Computers and Writing
Spring 2001

The course will be an introduction to the field of computers and composition. We will consider:

• the (approximately) twenty-year history of the discipline,
• the changes that computers and networks bring to writing theory, practice, and pedagogy,
• the social and political issues raised by computer-mediated communication and the internet, and
• the possible future applications.

We will focus primarily on networked communication, the internet, the web, and hypertext. We will write email, bulletin board messages, MOO rooms, and web pages. Readings will be from both print and electronic texts, and our discussion will be both f2f and online.

In addition, we will work extensively on rhetorical skills, particularly as applied to writing for the web. Web rhetoric is an emerging sub-discipline that we're still struggling to understand. You should, by the end of this course, have more understanding and expertise in web rhetoric than the majority of those currently publishing on the web. (This course fulfills the department's upper-level writing requirement for undergraduates.)

Texts:

• Hacker: A Pocket Style Manual
• Egan: Permutation City
• Faigley: The Longman Guide to the Web
• Clark: The Wired Society
• Flanders and Willis: Web Pages that Suck
• Assigned readings from web (linked on Blackboard site)
• Web publications of class members

Requirements:

1. Faithful attendance. Serious illness or family emergency are the only reasons for absence.
2. Equally faithful completion of reading assignments on time.
3. Web writing assignments will be worked on all semester; you should, however, have a reasonable draft on the indicated due dates.
   • A home page to be posted on the World Wide Web and linked to this syllabus. (See my Technology Page for HTML guidelines.)
   • A hypertext on the novel Permutation City, which will become part of the class's Permutation City web site.
   • A second hypertext on a technology/computer/internet topic of your choice.
4. There will also be a couple shorter exploratory writings to be posted on the Blackboard site.
5. Postings to the Blackboard Discussion Board at least three times a week. Postings can include responses to readings, to points raised in class, to one another's ideas and questions. All posts should observe standard netiquette conventions.
6. Participation. We will be acting as a discourse community, writing and talking in order to discover meaning. Your participation in the class discussion is essential.
7. Exploratory reading. I expect everyone to read whatever you can get your hands on relating to the Internet, email, hypertext, World Wide Web, etc, and to share what you discover on the bulletin board.
8. Net exploring. We will collectively explore internet resources: liservs and newsgroups, gopher, World Wide Web. You will share your discoveries with the class and include them in your home page.
9. Students taking the course for graduate credit will have an additional assignment TBA.

Grades:

Home page: 15%
Permutation City Project: 25%
Hypertext project: 25%
Bulletin Board participation: 15%
Class participation and written exercises: 20%

A little amusement

Cyberpunk Bookshelf

Office: Simpkins 217 Phone: 298-2212 email: mfbhl@wiu.edu homepage: http://www.wiu.edu/users/mfbhl/ Office hours in Connections MOO, 8-9 Weeknights; in Simpkins, Mon and Wed 3-4, Tue and Thu 1:30-2:30

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Escape clause: This syllabus is subject to revision as circumstances dictate. You can expect additional links to be added with some regularity--check it often!.

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