Course Syllabus

Course Information
Course Number/Section HUSL 6384
Course Title Digital and Visual Rhetoric

Term Spring 2011

Days & Times Mondays, 7:00-9:45pm

Professor Contact Information

Professor Sara Steger
Office Phone x4505
Email Address ssteger@utdallas.edu
Office Location TBD
Office Hours Wednesdays 10-11am and by appointment

Course Pre-requisites, Co-requisites, and/or Other Restrictions

No preexisting technical expertise will be necessary, but students will be expected to
become conversant in the key terms of web technology, particularly the underlying
fundamentals of HTML code, and to use a wide variety of platforms to produce webtexts.

Course Description
Challenging the well-worn dictum of McLuhan, Nicholas Negroponte posited that
digitality is a game-changer: “The medium is not the message in a digital world. It is an
embodiment of it” (Being Digital 71). In this course, we will examine 21st-century
literacies and how/whether they embody messages in new ways. We will explore how
digital and multimodal composing practices function on both personal and cultural levels.
Because we will be focusing on both the theory and practice of rhetoric in digital
environments, this will be both a reading- and writing-intensive course.

We will cover three units over the course of the semester:

Being Digital – mediation, remediation, and what’s the difference b/w print and
analog
Multimodality – design, function, and visual rhetoric
Being Digital (redux) – living, socializing, working, and creating on the web (and
all the implications)

For the first part of the semester, the class will be run as half discussion-driven and half
lab. We will be learning HTML and CSS in the first weeks of the course. For the latter
part of the semester, we will turn outward to analysis. The course is designed to be
student-driven in the final weeks with instigations and class discussions led by the
scholars in the class (see assignments below).

Student Learning Objectives/Outcomes

Students will spend time reading about and considering how shifting technologies change
the way we think about textuality and subjectivity. In addition, we will participate in a

Course Syllabus Page 1

number of projects designed to give students hands-on and in-depth experience with
creating and assessing digital artifacts. Students also will gain experience with HTML
and CSS.

Required Textbooks and Materials

Required Texts
No hard copies of textbooks will be required. We will be working with various
texts and films in digital format.

Required Materials
Access to the Internet (all readings for the course will be available in digital
format)
A flash drive (1G or more) – we will load portable apps on this drive
Accounts – Twitter, Wordpress/Blogger, your UTD personal webpage
An account on <emma>

Suggested Course Materials

Suggested Readings/Texts
A good HTML/CSS reference book
Suggested Materials
A laptop that you can bring to class (helpful, but not required)

Course Schedule
***The course syllabus is a general plan for the course; deviations announced to the
class by the instructor may be necessary.***

Jan 10 – Introducions to the course, <emma>, and HTML

Jan 17 – NO CLASS (MLK)

Jan 24 – History of Computing and the Internet. HTML – Beyond the Basics.

READ/WATCH

“How the Computer Works” by Andrea Laue

o
http://www.digitalhumanities.org/companion/view?docId=blackwell/9781
405103213/9781405103213.xml&chunk.id=ss1-3-
1&toc.depth=1&toc.id=ss1-3-1&brand=9781405103213_brand
o "20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web” by Christoph Nieman
http://www.20thingsilearned.com/
o History of the Internet (Video) by Mehli Bilgil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hIQjrMHTv4
o Internet Timeline
http://www.ruralsignage.com/com3200/timeline%28right%29.htm
DO:

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 o Begin working on your personal webpage – try to have a draft of at least
the home page and two linked pages up by class time today.

Jan 31 – Being Digital: Mediation. Introduction to CSS.

READ/Watch
o The Machine is Us/ing Us by Michael Welsh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g&feature=channel
o Marshall McLuhan – excerpts (posted on <emma>) from “The Medium is
the Message”
o Nicholas Negroponte- excerpts (posted on <emma>) from Being Digital
o “Same Shit, Different Medium” by Nicholas Carr
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2010/12/same_shit_diffe.php
DO:
o Continue working on your webpage – begin incorporating CSS to separate
style and content.

Feb 7 – Being Digital: Remediation and Rhizomes. More CSS.

READ/WATCH
o Bolter, Jay David and Richard Grusin. Part I (Theory) of Remediation
(available as an ebook through the McDermott Library)
o Deleuze and Guittaru – from A Thousand Plateaus (posted on <emma>) -
selections from Introduction: Rhizome
DO: Continue working on webpage.

Feb 14 - Being Digital: Implications and RESISTANCE!

