Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Instructor
John Walter
Contact Info
Email: walterj@winthrop.edu
Skype: gunnhrafn
Office Hours (via Skype and zoom.us)
Mondays: 6:00-7:00 PM
Thursdays: 7:00-9:00 PM
& by appointment
COURSE INTRODUCTION
Any shift in the traffic of information can create not
only new thoughts, but new ways of thinking. Paul
Miller, aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, Rhythm Science
It is impossible to understand social and cultural changes
without a knowledge of the workings of media.
Marshall McLuhan, The Medium Is the Massage
It is the first step in sociological wisdom, to recognize
that the major advances in civilization are processes which
all but wreck the societies in which they occur [...]. The art
of free society consists first in the maintenance of the
symbolic code; and secondly in fearlessness of revision, to
secure that the code serves those purposes which satisfy
an enlightened reason. Those societies which cannot
combine reverence to their symbols with freedom of
revision, must ultimately decay either from anarchy, or
from the slow atrophy of a life stifled by useless
shadows. A.N. Whitehead, Symbolisms: Its Meaning and
Effect
As the era of print is passing, it is possible once again to
see print in a comparative context with other textual
media, including the scroll, the manuscript codex, the
early printed codex, the variations of book forms
produced by changes from letterpress to offset to digital
publishing, and born-digital forms such as electronic
literature and computer games. N. Katherine Hayles
and Jessica Pressman, Comparative Textual Media:
Transforming the Humanities in the Postprint Era
It is the business of the future to be dangerous. A.N.
Whitehead, Science and the Modern World
Winthrop English
Department
Website
enroll in the listserv. You can find the instructions for doing so at
http://www.winthrop.edu/technology/default.aspx?id=7081.
Course Twitter
While using Twitter is not a requirement for this course, there
is a course Twitter account (@writ502) will be used to distribute
course related information. All vital information will also be
distributed via the course listserv and/or posted to the course
website. The hastag for course-related Twitter posts is #writ502.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS, ASSIGNMENTS, AND GRADES
Grading for Undergraduate Credit
This class will use the plus/minus grading system. In this
class, the following numerical equivalents for grades are used: A
92-100; A- 90-91; B+ 88-89; B 82-87; B- 80-81; C+ 78-79; C
72-77; C- 70-71; D+ 68-69; D 62-67; D- 60-61; F 0-59.
% of Grade
10%
30%
Short Assignments:
Questionnaire, Literacy
Practices, McLuhan Proposal,
Electronic Edition Proposal
10%
McLuhan Project
15%
Textual Interventions
15%
Electronic Edition
20%
Graduate Requirements
Assignment
10%
25%
Annotated Bibliography
10%
Short Assignments:
Questionnaire, Literacy
Practices, McLuhan Proposal,
Electronic Edition Proposal
10%
McLuhan Project
15%
Textual Interventions
10%
Electronic Edition
20%
Week/Topic
Important Dates
Week/Topic
Important Dates
COURSE POLICIES
Academic Honesty
Students are expected to abide by the Student Code of
Conduct and the Student Conduct Code Academic Misconduct
Policy as presented in the online Student Handbook, available for
download at http://www.winthrop.edu/uploadedFiles/
studentconduct/StudentHandbook.pdf. Students are also
expected to have read and understand the English Departments
guide to The Correct Use of Borrowed Information, available at http://
www.winthrop.edu/uploadedFiles/cas/english/
CorrectUseBorrowedInfo.pdf.
In short, plagiarism in all its forms (word-for-word copying,
the mosaic, and uncited paraphrases), cheating, unauthorized
collaboration, submitting work produced in whole or part by
others, and other forms of academic misconduct will be
prosecuted as per the guidelines in the Student Handbook (pp.
38-43) and Winthrop Universitys Academic Misconduct guides
found at http://www.winthrop.edu/ai/. Instructor imposed
sanctions might ranging from a zero for the assignment to a
failing grade for the course.
In practical terms, this means that you should produce the
work you submit and acknowledge your engagement with the
ideas of others. If you consult an encyclopedia for information,
cite it. If you find an idea in something you read, even if you do
not copy the text word-for-word, cite it. If you use someone else's
words, put quotes around them and cite it, even when it is the
words of your fellow classmates. If you use an image from the
web or a printed source, attribute the source of that image
You should acknowledge sources from the start; plagiarism is
plagiarism whether it is in a first draft or in the final product. If
you are unsure whether or not you should cite something, ask
your instructor. If you do not have time to discuss the issue with
your instructor, cite first and ask later, or, at the very least, include
a brief note with your assignment to indicate the issue in
question.
For the purposes of this course, collaboration is not collusion
(unauthorized collaboration) and collusion is not collaboration.
When you collaborate, you discuss; when you collude, you pass
off as yours work that is not your own. While having someone
rewrite or "fix-up" your paper for you is collusion, having
someone peer-review or proof-read your work is not. To avoid
collusion, ask yourself this question: is this person pointing out
for me problems to rewrite and/or correct myself, or is this
person rewriting and/or correcting these problems for me? The
former falls under collaboration, the latter under collusion. While
issues of academic honesty are far from simple, there are three
simple things you can do to avoid most problems: Do you own
work, cite your sources, and ask when you are unsure.
Attendance Policy and Participation
Because attendance in an online course without a set meeting
time is tricky, attendance will be practiced through informed and
active participation in our courses discussion forums.
Failure to engage in informed and active participation for
more than two (2) weeks during our course will result in a grade
of N if the student withdraws from the course before the
withdrawal deadline; after that date, unless warranted by
documented extenuating circumstances as described in the
Withdrawal from Courses section of the Student Handbook, a grade
of F or U shall be assigned.
For more information on what counts as informed and active
participation, please see the Informed and Active Participation
Assignment Guidelines.
Classroom Behavior
The policy on student academic misconduct is outlined in the
Student Conduct Code Academic Misconduct Policy online
(http://www.winthrop.edu/uploadedFiles/studentconduct/
StudentHandbook.pdf). Our online classroom environments
including but not limited to our blogs, course listserv, Blackboard
WRIT 502-001 | Fall 2014 | Syllabus | 9
Image Credits
Drawing by Alan Dunn, The New Yorker, 1966
The Future of Books by Kyle Bean. A working laptop
inserted into a book.
A photo of one of three prototype Blink (book + link)
created by Manolis Kelaidis. The books, The Making of
blueBook: Completing the Connection between the Analogue and
Digital Worlds, were printed with conductive ink. The
boxed words, such as Mona Lisa, function as touchsensitive hotlinks that will call up information on a
connected computer.
A sketch of the variable-card counting mechanism for
Charles Babbages planned but unbuilt Analytical Engine.
The notes on the Analytical Engine written by Ada
Augusta, Countess of Lovelace and daughter of Lord
George Gordon Byron include the first algorithm
intended to be performed by a machine, making her the
first computer programmer.
Winthrop English
Department
Facebook Page
Writing Center
The Writing Center provides support for
all students in all Winthrop classes free of
charge. It is located in 242 Bancroft (x-2138). Check its web page
(http://www.winthrop.edu/wcenter/) for current hours.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank and acknowledge both Dr. Jo Koster
and Dr. Sarah Spring for their gracious sharing of past syllabi and
WRIT 502-001 | Fall 2014 | Syllabus | 10