Honor Code



Tulane University

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

ENLS 101-04: Writing, Technology, and Identity Elizabeth Kalos

Monday and Wednesday 9:00-10:50am Tel:

Location: ekalos@tulane.edu

Norman Mayer 202

Hours: MW 11:00-12:00

Course Description:

This course is first and foremost an introduction to college composition, and as such will seek to expand and refine your understanding and practice of academic and public discourse. The texts we read, consisting mostly of essays and two short novels, will serve as springboards from which we will begin an investigation of the composition process. We will explore methods of generating topics for composition—including response, synthesis, and critique—as well as the effectively arrangement of those ideas into an argument through use of exposition, analysis, and persuasion. Like in the realm of music and athletics, improvement in writing can only really be achieved through training and repetition. Therefore, this course will provide ample amounts of practice time in generating and arranging ideas, as well as supporting claims, revising and editing drafts, stylizing sentences for maximum effectiveness, and conducting library research and incorporating quotes from outside sources. The texts we read will serve as rhetorical models, as well as foundations upon which to build our own understanding of how technology has infiltrated our relationship with language, and thereby has influenced how we define ourselves as individuals. No matter what field you choose as your major and no matter what career you will pursue after your degree, the level of comfort with the written word that this course seeks to give you will aid you in producing clear, precise communications, and in understanding and deconstructing the arguments of others.

Course Introduction:

Writing has long been a tool used by individuals to contemplate the meaning of their own lives and their position within the society at large. From the most informal genres, such as diaries and journals, to highly structured ones like poetry, language structures our thoughts and emotions in a way that we can come to terms with them on an individual level, while at the same time, creating a physical document that can serve to share our thoughts with others, making possible human connections without mandating physical presence. Modern technology has facilitated writing as a mode of expression in a number of ways. Just as the printing press extended the bounds of communication by making production and distribution of written material easy and efficient, the internet today has increased this capacity immensely. This course will examine this intersection between writing and technology. In what ways is our relationship with language being influenced and transformed by the abundance of technology in our everyday lives? Futhermore, because language plays such an integral role in the shaping of our self-awareness, how is technology influencing the way we define our identity, both as individuals and as members of the society at large?

Course Goals and Objectives

Students who have successfully completed this course should:

• Understand invention as a set of tools (reading, discussing, freewriting, clustering) for generating ideas within a specific context. Students will cultivate this skill by participating in class discussion of assigned readings, writing approximately 7 responses to readings of 2 pages each, writing three larger papers of 4-5 pages each that respond to texts we read in class, and one research paper of 6-7 pages that incorporates outside research.

• Understand revision as an essential step in structuring and developing a text to connect with a particular audience. Students will cultivate this ability by synthesizing the concerns of their reading responses into the larger papers through significant revision, and by significantly revising and rewriting the focus of the second paper according to subsequent readings.

• Understand analysis as a method of reading one text through the lens of another to discover its key components, subtle connections between these components, and the similarities and differences between it and others of its kind. Students will cultivate this skill in each of the major writing assignments of the semester, and by becoming familiar with the rhetorical styles and techniques employed by the authors of the texts we read.

• Understand argument as a mode of language-use that can include but that ultimately differs from narration, description, exploration, and ornamentation, among others. Again, students will cultivate this skill in each of the major writing assignments of the semester.

• Understand style as a tool for tinkering with sentences and paragraphs to manage ever greater complexity ever more coherently, and ultimately, to tap into the “musical” dimension of language’s power.

• Understand research as a skill that involves exploring both library and internet resources to substantiate claims with academically sound evidence. Students will cultivate this skill by including at least five sources in their final research paper and by developing an annotated bibliography of at least seven sources as part of the drafting process for that project.

Honor Code

By enrolling in Tulane University, you have sworn to uphold the honor code of the University. The full document is available online at:

Statement of the Code:

Every person enrolled in a course offered by the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences of Tulane University shall do honestly all work assigned by instructors, acquire credit of any kind by legitimate means only, and assist no one in obtaining credit to which they are not fully entitled. Every faculty member will work to nurture an environment which fosters adherence to these standards, in part by ensuring fair testing and learning conditions for all students. For the purpose of assuring adherence to these standards, and of providing guidelines for alleged transgressions thereof, the student bodies of Newcomb and Tulane Colleges have adopted the Honor Code. When students and faculty of Newcomb and Tulane Colleges fulfill their responsibilities under the Honor Code, they uphold the honor and integrity of the academic process.

Required Books

Ayn Rand, Anthem

George Orwell, 1984

Course packet – available from Metrocopy, 3143 Calhoun Street (located lakeside from

Claiborne Ave). I highly recommend calling them in advance, 866-8688, to confirm availability before going in.

