For the final project in this course you will be completing a portfolio of your work. Final portfolios must be uploaded to T-Square under Assignments/WOVEN Portfolio by 11:00 pm on Monday, May 3.
During the weeks of April 19 - April 30, we will be conducting a porfolio workshop. On Friday, April 23 and Monday, April 26, as indicated on the course calendar, you will be meeting in small groups during class time, but outside of class, to complete draft portfolios and begin working on your portfolio reflections. Your draft portfolios must be uploaded to T-Square under Resources/Draft Portfolios/Your Folder by class time on Monday, April 26. By the end of your meeting on Monday, April 26, you should have completed Draft Portfolio Worksheet for every group member, and the Draft Portfolio Worksheets should be uploaded to T-Square under Resources/Draft Portfolios/Group Member's Folder by 11:00 pm on Monday, April 26.
This form, which you will use to complete and submit your portfolio reflections, provides an overview of and instructions for the WOVEN Portfolio assignment. This is the grading rubric that I will use to evaluate your portfolio.
During the workshop, you will also complete, as a group, a Draft Portfolio Worksheet, for every person in your group.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Final Drafts of Multimodal Group Projects
Post links to your projects in comments to this blog by Monday, April 19 at 11:00 pm.
Friday, April 2, 2010
More Information Regarding Copyright in Architectural Works
Since this seemed to be a topic that interested a number of you, and since it certainly generated a very interesting discussion, I wanted to give you a couple of resources for those of you who may want some additional information.
The Copyright Office has a circular that outlines the scope of copyright protection for architectural works. Protection for the buildings themselves wasn't extended until 1990; prior to 1990 copyright protection only extended to drawings and plans.
You can find a summary of the law aimed at architects and professional engineers as an audience here.
The Copyright Office has a circular that outlines the scope of copyright protection for architectural works. Protection for the buildings themselves wasn't extended until 1990; prior to 1990 copyright protection only extended to drawings and plans.
You can find a summary of the law aimed at architects and professional engineers as an audience here.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Blog Post 7: Adaptive Reuse
Adaptive reuse is the conversion of an older, unused building into a building with a new purpose. Buildings that are selected for adaptive reuse retain their original architecture, but they serve a different purpose. Some examples include converting old factories into new office spaces or apartment buildings, converting old military bases into new cities, and converting older neighborhoods into new neighborhoods while retaining the historical environment. Some specific examples of adaptive reuse include the transformation of the Rookery Building in Chicago to apartment rental space and the conversion of the business Custom House in Boston to the Custom House hotel. Another example of this recycling of buildings involves the San Clemente’s neighborhood in California that transformed its older historical buildings into a new neighborhood in order to retain its heritage.
There are several advantages to adaptive reuse versus building new buildings. In most cases, it is more economical to renovate a building that to simply build another. Many historical building renovations come with a federal tax credit as well. Also, reusing the older historical buildings retains the culture of the area. In a society that is focused on becoming more “green”, reusing buildings also helps the environment. Little to no building materials are needed to fix the older buildings. As there are many advantages to adaptive reuse, there are also some disadvantages.
Some view older buildings as a sign of a declining economy, even though reusing buildings helps the economy. Also, it can sometimes be hard for older buildings to accommodate the number of people for which it will be serving. Sometimes, the older factories do not have enough restrooms for the number of people that are moving into the buildings. Also, some buildings do not have enough space outside for parking. Another issue is the structure of the building. Some buildings as a whole are big enough for many offices, but the dimensions of each office based on the support system are not large enough.
Adaptive reuse can also be associated with our discussion of copyright laws. Adaptive reuse could be considered a hinderance in the advancement of architecture, because old building styles are preserved and reused. Also, it could violate the principles of copyright because it entails taking someone else’s work and making it your own.
Questions:
1. Can you think of any adaptive reuse projects today? What effects have they had on the community of which they are a part?
2. Some people argue that new buildings are a sign of a flourishing economy and old historical buildings should be demolished. What are your thoughts on the effect of ridding the nation of its historical buildings?
3. How do you think adaptive reuse fits into the class’s views on copyright laws? How could one consider reusing a building similar to reusing literature?
