Syllabus
ENG 251 Writing About Society and Culture
(698-01)
Jennifer Marlow
TR 9:25 – 11:05; SPR ‘07; ALB307
Office (Marcelle 2nd flr) Hours: WED 1:30 – 2:30, TUES 8:25 – 9:25am, and by appointment
marlowj@strose.edu
Texts and required materials
** Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of the SONY Walkman (Culture Media and Identity series vol. 1) eds. Du Gay, Paul, Stuart Hall et. al. Sage Publications
**Binder clip
**flash drive
**A working St. Rose email address.
**Please, also, plan to put aside some additional funds for copying materials that will be on reserve in the library—I’m guessing that you’ll need about $4.00 – $10.00.
Course Description and Objectives:
This class will explore various definitions of culture, writing about culture, and the ways that society shapes and is shaped by culture. Definitions of culture are constantly changing, but this class will be informed by the belief that culture is representative of the way(s) in which language, art, media, politics and lived experience are in constant flux and conflict as they shape our consciousness.
• Learn to analyze and interpret (or “read”) various texts, objects,“artifacts.”
• Ask and work to answer the question: How do the “artifacts” and everyday objects of our existence help us to make meaning of a particular society and/or culture at a particular time in history.
• Write in various modes: online, essays, editorials, researched paper. And seek to understand the differences between these kinds of writing based on context and audience.
• Produce your own scholarship/writing that relates to culture and society.
Attendance
I strongly urge you to attend EVERY class session, as participation is vital to the course’s survival. Missing class will hurt your participation grade for that day (see Grading below), but I do allow four (4) absences. This DOES NOT mean four absences PLUS absences for illness, personal crises, etc. These four absences are to be used for those purposes. Please use them wisely. After four absences there will be a three-point deduction off the final grade for each class missed. Good attendance and participation could be the difference between a B+ and an A-.
Lateness is also unacceptable. If you arrive to class after attendance has been taken, it will count as half of an absence (two “latenesses” = one absence).
Attendance does NOT automatically mean participation. I expect you all to participate in in-class discussion and group work. I expect you to be to class on time with all the materials read for class and all assignments completed. **Please note: the assignment(s) that follow the dates are to be written/read for that day’s class.
Late Assignments will be reduced by a full letter grade for each class day that they are late. Each student will get one extension but you must talk to me about the context surrounding the lateness of your assignment. Assignments must be handed in at the start of class, or they will be considered late. I do NOT accept assignments via email.
When emailing me please include in the subject line your class section and time, as well as a brief description of what the email is regarding. In the email be sure to include your FULL name.
Do not discard any drafts, assignments, papers, or research materials you produce during the semester. You may need to refer to these at various points in the semester, and you will also be required to include all drafts (commented copies especially), brainstorming, outlining, etc. each time you hand in a final draft of any assignment. (Please see formatting guidelines for further details).
Please turn off cell phones during class; do not answer them during class; do not text message during class. Please do not use the computers during class time, unless you are otherwise instructed.
I “perform” once. If you miss class or miss something during class you must contact a classmate in order to find out what you’ve missed. It is your responsibility to get the proper information and catch up on what you’ve missed. I will distribute an e-mail list, but I strongly suggest you also get the phone number of at least one peer.
Please be respectful of your peers and their ideas. You never know who might be sitting next to you—their stories, their background—please be aware of the potential to offend. On the other side of that though, please let your voices be heard. The classroom is a shared space with a range of experiences and insights that we can all learn from.