Assignments and Grading

Students will be responsible for completing any in-class writing assignments, as well as short papers (of approx. 2 pages) occasionally assigned as homework during the semester. A total of seven such writing assignments will be assigned, and graded on a pass/fail system. In addition, students will present an informal summary of observations taken from “field research.” Presentations will be required to include visual aids. These presentations will be worth 3 points.

Total of 10 points.

Students will be responsible for having completed rough drafts for workshop days and for commenting on the rough drafts of others in their groups. Total participation in the drafting process will account for 5 points per workshop session.

Total of 20 points.

Each of the final drafts of the shorter papers will be worth 15 points each.

Total of 45 points.

The final research project will be worth 20 points, with an additional 5 points awarded for completion of annotated bibliography and paper topic presentation.

Total of 25 points.

Attendance Policy

Showing up to class and taking part in class discussions is mandatory. Any more than 3 unexcused absences will result in a grade drop. Any more than 6 absences will result in a failing grade, and withdrawal from course will be strongly recommended. Absences will be excused only if written documentation of the circumstance preventing attendance is presented to the instructor within one week of the missed class.

Late Papers

This course is designed so that each assignment forms the basis for class activities and subsequent writing projects. Therefore, turning in assignments late will be greatly detrimental to the student’s success in class, and is strongly discouraged.

GRADING CRITERIA FOR ENGLISH 101

The A Paper ... is characterized by the freshness, ambition, maturity, coherence, and complexity of its content. Its claims are stated clearly and effectively, supported well, with relevant nuances interpreted and delineated in ways that go beyond the obvious. It manifests a distinctive voice that explicitly engages a meaningful rhetorical context and, in turn, an actual audience. It situates itself thoroughly among assigned readings, perhaps even key, related texts in public discourse. It effectively balances the specific and the general, the compelling detail and the larger point, personal experiences and direct observations of the outer world. It grows out of large-scale revisions (both in terms of content and structure). It not only fulfills the assignment, but inventively uses the assignment as an occasion to excel. Its only errors are purely typographical and quite rare. Finally, it manifests a certain stylistic flair – the bon mot, the well-turned phrase, the significant metaphor – that helps to make it, for the reader, memorable.

The B Paper ... is characterized by content that is a relatively familiar, less daring, less integrated or a little simpler than one might hope. Its claims could use more support or more exploration, or could perhaps be stated more directly. Its voice could be more distinct and it could situate itself more engagingly in the rhetorical context and go farther to reach its audience. It could do more with the assigned readings, create a better balance between specific and general, detail and idea, personal anecdote and larger point. It fulfills the assignment, but in a way slightly perfunctory. It makes very few errors and shows no systematic misunderstanding of the fundamentals of grammar, but its overall structure might appear somewhat uneven. Finally, it could benefit from more large-scale revision and from more careful attention to its style at the sentence-by-sentence level.

The C Paper ... is characterized by overmuch dependence on the self-evident, is dotted with cliché, and is inadequately informative. Its essential point is uninteresting or only hazily set forth or developed aimlessly. It has no particular voice, nor any significant sense of context or audience, nor any real engagement with other texts. In terms of the dynamics between detail and idea, it seems to lose the forest-for-the-trees or vice versa. It fulfills the assignment but does so in a way wholly perfunctory. It has grammatical errors that significantly disrupt the reading experience. It has not been sufficiently revised.

The D Paper ... is characterized by minimal thought and effort, which shows through the absence of a meaningful, central idea or the lack of any controlled development of that idea. It fails to fulfill some key aspect of the assignment. It makes no meaningful use of other texts nor ever situates itself in any sort of context. It needlessly offends its audience. Its sentences and paragraphs are both built around rigidly repeated formula and soon become predictable. It is riddled with error. It has apparently never been revised.

The F Paper ... is characterized by plagiarism or lateness or a total misunderstanding of the assignment or is simply incomprehensible owing to a plethora of error or desperately poor organization. It has not only not been revised – it really hasn’t been begun.

Reading Schedule

Readings and assignments are due on the date they are listed.

Week 1

Aug 31 (W): Introduction to course.

Explanation of course syllabus, requirements, rules of class.

In-class writing: Why are you here? What do you want out of this class?

Discussion of responses.

Week 2

Sept 5: Labor Day Holiday; No class.

Unit 1: The Technology of (Writing) Self-Consciousness

7: Readings to be discussed today:

Brian Hayes, “The Electronic Palimpsest: Digital Documents for All Occasions”

Henry Petroski, “Little Things Can Mean a Lot”

Dennis Baron, “From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies”

Writing assignment due today: Compose a personal narrative about how an element of technology made you reconsider the world in some way. Include reflections similar to those included in the readings for today.

In-class work: Share narrative with partner. Partners tell narrative of other person while original writer takes note of how oral “translation” differs from original.