4. What effect does adaptive reuse have on architectural creativity over time?
5. Do you think adaptive reuse violates copyright laws?
Works Cited
Campbell, Jan. “Is Your Building a Candidate for Adaptive Reuse?”Journal of Property Management 61.1 (1996): 26-30. (Urban Studies Abstracts)
Ghantous, Raad. “Adaptive Reuse and Preservation of Historic Buildings makes $ense!” San Clemente Historical Society 2009. http://www.sanclementehistoricalsociety.org/images/Adaptive%20Reuse.pdf
Pearson, Clifford. “Adaptive Reuse: Tackling the Really Big Ones”Architectural Record 186.2 (1998): 119-21. (Academic Search Complete)
There are several advantages to adaptive reuse versus building new buildings. In most cases, it is more economical to renovate a building that to simply build another. Many historical building renovations come with a federal tax credit as well. Also, reusing the older historical buildings retains the culture of the area. In a society that is focused on becoming more “green”, reusing buildings also helps the environment. Little to no building materials are needed to fix the older buildings. As there are many advantages to adaptive reuse, there are also some disadvantages.
Some view older buildings as a sign of a declining economy, even though reusing buildings helps the economy. Also, it can sometimes be hard for older buildings to accommodate the number of people for which it will be serving. Sometimes, the older factories do not have enough restrooms for the number of people that are moving into the buildings. Also, some buildings do not have enough space outside for parking. Another issue is the structure of the building. Some buildings as a whole are big enough for many offices, but the dimensions of each office based on the support system are not large enough.
Adaptive reuse can also be associated with our discussion of copyright laws. Adaptive reuse could be considered a hinderance in the advancement of architecture, because old building styles are preserved and reused. Also, it could violate the principles of copyright because it entails taking someone else’s work and making it your own.
Questions:
1. Can you think of any adaptive reuse projects today? What effects have they had on the community of which they are a part?
2. Some people argue that new buildings are a sign of a flourishing economy and old historical buildings should be demolished. What are your thoughts on the effect of ridding the nation of its historical buildings?
3. How do you think adaptive reuse fits into the class’s views on copyright laws? How could one consider reusing a building similar to reusing literature?
4. What effect does adaptive reuse have on architectural creativity over time?
5. Do you think adaptive reuse violates copyright laws?
Works Cited
Campbell, Jan. “Is Your Building a Candidate for Adaptive Reuse?”Journal of Property Management 61.1 (1996): 26-30. (Urban Studies Abstracts)
Ghantous, Raad. “Adaptive Reuse and Preservation of Historic Buildings makes $ense!” San Clemente Historical Society 2009. http://www.sanclementehistoricalsociety.org/images/Adaptive%20Reuse.pdf
Pearson, Clifford. “Adaptive Reuse: Tackling the Really Big Ones”Architectural Record 186.2 (1998): 119-21. (Academic Search Complete)
Monday, March 29, 2010
Blog Post 6: Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share or build upon the work of others, with compliance to the laws of copyright. That is, it allows others to skip the “step” of having to ask permission for the use of their work, because CC explains exactly what the creator indented for the use of their work. Creative Commons mostly applies to such creativities constructed with digital technology such as pictures, music, or software. The licenses allowed to the creator are much more flexible than that of copyright, but also protect the creator by giving credit where it is earned. Such license flexibilities include “attribution,” which allows others to copy, distribute, display, work or derivative work, if they give credit to the creator, “Share Alike,” which allows others to distribute derivative work only under the same license that governs the original work, “Non-Commercial,” which allows the copy, distribution, display, or performance of work as long as it is for non-commercial purposes, and lastly, “No Derivate Works,” which allows the copy, distribution, and display, of only verbatim copies of the work. In recent years, CC has dedicated themselves to exploring the internet’s fullest potential for open learning with the purpose of simplifying and minimizing the legal, technical, and social barriers to the sharing and reuse of creative material.
Before Creative Commons was established, if a person wished to create a derivative work from a previously created copyrighted work, that person would have to consult copyright lawyers and ask the author for permission. Creative Commons allows an author to choose whether to have his or her work available for free for sharing or remixing, eliminating the intermediaries and thereby simplifying the process of creating a derivative work. Moreover, the Creative Commons is constantly growing and improving. Over the course of eight years, different versions of the Creative Commons have been released, each an improvement over the previous. Creative Commons creates a shared culture where existing works can be utilized and improved upon to create a more enriched culture.
One of our greatest concerns about the Creative Commons is that although it provides licenses to creators, it avoids the bigger problem that we face of changing the current copyright law to reflect our changes in technology and authorship. Is too much energy being fueled into the Creative Commons? Would it be better to focus this energy on reforming current copyright law?
