Composition and Communication
MORN 102/ Spring 2007 [4 credits]
MWF 10.30-11.35
Dr. Sean Meehan
Office phone: 274-5268
Course homepage: http://webs.morningside.edu/meehan/writing/candc/comp.htm
Multi-Media Writing
Tell your daughter that she can learn a great deal about writing by reading and by studying books about grammar and the organization of ideas, but if she wishes to write well she will have to become someone. She will have to discover her beliefs, and then speak to us from within those beliefs. If her prose doesn’t come out of her belief… she will only be passing along information, of which we are in no great need.
--Barry Lopez, About This Life
Course Overview:
The general focus of the course is learning and developing your talents (and beliefs) in the crafts of composition and communication. As a way to guide our explorations of those talents, and to focus the underlying research component of the course, we will explore more specifically the critical and creative relationships between writing and new digital media. We will use our writing and speaking to explore the multi-media domain of the web and other forms of digital communication; at the same time, we will use those newer media to explore and enhance the multi-media characteristics of our writing and speech. My theiss for this course, in other words, is that our newest and most popular forms of communication media are crucially, multi-media forms of writing; even the flashiest of web sites links back (or remediates) our very old medium of writing. We can learn from this linkage between new media and old writing and develop into the kind of writer we need to become in order, as Lopez puts it, to write well.
Course Learning Objectives and Outcomes:
The underlying mission of this course, informing how I will teach and how we will approach the various objectives listed below, can be summed up in the following words: to guide students in learning to become more effective, powerful and confident users and creators of their language, both written and spoken, in their studies at Morningside and in their lives beyond. As a result, the following learning objectives will be emphasized:
[1]Developing your creative capacities in writing and researching
[2]Developing your skill in expressing yourself orally and in writing
[3]Learning how to find and use resources for answering questions
These objectives are tied to the following learning outcomes developed for the C&C program:
Students will show in essay and research writing that they can develop significant theses and support them well.
Students will conduct effective and ethical research. Specifically, they will:
Students will use technology appropriately and effectively to enhance writing, speaking, and research.
Students will demonstrate that they can deliver effective oral presentations.
Course Texts:
Bolter and Grusin, Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999.
Hacker,
O’Hair, et al., A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking. Boston: Bedford, St. Martin’s, 2004.
In addition to these texts, there will be readings available through the course web page and Blackboard.
Course Expectations and Policies:
Some crucial things you can expect from me as an educator and the leader of your experiences in the course.
Response: One of my roles is to assess your learning in the course so that I can help in that process. That means more than giving you a grade. It means giving you the response (employing a variety of methods of assessment, some with numbers, some without) that you will need to understand your own learning and thus perform in this course (and beyond it) more effectively and thoughtfully—the main objective of this and any course I teach. I understand that you may be more used to “grades” alone rather than this broader emphasis on response and qualitative assessment; feel free to talk with me whenever you feel you need a response that is more oriented toward a number.
Curiosity: I am a learner and love the process of learning; that is why I teach. This means that my curiosity for the subjects in this course and my desire to learn more about them will be part of the course and should encourage you, I would hope, to be equally curious and passionate about your learning. I will be a leader of the course but be prepared to have me follow your lead as well.
Flexibility: Since I am a learner and the course is therefore a work in progress, you should expect the course to evolve. We will follow a general syllabus with assignments given in advance; but be prepared for some changes to be made based on where we are going at a given time. You should always consult the course web page for updates. Regarding disabilities: If you have an identified disability which may impact your performance in this class, schedule an appointment with me as soon as possible to discuss adaptations or accommodations which may be necessary to provide you with an equal opportunity for success in this course.
Some crucial things I will expect from you as a student (and fellow learner) in this course.
Participation: If you are going to participate more effectively and thoughtfully in your own learning (an objective of the course) you will need to participate on a daily basis. Class participation is a key component of the course and will be part of your overall grade. It involves keeping up in your journal writing, speaking and listening actively in class, being prepared for discussions. Since you can’t participate if you are absent, unexcused absences will affect your grade. An excused absence is one where you have spoken with me in advance about your need to miss class. Here is my attendance policy:
--After two absences (your free pass), each absence will count -10 from your final participation grade.
--A student who misses 50% of the classes by midterm (this includes classes missed before signed into the course) will automatically fail the course.
--Any quizzes or other in-class assignments given on a day a student is absent will result in a 0, unless the absence has been arranged previously with me.
--Students may have the opportunity to add extra credit points to their participation grade. See me if interested or concerned about your absences.
Communication: Keep in touch with me about how things are going for you, difficulties you are having with your work, confusion, curiosity, excitement. Communicating how things are going is also a key part of participating thoughtfully in your own learning. My late work policy: As a rule, if you have not communicated with me in advance about turning in an assignment later than the due date, you will loose credit for that assignment. An assignment more than one week late will receive a 0.
Integrity: You can’t participate thoughtfully if you aren’t being fully honest with me, with your colleagues, and with yourself. Plagiarism is one form of dishonesty. In general, using the ideas and language of another without giving proper credit is plagiarism. Any student guilty of such plagiarism is subject to serious penalty for the assignment (failing) and for the course overall. We will talk about how to credit properly the use of another’s work as well as how to distinguish between collaboration and sharing (both of which are important in education) and plagiarism. For more on plagiarism and the policies of the College, consult the College Catalog and Student Handbook.
Progress: Throughout the course I will be looking for and assessing your progress as a way to help you make that progress. I will expect you to be striving for progress in all aspects of the course, willing and eager to do the work that progress requires.
Assessment:
I will use a variety of evaluation methods to assess your performance and determine your grade. These methods will be discussed in advance. The general scale I will use for determining final grades should be familiar to you (+ and – at each level may also be applied):
A/Excellent/90-100
B/Good/80-89
C/Average/70-79
D/Poor/60-69
F/Failing/below 60
What follows is a rough guideline for how your progress and work in the course will count toward your final grade:
Participation (including attendance and class work): 10%
Reading and Research (including reading logs, quizzes, midterm): 15%
Writing (variety of informal writing and formal assignments): 45%
Speeches: 20%
Final portfolio: 10%
Feedback units:
You will have many assignments throughout the term where I will give you feedback on your performance and progress. At a minimum, you can expect the following 10 feedback experiences:
midterm exam
midterm participation assessment
response to discovery draft and final draft of three formal writing assignments (for a total of 6)
response to 2 speeches
final portfolio