Grading
blogging and commenting on peers’ blogs 15% (extra credit pts. For each additional blog entry; extra points will spill over into participation grade and/or in-class writing grade)
blogging portfolio (figured into 15% blogging grade)
participation 10%
essay about a movie or song or album 10%
paper from group project 25%
group presentation 10%
letter to the editor or radio essay or poetry as cultural commentary (your choice) 10%
in-class writing 10%
discussion starter w/ complementary in-class writing activity 10%
Course Requirements:
Reading and writing are inextricable. You become a better writer through being/becoming a careful reader; therefore, though this class is a writing class, it is also reading intensive. The writers we read will be both you and your peers as well as published writers. You will be asked to read with an eye for the “moves” writers make (how they present an argument; why/ways they use description; when/how narrative helps to prove a point or propel a piece; how writers concede to an opposing point of view without abandoning their own stance). In addition to studying the habits of other writers, you will be reading to seek an understanding of the writer’s purpose. You will be asked to analyze the readings assigned for this class–probing the text, asking questions of it, and taking your own stance among the issues raised and addressed. We will also be making connections between the various assigned readings. **IMPORTANT: Readings will be discussed in class on the date specified on the schedule below. In addition, you will be required to blog about the texts on a weekly basis.
“The good writer is always forcing the reader to contribute to the text. What is published is only half–or less– of the text…” –Donald Murray
Blogging: Each week you will need to post at least two 250 word blog entries and at least three comments (please leave comments that are thoughtful, respectful, articulate, and carry some intellectual heft) on the blogs of your peers. One entry/week should respond to any of the class reading from that week (your choice), including a direct quote from the text, or you could choose for your entry to be a continuation of class discussion, again, including a direct reference to something that was said. One entry/week should be a response (think–starting a discussion about) to a news article or current event, and must provide a link to the article/source. (This begins during week three. Any additional blogs entries that you post will go toward extra credit points—as long as they are relevant to the class and follow the blogging guidelines found on our class wiki: http://eng251culture.wikispaces.com/blogging+guidelines.
**Also, please note that additional blogging assignments and information, as well as various other class assignments and announcements, will be posted on the ENG251 blog: comprhet.edublogs.org
In-class writings: During at least one class session per week, we will freewrite. Freewriting consists of writing “freely” for a given period of time (generally around fifteen minutes). The point of freewriting is to keep writing, keep the pen moving. Don’t stop to think about grammar or a coherent set of ideas or organization. Write anything you think of—even if it is off-topic (topics will often be given for those who find it easier to begin with a starting idea).
Discussion Starters: Each of you will be responsible for leading class discussion during one class meeting time during the semester. You will begin by assigning a reading to the class during the week before you are scheduled to lead discussion. Readings should be assigned from web (utilize the blogroll on the class blog site to get started), unless you bring in enough copies for the entire class. Written texts should be no longer than three pages, but the texts you choose can be as varied as a comic strip, a short video you’d like us to watch, a poem, or any other visual text you view as relevant to our discussions of society/culture. You should plan to begin discussion by posing a question of your own, asking the class for questions, pointing out something of interest, or any combination of these. You must also integrate some kind of in-class writing activity. Plan to spend the first fifteen minutes of class on this assignment.
Working Groups: One of the hallmarks of the “Birmingham School” of British Cultural Studies was a commitment to collective scholarship that analyzed from multiple perspectives the “circuits” or “webs” of cultural significations evident in single, apparently simple or innocuous, artifact or practice. With that model loosely in mind-a model we will explore in detail through the readings for Unit 2, this class will divide into “working groups,” with each collectively orchestrating an investigation around a single topic. The specific details of the working groups will be negotiated in class-the structure that the working groups will take as well as the topics they choose to examine will need to be hashed out collaboratively. I am expecting, however, that each working group will be responsible for a class presentation on their chosen topic. Each group will write a collaborative prospectus—outlining their plans for the project and making an initial argument. Each individual students will produce a final paper of seven to ten pages.
(Assignment/idea borrowed from Prof. Bret Benjamin, University at Albany, SUNY)
Essay about a movie or song or album (3 – 5 pp.): assignment details will appear on class blog site.
Letter to the editor or radio essay or poetry as cultural commentary (your choice): guidelines will be posted to class blog site.
Presentations: Group presentation (see description above).