Another issue that has been brought up with the expansion of the Creative Commons is whether or not published works under Creative Commons licenses can be used for financial gain. While there is a handful case studies of artists who have made a considerable amount of money off of work published under a CC, we question: Has their use of the new progressive CC license fueled their works popularity? While popular bands have succeeded, can a start-up artist or author live off of a CC published work?
Questions
Is CC an improvement to copyright laws?
Do CC licenses ultimately avoid the question of what U.S. copyright should be in the 21st century, and how the law should best serve its citizens?
Is too much energy being fueled into the Creative Commons?
Would it be better to focus this energy on reforming current copyright law?
How much is it worth in publicity, for creators to use Creative Commons license vs. copyright registration?
Before Creative Commons was established, if a person wished to create a derivative work from a previously created copyrighted work, that person would have to consult copyright lawyers and ask the author for permission. Creative Commons allows an author to choose whether to have his or her work available for free for sharing or remixing, eliminating the intermediaries and thereby simplifying the process of creating a derivative work. Moreover, the Creative Commons is constantly growing and improving. Over the course of eight years, different versions of the Creative Commons have been released, each an improvement over the previous. Creative Commons creates a shared culture where existing works can be utilized and improved upon to create a more enriched culture.
One of our greatest concerns about the Creative Commons is that although it provides licenses to creators, it avoids the bigger problem that we face of changing the current copyright law to reflect our changes in technology and authorship. Is too much energy being fueled into the Creative Commons? Would it be better to focus this energy on reforming current copyright law?
Another issue that has been brought up with the expansion of the Creative Commons is whether or not published works under Creative Commons licenses can be used for financial gain. While there is a handful case studies of artists who have made a considerable amount of money off of work published under a CC, we question: Has their use of the new progressive CC license fueled their works popularity? While popular bands have succeeded, can a start-up artist or author live off of a CC published work?
Questions
Is CC an improvement to copyright laws?
Do CC licenses ultimately avoid the question of what U.S. copyright should be in the 21st century, and how the law should best serve its citizens?
Is too much energy being fueled into the Creative Commons?
Would it be better to focus this energy on reforming current copyright law?
How much is it worth in publicity, for creators to use Creative Commons license vs. copyright registration?
Friday, March 19, 2010
Multimodal Group Project Assignment Description
ENGL1102/Spring 2010/Wharton
Multimodal Group Project: Adaptation, Appropriation, and Transformation of The Tempest
Overview:
The goal of this assignment is to create a multimodal artifact that presents an adaptation, appropriation, or transformation of one of the following scenes from Shakespeare’s The Tempest:
If you would like to adapt a scene not listed here, that is an option. You MUST, however, speak with me and obtain my approval if you wish to adapt a scene not among the four listed above.
Although you are adapting only a small portion of the text, you should think about the relevance of the scene you’ve chosen to the play as a whole.
As part of your composition process, you should outline and write-up answers to each of these questions.
As you work on this project, you have a number of resources at your disposal. Our text includes a number of critical and historical resources, including examples of how The Tempest has been adapted previously. When you are making decisions about how to adapt, appropriate, or transform Shakespeare’s text, you should consider the individual work that you have done adapting Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and annotating Donne’s poetry:
As part of your composition process, you should outline and write-up answers to each of these questions.
You should also consider the work that you have done on the critical essay, thinking about the relationship between copying and appropriation, and creativity:
As part of your composition process, you should outline and write-up answers to each of these questions.
Assignment Description:
Your final composition may take one of the following forms:
Every group project should be accompanied by a works cited list in MLA format, and credit or citation to outside sources should be provided where feasible and appropriate. If you have an idea for another kind of composition, other than those listed above, you are welcome to develop it. Your group MUST work with me early in the development process, however, to come up with assignment guidelines specific to the alternative composition you would like to create.
Assignment Stages: Remember that all assignment stages must be completed in order to avoid receiving an unsatisfactory grade for an incomplete assignment.
Stage 1, Informal Oral Presentation and Workshop, 10 points (Presentations will be made in class during the week of April 4)
Stage 2, Formal Oral Presentation, 15 points (Presentations will be made in class during the week of April 11)
Stage 3, Final Draft, 75 points (All final projects must be submitted by Monday, April 19, at 11:00 pm)
Assignment Goals and Desired Learning Outcomes:
Rhetorical Awareness: The rhetorical situation comprises your purpose, audience and context. The rhetorical situation influences the kind of arguments that you can make as well as how you make them. The design and content of your final project should be reflective of, suited to and directed towards the intended audience, and the overall composition should clearly reflect the purpose of and context for your argument.
