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unique #28400 |
Professor
M. A.
Syverson |
Office: PAR 124 |
This course contains a Substantial Writing Component
Note: When sending email about this class, please put the class number (330) as the first item in the subject line of your message.
This Web site contains important information about the policies of this course. You should read and understand the information posted here. If you are not clear about any aspect of the course, its requirements, activities, or method of evaluation, please let me know. You may save the text of any page by choosing the "Save As" command in the File menu of Netscape. Students who remain in the class after the 12th class day are assumed to accept these policies.
The search which we make for this quality, in our own lives, is the central search of any person, and the crux of any individual person's story. It is the search for those moments when we are most alive.
In order to define this quality in buildings and in towns, we must begin by understanding that every place is given its character by certain patterns of events that keep on happening there. . . .
The people can shape buildings for themselves, and have done it for centuries, by
using languages which I call pattern languages. A pattern language gives each
person who uses it the power to create an infinite variety of sentences.
All texts create a shared space, all writing is situated in time and place. What kinds of places do writers construct, and how does a sense of place impact on audiences? How can the computer, a single medium for composing, provide a sense of such diverse places as the millions of Web pages, thousands of news groups and computer forums, virtual worlds such as MOOs and MUDs collaborative environments such as Interchange, desktops, directories, spreadsheets, databases, and other applications representing abstract spaces?
The spaces we construct both enable and constrain the activities that will take place there. Conventional print texts offer the audience little opportunity for interactions that will alter the textual environment; computer-based spaces open up the range of interactions possible among readers, writers, and texts. In MOOs and MUDs, for example, a place is not merely described, it becomes activated by readers, with objects that can be picked up and examined, "active" parts of the description that can be programmed to provide a wide range of possibilities for acting and interacting with spaces in new ways. Moving beyond description, simple page layout, or even visual design this course explores the architecture of spaces in text, mixed media, and hypermedia.
Students will choose and engage in various construction projects, both individually and collaboratively, developing a richer understanding of the importance of place in writing, and greater control over their own composing. They will also gain experience composing for the new spaces that computers afford. Students will experiment with creating hypertexts, Web pages, and textual places in a MOO or MUD. Readings will be drawn from architecture (Christopher Alexander), contemporary poetry (Hejinian and Reznikoff), landscape architecture (principally the Japanese theories of design), literary journalism (Didion and McPhee), cognitive science (Hutchins and Fauconnier), anthropology (Bohannon), and technology (MOO archives at Xerox Parc and MIT).
Grading Policy: Grades in this course are determined on the basis of an Online Learning Record, which accompanies a portfolio of work presented at the midterm and at the end of the course. These portfolios present a selection of student work, both formal and informal, completed during the semester, ongoing observations about student learning, and analysis of student work and interpretations with respect to the student's development across five dimensions of learning: confidence and independence, knowledge and understanding, skills and strategies, use of prior and emerging experience, and reflectiveness. This development centers around the major strands of work in the course: rhetoric and composition, research, technology, and collaboration. There are four major projects, including composing the Online Learning Record itself. In addition, there will be ongoing reading, informal writing, collaborative work developing the class Web site. All assigned work must be completed to receive a passing grade in this course. The format, scope, and topic of projects is decided through individual consultation with the instructor.
Writing component of the course: Three major projects including topic proposal, drafts, and final revision; informal writing as assigned, generally weekly, and completion of the Online Learning Record. See table below for links to assignments.
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Course Information | |||
Questions? Email Peg Syverson:
syverson@uts.cc.utexas.edu