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Last updated 3/5/1996
Course and Contact Information
English 574C: History and Theories of Writing
5 Credit Hours
Winter 1996 * TR 9:30-11:18
307 Denney Hall
Call #07243-6
Professor Lewis Ulman
Office: 466 Denney Hall
Office Hours: MW 12:30-2:00 p.m. and by appointment
Phone: 614-292-22275
Fax: 614-292-7816
Messages: 292-6065 (or use mailbox in 421 Denney Hall)
E-mail: ulman.1@osu.edu
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Course Description
As new technologies of writing evolveÑfrom alphabets to printing to digital text and
hypertext networks--the relationships among writers, readers, and texts transform.
New technologies offer new possibilities for communication, but they also help us
reevaluate familiar technologies and probe the complex relationships among technology, writing,
reading, and culture. In English 574C, we will ask questions like the following:
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Course Objectives
Our overall goal is not only to discover what others know or think about writing but
also to observe for ourselves and reflect upon the roles of written communication
in our individual lives and in our society. Toward that end, we will look critically
at the symbol systems, artifacts, modes of reading and writing, and institutions of literate culture that inscribe so much of our experience. We will begin by acquiring a vocabulary and set of concepts that help to "bring into view" the materiality of writing--its nature as a system of visible signs significantly different from the articulate sounds of speech. I hope that this course will enable you to assess writing in all its forms from
three broad perspectives:
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Course Readings
All three books and the course packet are required reading. The books are available
only from the Student Book Exchange (SBX) on High Street, and the course packet is
available from Grade A Notes on East 17th Avenue. Please make every effort to pick
up the course packet immediately, as we will begin working with it on January 4.
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Course Schedule
I have outlined below our readings for the course. We will divide our readings into
an introduction and four case studies of technological change in writing and reading:
Topics:
Processes:
4. The Late Age of Print or the Digital Dawn?
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Course Procedures
The following list of procedures will help you plan, conduct, and complete your work
in this course. Please read it carefully and ask me any questions you may have about
it. Keep in mind that these procedures constitute a "contract" that you and I must
respect if our work together is to go smoothly.
Conferences: Please see me in my office if you have questions or problems that we do not address during our class meetings. You do not need an appointment to see me during my scheduled office hours--just stop by room 460 Denney or call me at 292-2275 between 12:30-2:00 p.m. MW. If I don't answer or you find my door closed, please wait five minutes and call (or knock) again--I may be running an errand in the building. If my office hours are inconvenient for you, call or see me after class to set up an appointment for another time that is convenient for both of us. Please don't wait until a problem becomes urgent before coming to see me; I can't always schedule an appointment immediately.
E-mail. Electronic mail is perhaps the best way to ask an informational question about the course that you forgot to ask in class, submit a draft for me to review and respond to, or to notify me of an unavoidable absence and inquire about missed work. If you are not already a regular user of electronic mail, you should let me know immediately, and I will help you get up to speed. My e-mail address is <ulman.1@osu.edu>, and you can expect me to check my e-mail frequently during weekdays and at least twice over the weekend. If you are faced with a real emergency, though, don't rely on e-mail, which is usually delivered in a matter of minutes, but can sometimes take hours or days to be delivered, when campus e-mail traffic is especially high.
Attendance: We will devote much of our class time to discussion and in-class authoring, so your attendance is essential to the success of the course. An occasional absence may be unavoidable, but please limit it to that. You are responsible for any work due, assigned, or done in any class you miss. You must assume that your grade will suffer if you miss class.
Submission of Course Work: I will provide you with detailed directions for individual assignments; in addition, I list below some general instructions that I must ask you to follow so that I may respond fairly and efficiently to your work:
Promptness. I cannot accept any late work unless you have made arrangements for an extension before the due date (genuine emergencies excepted). Please do not assume that I will automatically agree to extensions.
Format and Backups. Because of the special nature of the work in this course, we will discuss the format of your work as we go along. My only general instruction is that you always keep a paper and/or disk copy of any work you submit.
Convention. Misspellings, typos, and serious grammatical blunders can, at worst, change the sense of your argument; at best, they distract even an attentive reader. Problems of this sort will affect your grade. If you would like special assistance with grammar or spelling, please see me. Proofreading is your responsibility, and you must allow time to do it carefully.
Plagiarism and Copyright. I take a dim view of cheating, and I will report any suspected plagiarism to appropriate university authorities. But I also realize that using sources correctly and effectively requires training and practice, particularly in new electronic media, and we will discuss these issues in class. If you have questions about how to use sources, please see me before submitting your work.
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Assignments and Evaluation
The assignments in the course fall into four broad categories:
Mid-term exam. During the first half of the quarter, I will present a series of short lectures on the history and theory of writing in order to provide you with a vocabulary and set of concepts to aid your reading and other work in the course. The mid-term will cover the material presented in those lectures.
Term project. Your term project will consist of a World Wide Web site investigating some aspect of the relationships among technology, writing, and reading. You may work on a topic of your own choosing, and you may collaborate with one or two of your classmates, if you wish. During the course of the quarter, I will ask you (or your group) to submit a proposal and a progress in addition to your final project. Finally, you will present your final project to the class at a colloquium at the end of the quarter.
Participation. I value your participation in our class discussions and reserve a portion of your grade to recognizing that participation. Your participation grade will cover in-class and on-line participation.
Evaluation. Your grade for the course will be calculated according to a point system; that is, instead of a letter grade, you will receive a number of points for each assignment submitted.
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