**Syllabus is subject to change (depending on length of class discussions based on assigned readings). For an online version of the syllabus and more details on all assignments please go to the class blog comprhet.edublogs.org
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If you are a student with a documented disability and require academic accommodations please register with Ginny Rossin, the Coordinator of Special Services, located in the Academic Support Center on the 2nd floor of St. Joseph Hall (campus extension 2335 or 337-2335, off campus) for disability verification and for determination of reasonable academic accommodations. After you have made arrangements with that office, please see me to discuss your accommodations.
Tentative Schedule
Unit 1: The Blogosphere 1/16 – 2/8
–read and paraphrase Gramsci quote (1/18)
–blog assignment #1: create blog (1/21 by 4pm)
–“What We’re Doing When we Blog” http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/javascript/2002/06/13/megnut.html (1/23)
–“Blogosphere” http://westwood.wikispaces.com/blogosphere (1/23)
–blog assignment #2: explore blogosphere (1/23 in class)
–“Learning Commons – What is Culture?” http://www.wsu.edu:8001/vcwsu/commons/topics/culture/culture-definition.html (1/25)
–“Dynamics of a Blogosphere Story” http://web.archive.org/web/20030708194456/http://microdoc-news.info/blogger/2003/05/20.html (1/30)
–“The Technology of Reading and Writing in the Digital Space: Why RSS is crucial for a Blogging Classroom” http://blogsforlearning.msu.edu/articles/view.php?id=6 (1/30)
–“Culture” – Wikipedia definition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture (2/1)
read: Intro; section 1 “Defining Culture”; section 7 “Cultural Studies”
–_______________________________________________________________ (2/6)
–_______________________________________________________________ (2/8)
Unit 2: Gen Y-files 2/8 – 3/15
–Class Cancelled 2/13
–_______________________________________________________________ (2/15)
–handout on writing an argument; writing about movies, writing about music (2/15)
–handout on semiotics (2/20)
–“Faux Factory” http://www.riffrag.org/issue1/needham1.html (2/20)
–_______________________________________________________________ (2/20)
–Doing Cultural Studies: Story of the Sony Walkman pp. 1-40(2/22)
–_______________________________________________________________ (2/22)
–Doing Cultural Studies: Story of the Sony Walkman pp. 42-59(2/27)
–paper on movie, song, or album DUE 2/27
–_______________________________________________________________ (2/27)
–_______________________________________________________________ (3/1)
– Doing Cultural Studies: Story of the Sony Walkman pp. 62-109 (3/1)
3/5 – 3/9 Midterm Break
– Doing Cultural Studies: Story of the Sony Walkman pp. 112-120 and excerpts from Walter Benjamin’s The Arcades Project (3/13)
–_______________________________________________________________ (3/13)
–group proposal DUE 3/15
–_______________________________________________________________ (3/15)
3/20 NO CLASS
Unit 3: Class Culture (?) 3/22 – 3/29
–excerpt from Julie Lindquist’s A Place to Stand (3/22)
–_______________________________________________________________ (3/22)
–_______________________________________________________________ (3/27)
–Dick Hebdige: “Style as Homology” and Janice Radway “Reading the Romance” (3/29)
–_______________________________________________________________ (3/29)
Unit 4: Cultural Commentary as Spoken Word/Poetry 4/3 – 4/19
–_______________________________________________________________ (4/3)
–Ani DiFranco “Self Evident”
–_______________________________________________________________ (4/5)
–_______________________________________________________________ (4/10)
–_______________________________________________________________ (4/12)
–_______________________________________________________________ (4/17)
–_______________________________________________________________ (4/19)
– letter to the editor or radio essay or poetry as cultural commentary (your choice) DUE 4/19
–_______________________________________________________________ (4/24)
–_______________________________________________________________ (4/24)
–Group Presentations (4/24, 4/26, 5/1)
–Final Paper (7 – 10 pp.) DUE 4/26
–blogging portfolio DUE 5/4
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