Computers and Writing
Fall 2002

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 rhetorical challenges of writing for the Web
• 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. Research projects will focus on communication issues. Readings will be from both print and electronic texts, and our discussion will be both f2f and online.

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
• Stephenson: Snow Crash
• Williams and Tollett: The Non-Designer's Web Book
• Dery: Escape Velocity
• 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 Snow Crash, which will become part of the class's Snow Crash web site.
   • A second hypertext on a technology/computer/internet topic.
4. There will also be a couple shorter exploratory writings to be posted on the Blackboard site.
5. Research Project: This is a group project. Groups of two or three will develop a presentation to be delivered to an outside audience. The topics will be on electronic communication.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Exploratory reading. I expect everyone to read (print or on-line) 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.

Grades:

Home page: 10%
Snow Crash Project: 20%
Hypertext project: 20%
Research project: 20%
Bulletin Board participation: 15%
Class participation and written exercises: 15%

SPECIAL NEEDS:

If you have a condition which requires physical accommodation in the classroom, or which may interfere with your completion of any course requirements, please let me know at once. If illness or personal emergency prevents you from attending class at any time, please let me know by phone or email. If at any time you feel you are falling behind or failing to work up to your potential, come in to see me.

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 Tue, Wed, Thur; in Simpkins, Mon 1-2, Tue 10:30-11:00, Wed 1-2, Fri 1-2

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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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