Stance and Support: The composition as a whole must reflect its engagement with a unified theme or thesis. The theme or thesis of the project should be developed through the presentation of substantial and appropriate supporting evidence, which can be presented in visual, aural and nonverbal form as well as orally or in text.
Organization: The organization of the composition should be determined by its argument. Evidence should be presented in a logical fashion, and the connections between and among the ideas and evidence presented, as well as their connection to the over-arching theme or thesis should be clarified through use of a logical plan of organization.
Conventions: The composition should draw upon the conventions appropriate to the primary mode of communication. Formal presentations should adhere to the tone, diction, dress and style of delivery appropriate to that context, for example, and a website should make use of the standard visual cues that indicate links, related content, video v. photo, etc.
Multimodal Integration: In this assignment, you will work with integrating multiple modes into a unified work. Ideally, your final project will demonstrate your understanding of how multiple modes of communication work together to create the final composition.
Grading Rubric: I will use the attached rubric as a guide when grading your projects. Comments on your work will in most cases consist of a summary of how the rubric applies to your work, and extended comments on the final project artifact. All members of a group will receive the same final grade.
Multimodal Group Project: Adaptation, Appropriation, and Transformation of The Tempest
Overview:
The goal of this assignment is to create a multimodal artifact that presents an adaptation, appropriation, or transformation of one of the following scenes from Shakespeare’s The Tempest:
- Act 2, Scene 2 (pp. 36-41 in our text)
- Act 3, Scene 3 (pp. 50-55 in our text)
- Act 4, Scene 1, ll. 1-164 (beginning of scene through Miranda’s and Ferdinand’s exit, pp. 55-61 in our text)
- Act 5, Scene 2, ll. 172-end (“Here Prospero discovers Ferdinand and Miranda playing at chess.” Through end of play, 71-77 in our text)
If you would like to adapt a scene not listed here, that is an option. You MUST, however, speak with me and obtain my approval if you wish to adapt a scene not among the four listed above.
Although you are adapting only a small portion of the text, you should think about the relevance of the scene you’ve chosen to the play as a whole.
- What plot-lines are involved in the scene?
- What revelations are made?
- What is the relevance of the action that takes place in the scene you’re adapting to the scene that precedes it?
- The scene that follows it?
- The play as a whole?
As part of your composition process, you should outline and write-up answers to each of these questions.
As you work on this project, you have a number of resources at your disposal. Our text includes a number of critical and historical resources, including examples of how The Tempest has been adapted previously. When you are making decisions about how to adapt, appropriate, or transform Shakespeare’s text, you should consider the individual work that you have done adapting Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and annotating Donne’s poetry:
- What is the relationship between textual adaptation and textual interpretation, as you and your group see it?
- How do your decisions about how to present Shakespeare’s text in a new context make a statement about and perhaps influence the meaning of the work as a whole?
- How does your adaptation draw upon or relate to the history of critical interpretations, adaptations, transformations, and appropriations of The Tempest?
As part of your composition process, you should outline and write-up answers to each of these questions.
You should also consider the work that you have done on the critical essay, thinking about the relationship between copying and appropriation, and creativity:
- What does your adaptation add to or draw out of the text?
- How does your adaptation mix your own creative input with pre-existing content?
As part of your composition process, you should outline and write-up answers to each of these questions.
Assignment Description:
Your final composition may take one of the following forms:
- A website consisting of a “home” or “starting” page and at least five additional linked pages (I’m willing to work with your group on the “page-length” requirement if you want to substitute the creation of flash or other advanced media content for one or more of the pages), that presents and describes your adaptation. In thinking about the rhetorical context in which such a composition might arise, consider how you might construct a promotional site for a new production of The Tempest and how such a site might incorporate scenes or a “trailer” in order to pique the interest of the audience.
- A short film or video podcast of no less than 15 minutes in length, that presents your version of the scene you have chosen to adapt, transform, or appropriate. Thinking about the rhetorical context once again, this could be a straightforward adaptation of the scene to a new medium that stands on its own, or it could be presented as a promotional item for a longer work. Creation of the film should involve more than just recording a live performance of the scene and attaching a title and some credits.
- A video recording of no less than 30 minutes, that captures a live performance, complete with an audience, of your adapted scene. In thinking about this option, you could either add new material to your chosen scene if necessary to fit the 30 minute run-time, or you could have a question and answer session about your project, or you could incorporate personal interviews of group members and/or the audience discussing your composition process and/or reactions.