DUE: PERSONAL WEBPAGES (Post the link twice on <emma> - one private
(for grading) and one public to share with the class)
READ/WATCH
o McLuhan - “The Gadget Lover: Narcissus as Narcosis” (posted on
<emma>)
o Wendell Berry - “Why I'm Not Going to Buy a Computer”
http://home.btconnect.com/tipiglen/berrynot.html
o Doctorow, Cory - “Why I Won't Buy an Ipad”
http://boingboing.net/2010/04/02/why-i-wont-buy-an-ipad-and-think-you-
shouldnt-either.html
o Carr, Nicholas - “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-
us-stupid/6868/
o Mod, Craig - “Books in the Age of the Ipad”
http://craigmod.com/journal/ipad_and_books/

Feb 21 – Multimodality: Affordances (Design and Function)

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 READ/WATCH
o Mads Soegaard, “Affordances” http://www.interaction-
design.org/encyclopedia/affordances.html
o Don Norman, “Affordances and Design”
http://jnd.org/dn.mss/affordances_and_design.html
o Joel Splolsky, “Affordances and Metaphors”
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000060.html
o Interview with Jakob Nielson
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/09/interview-with-web-usability-
guru-jakob-nielsen/

Feb 28 – Multimodality: Words, Images, and Rhetoric

READ/WATCH
o Matt Kirschenbaum: “The Word as Image in an Age of Digital
Reproduction” (posted on <emma>)
o Kevin LaGrandeur: “Digital Images and Classical Persuasion” (posted on
<emma>)
o Periodic Table of Visulization http://www.visual-
literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&u
tm_medium=twitter&utm_content=13eradar

Mar 7 – Multimodality: Visual Rhetoric (Cont.)

READ/WATCH
o Gunther Kress: “Reading Images: Multimodality, Representation and New
Media”
http://www.knowledgepresentation.org/BuildingTheFuture/Kress2/Kress2.
html
o Hocks, Mary “Understanding Visual Rhetoric in Digital Environments”
(available through JSTOR)
o Selections from Understanding Comics (posted on <emma>)

Mar 14 – NO CLASS (Spring Break)

Mar 21 – Being Digital (Redux): Social Web - Twitter

READ/WATCH
o Mark Sample - http://www.samplereality.com/2010/12/03/twitter-is-a-
happening-to-which-i-am-returning/
o Carr, Nicholas - “Why Twitter Will Endure”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/weekinreview/03carr.html?pagewant
ed=all
o Boyd, Golder, Lotan - “Tweet, Tweet, Retweet” (posted as a pdf on
<emma>)

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 o Jessica Carter - “Why Twitter Influences Cross-Cultural Engagement”
http://mashable.com/2010/10/14/twitter-cross-cultural/
o More readings TBD (from instigator)

DUE: RHETORICAL ANALYSIS PROJECT(Post to <emma> under the

Rhetorical Analysis Project as Stage: Final, Access: Private)

Mar 28 – Being Digital (Redux): Social Web – Facebook and Wikis

READ/WATCH
o Emily Rutherford - “Thoughts on Facebook and Identity”

http://worthlessdrivel.net/2009/02/21/thoughts-on-facebook-and-identity/

o Desiging for the Social Web: http://bokardo.com/archives/designing-for-

the-social-web-the-usage-lifecycle/
o Jonathan Zittrain - Chapters 9 and 11 of The Future of the Internet and
How to Stop It http://futureoftheinternet.org/download
o More readings TBD (from instigator)

Apr 4 – Being Digital (Redux): Social Web - Blogging

READ/WATCH
o Andrew Sullivan - “Why I Blog”
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/11/why-i-blog/7060/
o Rebecca Blood - “Weblog Ethics”
http://www.rebeccablood.net/handbook/excerpts/weblog_ethics.html
o Jonathan Delacour - “Weblog Ethics”
http://weblog.delacour.net/archives/2003/08/weblog_ethics.php
o Dennis Mahoney - “How to Write a Better Blog”
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/writebetter
o More readings TBD (from instigator)

Apr 11- Being Digital (Redux): Social Web - Videos

Guest Lecturer – Kim Knight and viral video

Readings TBD

Apr 18 – Being Digital (Redux): Rethinking Copyright in a Digital Age

DUE: PART ONE OF FINAL PROJECT(Post to <emma> under the Remediation

Project as Stage: Draft One, Access: Private)
READ/WATCH
o Brad Templeton - “10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained”
http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html
o Bound By Law - http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/