Week 3

12: Walter J. Ong, “Writing is a Technology that Restructures Thought”

David R. Olson, “Writing and the Mind”

Writing assignment due today: Write about the difference between your original written text and your partner’s oral telling of it, as it is informed by the theories of Ong and Olson.

14: Ayn Rand, Anthem chapters 1-5 (pp.11-67)

How, in this text, is language informed by society? How is the main character’s perception of himself informed by his use of language?

Week 4

19: Ayn Rand, Anthem chapters 6-12 (pp.68-123)

In-class writing: In the book, we saw how the narrative style changes with the transformation of the narrator. Revisit your narrative. Analyze your narrative style. Why did you choose to tell it in that order, in that tone of voice? Judging by the way people reacted to its being told in class, would you change the narrative style in any way? Why or why not?

21: John Holt, “How Teachers Make Children Hate Reading”

Benjamin R. Barber, “America Skips School”

F. Niyi Akinnaso, “Literacy and Individual Consciousness”

How does our relationship with language affect our life plans? What do you think about your level of literacy?

Week 5

26: Draft of Paper #1 due: Rewrite your narrative from Sept. 7 with a consciousness of the revisions you’ve made in class; include references to the reading we’ve done in class.

Workshop activities.

In Unit 1, our readings center around writing as a field of reflection on the world around us. While the readings (aside from the novella Anthem) are not personal narratives, they do include an element of thoughtful reflection on elements of the everyday. I am having them write a narrative for the first week of the semester that is centered around a reflection on an element of the everyday. For example, I would bring up the example of a time when I lost a 13-page essay when my hard drive crashed, which would instigate a reflection on the hazards of digital technology and also had repercussions on my composition process, as I spent years afterwards handwriting large chunks of my essays before typing them into the computer. This personal narrative is designed so that throughout this first portion of the semester, they have a personal investment in the material that is conscious in their minds as they read the fairly impersonal articles.

During the second week of the unit, I have asked them to share their narratives with a partner. This partner is responsible for orally presenting the ideas of the narrative to the class. I am asking the original writer to take notes on how his/her narrative is spoken by a reader to show them 1) how narratives change between written transmission and oral transmission, and 2) how their readers may find importance in aspects of the narrative that the writer didn’t intend. This conscious awareness of narrative style is reinforced by the novella Anthem, which is an example of a narrative composition that reflects on and reacts to its position in a technologically advanced world. Also, it has a very interesting narrative strategy that reflects the values of its society, and consciously changes in the last chapter as a rebellion against that society. Because this narrator is so conscious of his narrative voice, I am asking them to take this awareness and reflect on their own composition.

The writing assignment for the first paper project will grow out of a series of revisiting the initial narrative composition. Because of the number of revisiting of their initial narrative, they will have an increased awareness of the piece of writing as a compositional structure. They will have reflected on how others interpreted their story (i.e. a sense of the reader), and have a heightened awareness of the narrative voice as deliberate.

Unit 2: Government Control: Power and Persuasion from the Forces at the Top

28: Final draft for Paper #1 due.

Screening of a selection from A Clockwork Orange.

Discussion: How is Alex ‘reformed’ by the government? How realistic is the possibility?

Week 6

Oct 3: Foucault, “Panopticism”

In-class writing: With your group, form an outline of Foucault’s main points from an assigned section of the text. Present your section to the class.

5: Foucault, “Panopticism”

In-class writing: With your group, draw connections between Foucault’s theory and Clockwork Orange. Present your ideas to the class.

Week 7

10: Pat J. Gehrke, “Deviant Subjects in Foucault and A Clockwork Orange: Congruent Critiques of Criminological Constructions of Subjectivity”

Writing assignment due today: Compare your analysis of the connection between the movie and Foucault to Gehrke. What parts are similar? What does Gehrke talk about that your group didn’t? After having read the Gehrke article, have you changed your opinion? Why or why not?

12: George Orwell, 1984 Section 1 (5-87)

Discussion: What connections do you see between the novel and Gehrke, Foucault, and the movie?

Week 8

17: George Orwell, 1984 Section 2 (88-185)

19: George Orwell, 1984 Section 3 (186-245)

Introduce project—spend 2 hours sometime this weekend observing how things in the world are designed to grab your attention and influence your actions: advertising, building design, people, TV, radio, etc. Write an informal summary of what you experienced, and create a visual presentation that incorporates elements of your observations and your analysis.

Week 9

24: Presentation of projects to the class.

26: Draft of Paper #2 due: Reflect on the reality of your experiences as they relate to 1984 and/or A Clockwork Orange.

Workshop papers; discuss incorporation of Foucault and/or Gehrke.