Every group project should be accompanied by a works cited list in MLA format, and credit or citation to outside sources should be provided where feasible and appropriate. If you have an idea for another kind of composition, other than those listed above, you are welcome to develop it. Your group MUST work with me early in the development process, however, to come up with assignment guidelines specific to the alternative composition you would like to create.
Assignment Stages: Remember that all assignment stages must be completed in order to avoid receiving an unsatisfactory grade for an incomplete assignment.
Stage 1, Informal Oral Presentation and Workshop, 10 points (Presentations will be made in class during the week of April 4)
- Each group will give a 10 minute presentation of their ideas for and a working draft of the project, followed by a 10 minute workshop session during which the class will offer critique and suggestions. I will be keeping track of time and keeping you to your time limits, so even though the presentation is meant to be informal, you should prepare in order to make the best use of your time
- A “working draft” can be a storyboard of your film project, a plan for your website, or a draft script of and plan for a live performance, etc.
- Remember to scout and book locations early. Make plans in advance to obtain required equipment from the library, and plan on needing such equipment for more than one day.
Stage 2, Formal Oral Presentation, 15 points (Presentations will be made in class during the week of April 11)
- Each group will give a 15 minute formal presentation of their final project to the class.
- In addition to presenting a draft of the final artifact, your presentation should also include a thesis-driven discussion of your how your final artifact draws upon, embodies or demonstrates your responses to the questions posed above in the “Overview” section
Stage 3, Final Draft, 75 points (All final projects must be submitted by Monday, April 19, at 11:00 pm)
- For this assignment, you will upload or post a link to the final artifact on the class blog.
Assignment Goals and Desired Learning Outcomes:
Rhetorical Awareness: The rhetorical situation comprises your purpose, audience and context. The rhetorical situation influences the kind of arguments that you can make as well as how you make them. The design and content of your final project should be reflective of, suited to and directed towards the intended audience, and the overall composition should clearly reflect the purpose of and context for your argument.
Stance and Support: The composition as a whole must reflect its engagement with a unified theme or thesis. The theme or thesis of the project should be developed through the presentation of substantial and appropriate supporting evidence, which can be presented in visual, aural and nonverbal form as well as orally or in text.
Organization: The organization of the composition should be determined by its argument. Evidence should be presented in a logical fashion, and the connections between and among the ideas and evidence presented, as well as their connection to the over-arching theme or thesis should be clarified through use of a logical plan of organization.
Conventions: The composition should draw upon the conventions appropriate to the primary mode of communication. Formal presentations should adhere to the tone, diction, dress and style of delivery appropriate to that context, for example, and a website should make use of the standard visual cues that indicate links, related content, video v. photo, etc.
Multimodal Integration: In this assignment, you will work with integrating multiple modes into a unified work. Ideally, your final project will demonstrate your understanding of how multiple modes of communication work together to create the final composition.
Grading Rubric: I will use the attached rubric as a guide when grading your projects. Comments on your work will in most cases consist of a summary of how the rubric applies to your work, and extended comments on the final project artifact. All members of a group will receive the same final grade.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Critical Essay Assignment Description
ENGL1102/Spring 2010/Wharton
Individual Assignment 4: Critical Essay
Overview:
The goal of this assignment is to create a 1000-1250 word formal, academic essay that develops an argument around some of the issues of authorship and the regulation of creative activity that we have been discussing in class.
As you work on this project, you have a number of resources at your disposal. Many of you may find it helpful to return to your postings on the class blog for ideas and inspiration. The research blog has preliminary bibliographies and links to online resources regarding subjects that will be relevant to this project. The primary texts that we have been reading in class (The Canterbury Tales, The Holy Sonnets, Wit, and The Tempest) and the three individual projects that you have completed thus far all provide examples of how pre-existing material can be used creatively in new works of authorship.
In this assignment, you will work on synthesizing your own ideas and interpretations of the subject matter we have been studying with the ideas and interpretations of other writers in order to construct an informed, credible, and cohesive argument using formal prose and following the MLA style guide.
Assignment Description:
Your final composition must include the following:
1. A 1000-1250 word essay that follows MLA style guidelines on one (1) of the following topics:
3. Any additional matter that you believe necessary to illustrate, explain, or support your argument.
You will post all drafts, including your final draft to your individual blog.