Course Syllabus Page 5

 o A Fair(y) Use Tale - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo
o More Readings TBD

Apr 25 –Being Digital – Remix/Redesign/Revision

READ/WATCH
o RIP! A Remix Manifesto http://www.hulu.com/watch/88782/rip-a-remix-
manifesto
o Susan Delagrange - “When Revision is Redesign”
http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/14.1/inventio/delagrange/index.html
o Larry Lessig Ted Talk
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/larry_lessig_says_the_law_is_stranglin
g_creativity.html
o A Copyright Manifesto for the Digital Age
http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/12.3/topoi/digirhet/tenets.html
o More Readings TBD

May 2 – WORKSHOPPING/PRESENTATIONS OF FINAL PROJECTS

Final Projects due May 10th by 7:00pm.

COURSE ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING:

We will follow the +/- grading scale.

ASSIGNMENTS:

1) Personal/Professional Webpages (10%)

You will be hardcoding (using HTML and CSS) a personal webpage that
represents your scholarly identity.

You should have at least five linked pages

Your site should show that you have considered both style and content, and
should demonstrate your mastery of HTML and CSS
Your code should be valid

2) Rhetorical Analysis project (20%)

Considering our discussions and reading, you will provide a rhetorical interpretation
of a digital “text” (website, video, database, archive, video game, web comic, etc.).

The format of your analysis is up to you – you can write blog posts, html pages,
or write a more traditional essay.
You should include screenshots, images, or embedded media of the object of your
analysis.

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 Your analysis – in whatever medium you choose – should be about 1200 words in
length.

3) Blog and responses – (20%)

Blog entries will be due each Friday at noon (on the weeks in which we have class
the next Monday).
Responses will be due by noon on the Mondays in which we have class.
You get one “freebie” week where you will not be required to post (you should
have 12 blog postings in all and at least 3 responses per week (36 responses
total)).
Blog entries should be at least 400 words in length and should be academic in
nature, focusing on some aspect of the reading for the day or addressing a topic
relevant to the readings.
Use the blog as a way to prepare your thoughts about the readings. I will use the
blogs and comments as a means of gauging your interests and questions for our
class discussion.
Include links, tags, categories, and references to other resources.
Provide substantive feedback to your peers' writing – avoid empty responses
about how “interesting” or “cool” the author's ideas are.
You can use any blog host that you would like (Blogger and WordPress are the
most common choices).

4) Instigations – (20%)

In the last weeks of class, each student will be responsible for instigating our class
discussion for the evening.

In addition to the readings I have assigned, you will assign one or two readings
relevant to our discussion of digital and visual rhetoric.
You will be responsible for making these readings available to the class in a
digital format at least one week prior to your instigation evening.
You will provide the basis for the discussion – this can come in whatever way you
would like. You could give a presentation, provide a list of questions for
discussion, prepare a group activity – the format is open.
Expect to lead the discussion for 30-45 minutes.
These instigations will be “crowd-sourced” so that your peers will evaluate the
quality of your instigation and collectively determine your grade.

5) Remediation project (30% total)

Your final paper and project will be on a topic of your own choosing that
extends/reconsiders/challenges one of the units we have covered over the course of
the semester. The final project will have three parts. First, you will write in
“traditional” print essay form, a critical essay on the topic of your choice. These
papers should be about 1500 words in length, and these will be worth 10% of your

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 final grade for the course. In the second part, you will create a digital version of your
narrative in which you carefully consider the form and media in order to effectively
remediate the original essay. You may use any form, genre, platform you like, but
you must significantly revise the text and not just put the essay online somewhere.
Finally, you will write a reflection on the remediation that addresses how new media
theory affected your transformation from print to digital format.

Course Policies

Attendance Policy:
Because we meet so infrequently, and because learning in graduate courses is centered in
discussion, your attendance is required. You will be allowed one absence without
penalty. After one absence, I will lower your grade by one-third of a letter for each
absence. Excessive tardiness will also result in a reduction of your grade.

Late Work:
For each 24-hour period that a project is late, I will deduct 10 points (one letter grade). I
will not accept work that is over 72 hours late. If a pressing emergency arises, contact
me prior to the due date to make arrangements.

Other Policies:
The policies that comprise the rest of the syllabus may be accessed online:
http://provost.utdallas.edu/home/syllabus‐policies‐and‐procedures‐text

Course Syllabus Page 8