Week 10

31: No class—Conferences with instructor regarded progress so far. Bring essay to conference. Discuss how you are going to incorporate/have incorporated reference to Foucault/Gehrke.

The unit was designed with a focus on analysis. How do we respond to outside influences, be they in our everyday lives (i.e. government control) or in our compositions (i.e. referencing an academic “expert”)? Their first assignment of this unit is to make their own connections between a movie and a complex theory of how power works written by Foucault. We then read an “expert” analysis published in a notable scholarly journal. The students are assigned to pick out parts of the article that are useful to them or that present useful elements they hadn’t considered, and are encouraged to disagree with parts they don’t like or find ‘wrong’ or unconstructive.

The students are then asked to do “field research,” in which they spend two hours out in the world in a state of intense observation. They are to think about how the “real world” works in contrast to the hyper-paranoia of 1984. With this text immediately in their minds, what things do they notice that they might not have otherwise? How is their attention being demanded by advertisements, etc.? Is this a type of mind-control? Also, how are they being watched, in terms of security equipment? This assignment and the rough draft of the paper ask them to compare and contrast their personal experiences with fictional narrative. It is only after this critical awareness of the narratives is achieved that I ask them to revisit the theoretical pieces, namely, how can they incorporate or refute Foucault’s theory, using empirical and narrative evidence?

Unit 3: Writing the Media Writing the Self

Nov 2: Final draft of Paper #2 due.

Neal Gabler, “The Mediated Self”

In-class writing: Reflect on ways your life has been ‘mediated’ by media. Share with class.

Week 11

7: Baudrillard, “The Precession of Simulacra” from Simulacra and Simulation. Read pp.1-27

9: Baudrillard, “The Precession of Simulacra” from Simulacra and Simulation. Read pp. 27-40

This week will be structured much like the week with Foucault, with group work being done to parse the theory of this article.

Week 12

14: Draft of Paper #3 due: Rewrite your observations from Paper #2, this time instead of incorporating Foucault and his theories of power, think about it in terms of the Mediated Self and Simulacra.

Workshop.

This unit is designed to take a different angle of the same elements introduced in unit 2. Instead of looking at the possibility of how an individual can be directly controlled and influenced by an outside source, this unit introduces the more subtle idea that the individual self is created through its intricate relationship to its surrounding environment. For the paper assignment, students are asked to revisit the empirical work of “real world” observations, and this time, interpret it through the lens of Baudrillard/ Gabler instead of Foucault. This is to further reinforce the concept of revisiting and rethinking ideas in light of new information. The goal is to heighten students’ awareness that one idea or situation can be examined from many different angles, and that each angle determines the interpretation of the experience, in this case, making it more or less threatening, or more or less insidious.

Unit 4: Researching and Writing Other Voices

16: Final draft of Paper #3 due.

Discuss options for final paper; talk about methods of conducting research, including use of internet sources. Visit library; scavenger hunt for sources.

Week 13

21: No class. Conferences with instructor regarding ideas for final research project.

23: Thanksgiving Break begins; No class.

Week 14

28: Myka Vielstimmig, “Petals on a Wet Black Bough: Textuality, Collaboration, and the New Essay”

Johndan Johnson-Eilola, “The Database and the Essay: Understanding Composition as Articulation”

Discuss how computer technology is changing our relationship with language. What issues of authority and ownership are at stake? Do you see any of these issues taking shape in your life at all? (What about in relationship to music?)

30: Annotated Bibliography due today—paragraph summaries of 5 sources related to your paper idea.

Present paper topic to class.

Week 15

5: No class. Conferences with instructor regarding progress of class, direction of research paper.

7: Draft of Research Paper due.

Workshop.

Final draft of Research Paper due by Wednesday, December 14.

The final weeks of the semester are difficult because of the Thanksgiving break coming within only a few weeks of the last day of classes. This doesn’t leave much time to introduce new material. The two articles we do read talk about computer technology, and the influence it can have on our compositional styles. I include these at this point because they deal with the issue of gathering sources and hearing many different voices at once, which is what they will be experiencing as they work on their research projects. I am stressing the research by requiring an annotated bibliography, so that the last unit is mainly directed by their individual work that leads them towards their personal interests. The research topic will be very broad, to allow students freedom to find something they are interested in. I am requiring the students to have a lot of personal interaction with me, so that I can track their developing ideas, and ward off possibilities for purchased essays. I am also allowing them the opportunity to do content- and style-based revisions of previous essays. This would allow them to revisit early essays and improve them with the level of comfort with writing that they have developed during the course of the semester, however, I have refused the possibility that any extra credit points will be awarded for “editing” corrections. This is mainly because I don’t want to have to read through essays that have three additional comma splices; it’s a waste of my time and doesn’t serve to improve the student’s writing by that great of a measure.

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