Elements of the Composition:
Text of your essay
All drafts, including Stage 3 your final draft, will be posted to your individual blog.
Stage 1: Rough Draft comprising a working thesis and an outline of the main points or the significant questions that must be addressed in your argument (posted to your individual blog as “Critical Essay: Stage 1” by class time on Monday, March 15, 5 points)
Stage 2: Rough Draft comprising a working draft of your entire argument (posted to your individual blog as “Critical Essay: Stage 2” by 11:00 pm on Friday, March 19, 5 points)
Stage 3: Final Draft of your polished, proofread essay with a complete, polished and proofread works cited (posted to your individual blog as "Critical Essay: Stage 3" by 11:00 pm on Tuesday, March 30, 85 points)
Rhetorical Awareness: The rhetorical situation comprises your purpose, audience and context. The rhetorical situation influences the kind of arguments that you can make as well as how you make them. You should have a clear idea of your audience, purpose and context before you begin writing, and your final draft should reflect your awareness of all three.
Stance and Support: Making an argument involves using appropriate evidence drawn from appropriate sources. Material (summaries, paraphrases, quotations) drawn from all of your sources should be relevant to and integrated with your argument, and you should provide proper attribution in MLA format when you incorporate the words, work or ideas of another in your writing.
Organization: A good academic essay follows a logical progression from introduction to conclusion. Ideally, your paper should have a form that reflects the logical progression of your argument and an awareness of the needs of your audience in understanding it, rather than one that follows a pre-determined formula (e.g. the “five paragraph theme”).
Conventions: This assignment is designed to get you thinking about the conventions of formal, written, academic discourse. Ideally, your paper should demonstrate your still-emerging awareness and integration of these conventions in its organization, tone, diction and usage.
Multimodal Integration: Although this project involves communication that is primarily written, you should be aware of how visual elements (layout, font styling, paragraphing, etc.) will affect the readability and project the formality of your writing.
Grading Rubric:
I will use the attached rubric as a guide when grading your projects. Comments on your work will in most cases consist of a summary of how the rubric applies to your work, and extended comments on the final draft.
Individual Assignment 4: Critical Essay
Overview:
The goal of this assignment is to create a 1000-1250 word formal, academic essay that develops an argument around some of the issues of authorship and the regulation of creative activity that we have been discussing in class.
As you work on this project, you have a number of resources at your disposal. Many of you may find it helpful to return to your postings on the class blog for ideas and inspiration. The research blog has preliminary bibliographies and links to online resources regarding subjects that will be relevant to this project. The primary texts that we have been reading in class (The Canterbury Tales, The Holy Sonnets, Wit, and The Tempest) and the three individual projects that you have completed thus far all provide examples of how pre-existing material can be used creatively in new works of authorship.
In this assignment, you will work on synthesizing your own ideas and interpretations of the subject matter we have been studying with the ideas and interpretations of other writers in order to construct an informed, credible, and cohesive argument using formal prose and following the MLA style guide.
Assignment Description:
Your final composition must include the following:
1. A 1000-1250 word essay that follows MLA style guidelines on one (1) of the following topics:
- What, if anything can Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, teach us about the modern legal distinction between parody and satire?
- Does the success of the Copyleft/Free Culture movement involve a return to a pre-modern, or at least pre-copyright, creative environment?
- Is there ever a time when remixing or reusing someone else's work is actually a better response to the rhetorical situation or a better use of creative energy than starting over from scratch and creating something totally new and original?
- When, if ever, should authors and creators have the right to prevent other authors and creators from copying for the purposes of commentary and criticism?
3. Any additional matter that you believe necessary to illustrate, explain, or support your argument.
You will post all drafts, including your final draft to your individual blog.
Elements of the Composition:
Text of your essay
- Should follow grammar and usage conventions appropriate to formal, academic prose
- Should use MLA style, including MLA parenthetical documentation
- Should include an introduction that clearly states your thesis and provides a sense of the context for your argument, a main body that presents your argument in a logical and coherent manner, and a conclusion that considers some of the broader implications of your argument within the rhetorical context in which your thesis arises.
- Should include complete citations in MLA format to every work from which you have drawn words or ideas.
- Should be included in the same blog post as the essay
All drafts, including Stage 3 your final draft, will be posted to your individual blog.
