"Only connect! . . .Live in fragments no longer.Ó E. M. Forster, Howards End (1910), ch. 22
ÔOne day when I was twenty-three or twenty-four this sentence seemed to form in my head, without my willing it, much as sentences form when we are half-asleep, ÔHammer your thoughts into unityÕ. For days I could think of nothing else and for years I tested all I did by that sentence [...]Ó William Butler Yeats (cited in Frank Tuohy, Yeats <, 1976, p.51 )
Explore Texas
FS301, 35590, FALL 05, Jerome Bump, SWC*
Instructor: Bump; <mailto:bump@mail.utexas.edu>; Office: PAR 132 Office phone: 471-8747
Computer-Assisted Instruction/ Substantial Writing Component*
4-6 FAC 7; office hours: Tu. 6:30-9 PM TH 3:30-4 and by appointment.
ÒLarger universities must find ways to find ways to create a sense of place and to help students develop small communities within the larger whole.Ó CarnegieÕs Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for AmericaÕs Research Universities (http://notes.cc.sunysb.edu/Pres/boyer.nsf)
VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION :
*SWC: All students are required to pass at least two substantial writing component courses to graduate from U.T. All Freshman Seminars are substantial writing component courses. " To be certified as a substantial writing component (SWC) course, the following criteria must be met: 1 The course must include at least three writing assignments per semester, exclusive of exams and quizzes. 2 The three or more writing assignments must total approximately 16 typewritten, double-spaced pages (about 4,000 words.) 3 A major rewriting of an assignment that requires additional original writing and not merely editing can be considered a separate assignment. 4 Students must receive timely and detailed critique following each writing assignment concerning the quality of their writing and suggestions for improvement. 5 The performance on the writing assignments must be an important component of the studentÕs course grade." (http://www.utexas.edu/provost/policies/writing/)
Only two of these courses need be passed in your U. T. career. So it may not be a good idea to take one your first semester if writing is not your strong suit. In the first semester, many students make the mistake of studying like they did in high school and/or trying to do too many extracurricular activities, with the result that they fail out of U.T. or start off in a big hole. This is especially true if they take a substantial writing component course in that semester without realizing all the work involved. For example, I only know one student, a valedictorian of Strake Jesuit, who was able to both join a fraternity and do well in a SWC course in his first semester. All the others in that situation I have known have had to choose between the two.
Computer-Assisted Instruction. Because two of the "Five Characteristics of a Successful Student at U.T." are "Good computer skills" and "Strong writing skills" this course emphasizes computer dexterity as well as writing ability. Hence, even if you are good at writing, if you have trouble with computers this course may not be for you. You will be required to use U.T.'s Blackboard software to receive and send email several times a week, to post and reply to journals and projects on its Discussion Boards, and to convert your writing documents into hypertext, multimedia projects and upload them to U.T.'s Webspace system. Other courses will also require the use of Blackboard and perhaps Webspace, but this course goes beyond introducing you to these programs. We will be using a Virtual World of U.T. and Oxford to explore the college experience. This virtual world is a MOO (a multi-user, object-oriented environment) which evolved from the old Dungeons and Dragons text-based adventure games. Probably about half of the students in the course will make their projects part of this virtual world, by writing about places in it and/or creating "bots" (robots), characters who seem to be able to carry on a conversation with a visitor to the virtual world.
Course Description. We will use the MOO, the internet, and our formal and informal writing, to develop a sense of this state, this town, and especially this university, as your place, your Alma Mater (nurturing mother). We will focus on the physical environments of the university, especially the older buildings and various nature sites on campus and in the vicinity. Classes will be held at different campus buildings and at Waller Creek; the Biology Ponds; J. Frank Dobie's house and related statues of horses and cattle along San Jacinto Street; related exhibits at the Story of Texas Museum; and the Humanities Research Center, home to rare book, manuscript, and art collections. Off campus, we will explore the Japanese garden at Zilker Park, the state Capitol building, and St. MaryÕs cathedral downtown (third-hour credit will be given for these excursions). As you explore Òyour place,Ó you will write answers to basic questions about your self and your environments, such as Òwhat is thisÓ? Òwhere did it come from?Ó and Òwhy is it here?Ó We will discover that objects around us are palimpsests with layers of meaning we can trace through time back to various eras and places.
Readings: A related goal is to define your college experience, especially by comparing it to that of others unlike ourselves. Thus, we will begin with the questions ÒWho am I?Ó and ÒWhat am I doing here?Ó Focusing on how ÒplaceÓ shapes the experience of those who inhabit it, we will begin with accounts of the purposes of universities, synthesis, discovery learning, and undergraduate life, including a comparison of your experiences and Alice's in CarrollÕs Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.
