Rhetoric and Scholarly Writing Assignments

		major assignments		due date

		future perfect . . . . write a 1-pg 'future perfect' informal paper in which you set out some personal goals for this course using only the 'future perfect' tense. What will have been your trajectory in the course? Evaluation will be pass/fail.		sept 8
		mystory project: In this project each of you will create a personal 'mystory,' a genre invented by Gregory Ulmer, through which you document/map your situation or relationship to each of 4 institutions: career, family, entertainment, and community history. The project may be created as a web or MOOspace (using Lingua MOO). Following the documentation of these relationships, you will interlink the four sections in a way that brings out a pattern. Finally, you will create an 'emblem' that is symbolic of this pattern. Evaluation will be based on the 13 point scale and comprises 50% of the course evaluation grade. mystory slides (pdf format)		nov 10
		ourstory project: Using the same principles (and structure) applied to your 'mystory' project, you will work in your group to produce an 'ourstory' that documents/maps some abstract concept of the group's choosing that should produce an application of 'digital rhetorics' in both theory and practice. The 'ourstory' may take the form of a website, a MOOspace, a blog, a podcast, a game, or some other digital genre. Examples of some abstract concepts you might choose are: borders, movement, structure, play, language, environment, home, interface, language, and so forth. linchpin: The linchpin that holds this project together is its relation to some fundamental aspect of the human condition, specifically with an eye toward improving the world. As Greg Ulmer describes it: "The internet brings into potential communication all the institutions of society. To dramatize that reality [he and come colleagues] created a thought experiment--a conceptual consulting agency called the EmerAgency--as a framework to motivate the website projects in [his] classes. The EmerAgency is a consultancy 'without portfolio.' We imagine it as an umbrella organization gathering through the power of digital linking all the inquiries of students around the world and forming them into a 'fifth estate,' whose purpose is to witness and testify, to give a voice to a part of the public left out of community decision making, especially from policy formation. The philosopher Wittgenstein once said that even if we could solve all the technical or scientific problems, we would still leave the human question untouched. The EmerAgency approaches public or community problems in terms of this human question, from the perspectives of the humanities and liberal arts" (Internet Invention 1). Written synopsis due in exam office on nov 25. Evaluation will be based on a group oral presentation at the exam period.		nov 25