Stage 1: Rough Draft comprising a working thesis and an outline of the main points or the significant questions that must be addressed in your argument (posted to your individual blog as “Critical Essay: Stage 1” by class time on Monday, March 15, 5 points)
- The eBook has excellent tips on developing a working thesis and constructing an argument
- See, in particular, the sections on “Reading/Understanding the Rhetorical Situation” and “Exploring Ideas and Planning”
Stage 2: Rough Draft comprising a working draft of your entire argument (posted to your individual blog as “Critical Essay: Stage 2” by 11:00 pm on Friday, March 19, 5 points)
- The final draft is due the Tuesday after spring break, so the more you do for the draft, the less you will have to worry about over the break and when you get back
Stage 3: Final Draft of your polished, proofread essay with a complete, polished and proofread works cited (posted to your individual blog as "Critical Essay: Stage 3" by 11:00 pm on Tuesday, March 30, 85 points)
- As you work on polishing your essay, see the eBook sections under “WRITTEN”: “Effective Language,” “Effective Writing,” and “Sentence Clarity”
- As you are constructing and finalizing your works cited, see the eBook section “MLA Style” under “Attribution and Research”
Rhetorical Awareness: The rhetorical situation comprises your purpose, audience and context. The rhetorical situation influences the kind of arguments that you can make as well as how you make them. You should have a clear idea of your audience, purpose and context before you begin writing, and your final draft should reflect your awareness of all three.
Stance and Support: Making an argument involves using appropriate evidence drawn from appropriate sources. Material (summaries, paraphrases, quotations) drawn from all of your sources should be relevant to and integrated with your argument, and you should provide proper attribution in MLA format when you incorporate the words, work or ideas of another in your writing.
Organization: A good academic essay follows a logical progression from introduction to conclusion. Ideally, your paper should have a form that reflects the logical progression of your argument and an awareness of the needs of your audience in understanding it, rather than one that follows a pre-determined formula (e.g. the “five paragraph theme”).
Conventions: This assignment is designed to get you thinking about the conventions of formal, written, academic discourse. Ideally, your paper should demonstrate your still-emerging awareness and integration of these conventions in its organization, tone, diction and usage.
Multimodal Integration: Although this project involves communication that is primarily written, you should be aware of how visual elements (layout, font styling, paragraphing, etc.) will affect the readability and project the formality of your writing.
Grading Rubric:
I will use the attached rubric as a guide when grading your projects. Comments on your work will in most cases consist of a summary of how the rubric applies to your work, and extended comments on the final draft.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Blog Post 5: Students for Free Culture
The Students for Free Culture movement originally started when two college students hosted confidential emails from an electronic voting booth company on their website. The company told them to remove the emails or they would sue for copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The students refused, and after attracting media attention the charges were dropped. These students went on to found Students for Free Culture. This organization attempts to reduce copyright laws to promote “creativity and innovation; communication and free expression; public access to knowledge; and citizens' civil liberties” according to its website. This includes the free access of music, software, arts, etc over the internet. Students for Free Culture believes that allowing access to this copyrighted information would promote the production of new ideas in these fields. They believe that they will inspire us and cause overall progress that is more important than possible financial losses.
The DMCA was passed by Congress in 1998 and was designed to protect copyrights from digital infringement by enacting various anti-piracy laws. The DMCA makes it a crime to get around anti-piracy measures, and it makes devices used to illegally copy software illegal. It also states that ISP’s must remove material if they are notified that it is committing copyright infringement. This was the part of the law that set off the original court case, but now Students for Free Culture has taken more of a general stance against copyright legislation.
On the other side of the argument, businesses need the revenue provided by the software/songs/etc that Students for Free Culture believe should be shared to facilitate the production of new ideas. The ideas of Students for Free Culture begin to run into some of the same opposing arguments as copyleft did. It seems to run in opposition to the current capitalist system. Also, the Constitution specifically gave Congress the right to pass copyright legislation to promote some of the same growth that Students for Free Culture claims is being harmed by it. However, the evolution of technology has far outstripped what the founding fathers originally imagined, thus these laws could be considered antiquated by some proponents of Students for Free Culture.
Questions:
1) How do you think the evolution of digital technology has changed the needs of copyright laws?
2) Do you think songs, software, art, etc should be available for free?
3) What ramifications could this have on the industries that produce these products?
4) How would allowing access to old ideas in this manner affect the development of new ideas and overall progress?
The DMCA was passed by Congress in 1998 and was designed to protect copyrights from digital infringement by enacting various anti-piracy laws. The DMCA makes it a crime to get around anti-piracy measures, and it makes devices used to illegally copy software illegal. It also states that ISP’s must remove material if they are notified that it is committing copyright infringement. This was the part of the law that set off the original court case, but now Students for Free Culture has taken more of a general stance against copyright legislation.
