment we’re beginning. I’m excited to see your ideas take shape into polished, persuasive, multimodal arguments between now and the end of the semester. With Unit #3 behind us, we can focus our full attention on this new project, beginning with the one-page “plan of action” that’s due next Thursday. This document doesn’t need to follow a strict format, but it should include at least four items:
- A description of your topic. (Be specific; the more focused, the better!)
- The argument you want to make. (What’s your position?)
- A list of at least five sources you plan to use.
- A description of the format your final webtext will take. (Video? Podcast? Prezi? Medium post?)
Finally, you should use the plan of action document to ask me any questions you have about getting started on this project. I’ll respond to your plan over Thanksgiving break so we can return from the holiday ready to go.
Before then, though, we have two class sessions that will help you refine your thinking about the Scholarly Webtext assignment. Here’s an overview of our plans for Week 13:
- On Tuesday, we will discuss copyright, ownership, and piracy in the digital economy. Before you come to class, please read Chapter 9 in Program or Be Programmed. We’ll also explore publishing options for the Scholarly Webtext project, so please review as many of these “nontraditional” scholarly arguments as you can before we meet:
- “A Vision of Students Today,” by Michael Wesch and his students
- “5 Scientific Ways the Internet Is Dividing Us,” by Dennis Hong and J.F. Sargent
- Feminist Frequency, by Anita Sarkeesian
- “Columbus Day,” by Matthew Inman (aka, The Oatmeal)
- An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments, by Ali Almossawi
- “Straw Men, Shills, and Killer Robots,” by Tim Carmody
- “Fish,” by Robin Sloan
- “Media literacy: Arne Duncan’s SxSWedu Keynote,” by Jac De Haan
- “The Internet in Society: Empowering or Censoring Citizens?” by Evgeny Morozov and RSA Animate
- On Thursday, we will focus on incorporating research into your Scholarly Webtexts. Our in-class exercise for the day is designed to help you focus your argument and synthesize outside sources, so before you come to class, please complete two tasks: (1) Write your one-page “plan of action” and add it to your shared Google Drive folder in Google Docs format. (2) Review at least four sources you plan to cite in your project and draft a one-paragraph summary of each source. (Add these summaries to your shared Google Drive folder, too.) [Update: Here is the Google Doc for the exercise we will complete in class.]
Questions? Concerns about your project? Come see me during office hours (slightly adjusted this week: Wednesday 9–12 and Thursday 2–5) or email me.