Grades. The final grade (1000 points) will be determined as follows: about 40% by multimedia projects (10% for each draft -- 100 points each), 10% by the final portfolio of all your writing (100 points); 13% by informal writing (130 points); 10 % by fifteen third-hour activities (15 X 6.7 = 100); and 7% by class participation (14 X 5 = 70). Points will be reduced for each class day assignments are late. Grades are not negotiable: students will receive exactly the grade recorded in the online gradebook, even if it is one point short of the next higher grade. 900 points are required for an A-; 800 for a B-; 700 for a C-; 600 for a D-.
Formal Writing. All students will create two multimedia writing projects on the web, of at least five to seven pages each, which can be combined to make a longer project. In any case, they must be extensively revised. The basic question is “How Would My Life Be Different and How Would It Be Similar if I Attended U. T. in Earlier Times or One of the English Universities Whose Seals Appear on the West Wall of the Main Building.” Most initial comments on the projects will be made in Blackboard Discussion format by the other students, with the instructor then focusing on polishing subsequent hard copies for word choice, punctuation, etc.
Rewriting (the secret of almost all great writing) and preparing almost perfect final drafts will be stressed. For these activities, good time managment is crucial. It will be rewarded and procrastination heavily penalized.
Another basic principle of this course is reading. The first test of reading throughout the course will be the ability to read directions and suggestions for assignments, and especially the ability to search through details and Òread the fine print,Ó as they say.
Projects can be devoted to creating virtual worlds of U.T. or Oxford. Some students will enlarge the places and genii locii of our virtual world known as the MOO.Check it out at Mappa Mundi (Mac users should use Firefox.) Use "Browse" for now. When you get your password you will be able to converse with the ghosts. Can you find your way to Oxford from U.T. in the MOO?
Informal Writing includes reading journals posted in Blackboard Discussion Boards, in-class exercises and quizzes, and your individual learning record (LR), short essays that encourage students to set their own goals and become aware of their learning styles and obstacles. The LR includes a personal narrative, an analysis of the learning and writing tendencies of your psychological "type," and short interpretive essays written at midterm and semester's end.
Class participation consists of showing up in class on time with the right books, having read the material assigned for that day, and being prepared to talk about it. Students are encouraged to post journal pages about the readings the day before class. In any case, it is important to share in class: one of the goals of the course is better spoken as well as written communication, and learning to listen when others are speaking.
Portfolio. The final portfolio consists of clean copies of your essays (no highlighting, corrections, or extraneous comments), your third-hour reports, learning record, other informal writing, and any other relevant materials.
Third-hour requirements.ÒStudents in seminars meeting two hours per week will be required to attend twelve hours of Ôthird-hourÕ events. Also, all students in the Freshman Seminars Program must attend the following three third-hour activities: a library workshop scheduled during a class period, a talk given by a staff member of the Undergraduate Writing Center, and a session on time management presented by a staff member from the Learning Skills Center.Ó
Texts: The course anthology, an absolutely essential collection of xeroxed materials to be purchased from Jenn's, 2000 Guadalupe (basement of the ÒChurch of ScientologyÓ at 22nd, 473-8669); The Annotated Alice by Lewis Carroll, ed. Martin Gardner (W. W. Norton -- You must buy this book as you will be tested on the annotations); and The Writing Skills Handbook, 5th edition, by Charles Bazerman (Houghton Mifflin). (You must buy this book as my corrections on your essays will be based on its code and you will not understand them otherwise).
Fees: As much as $12.50 may be required for the Story of Texas museum.
Computer literacy required. Students should be familiar with keyboarding, operating systems, word processing, electronic mail, and web-browsing. Students will be expected to check their email frequently (maintaining the correct email address in the U.T. Direct system) along with the course Discussion Boards and Online Gradebook. Students are encouraged to download pictures from our class web site and use multimedia to fulfill all the writing requirements and ultimately collect everything on one portfolio web site. Even if a relatively traditional essay format is chosen for projects, pictures must be scanned into the text, if need be, and text wrapped around them, if possible.
HTML. If students are going to do advanced web projects, they must have or acquire basic HTML skills on their own in the first month. Website project students should expect to spend a considerable amount of time outside of class, sitting in front of a computer, and may thus find it useful to attend some of the free classes and workshops on various technical topics offered by ACITS, TeamWeb, or the General Libraries. See http://www.utexas.edu/computer/classes/http://www.utexas.edu/cc/training/handouts/tutorials.html#internet
About the Professor: Jerome Bump was awarded the Jeanne Holloway Award for undergraduate teaching, the Dad's Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship for instructing Freshmen, the Rhodes Centennial Teaching Fellowship for directing the Computer Writing and Research Laboratory (devoted primarily to lower division instruction), and chosen as a Mortor Board Preferred Professor. He is the author of Gerard Manley Hopkins and many essays and reviews. At the moment he particularly interested in writing about nature and architecture, especially gargoyles. For more information about his teaching philosophy see http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~bump/