On the other side of the argument, businesses need the revenue provided by the software/songs/etc that Students for Free Culture believe should be shared to facilitate the production of new ideas. The ideas of Students for Free Culture begin to run into some of the same opposing arguments as copyleft did. It seems to run in opposition to the current capitalist system. Also, the Constitution specifically gave Congress the right to pass copyright legislation to promote some of the same growth that Students for Free Culture claims is being harmed by it. However, the evolution of technology has far outstripped what the founding fathers originally imagined, thus these laws could be considered antiquated by some proponents of Students for Free Culture.
Questions:
1) How do you think the evolution of digital technology has changed the needs of copyright laws?
2) Do you think songs, software, art, etc should be available for free?
3) What ramifications could this have on the industries that produce these products?
4) How would allowing access to old ideas in this manner affect the development of new ideas and overall progress?
SOS
Hey guys is it just me or is anyone else having real trouble in finding sources for their sonnet? I'm annotating Holy Sonnet XI and it's been a lot of trouble.
In Response to Some Good Questions About the Multimodal Donne Annotation Stage 1 . . .
I've received a number of good questions about Stage 1 and evaluating research sources. In addition to emailing me individually, I encourage all of you to use the class blog to pose and respond to questions about your research, our readings, and the assignments.
Here are some tips on evaluating resources and some information about the goals of this assignment:
1) This assignment requires you to do research and to communicate the results of that research, which should be drawn from at least five outside sources. As you hopefully learned during the research seminar in the library yesterday, outside sources should include journal articles and/or books, in addition to less scholarly, non-peer-reviewed, and therefore less reliable internet sources such as websites. Your Stage 1 draft should include the text of the sonnet you are annotating, a list of five sources, and a brief description of each that responds to the questions posed in the assignment description.
2) Each of your sources presumably has an author or authors (if you can't find out who the author is, then that's a red-flag as far as credibility is concerned). In determining whether the author is credible, e.g., someone who can be trusted to know what s/he is talking about and to have done his/her research, read the biographical information about him/her provided in footnotes to an article or in an author blurb in a book. Do a bit of internet research to see what else s/he has written, where s/he works. Is the author a professional scholar from Harvard or a high-school student in Topeka, KS? Do you see why that sort of information makes a difference when you're judging how much credence to give a particular source? It's not that the high school student is necessarily wrong, just that his/her work probably hasn't been through the peer review process and may need to be checked with a bit more thoroughness than that of the Harvard professor. In some cases you may find that one particular article or book is cited or discussed in a number of your other sources. If it has received favorable treatment, then that weighs in favor of the author's credibility. If it has been panned and criticized, then that usually weighs against the author's credibility.
3) With regard to audience, it is true that on a basic level, everything about Donne is directed to people interested in Donne. Some sources, though, are intended for students and beginning researchers. Others are aimed at a more sophisticated and knowledgeable audience. This information is important because it helps your audience to determine where your research is coming from, whether it's credible, whether you're drawing upon a variety of sources to give an objective overview of the field or giving a one-sided view based on the information that gets returned in the top ten hits of a Google search.
4) I've given you some guidance with regard to credibility above. Additional factors include where the source was published (scholarly journal, which means peer-review and vetting before publication, or a self-published blog or website, which means less "screening" before publication), who is the audience (other experts, who are likely to be able to pick up on flaws in argument or research, or students or non-experts, who are less likely to be able to pick up on such things). Here again, a self-published blog or a study-guide generated for an undergraduate audience aren't necessarily "bad," but if you use them you want to make sure that they have other markers of credibility, such as a good bibliography of a variety of sources, corroboration by peer-reviewed sources, perhaps a forum of commentary (on a blog post, for example) that offers corroboration and/or corrections to the argument.
5) One of the big goals of research assignments such as this one is to develop students' information literacy, to get students to understand how to make decisions about what to believe and what to take with a grain of salt. We all know that just because we see it on the internet doesn't necessarily mean it's true. This assignment is in part about making the transition from being a skeptical and careful reader to being a knowledgeable reader, one who can make informed decisions about what information is reliable and needs to be taken into account, and what information is less reliable and therefore needs to be given less weight or perhaps even discounted altogether.
Here are some tips on evaluating resources and some information about the goals of this assignment:
1) This assignment requires you to do research and to communicate the results of that research, which should be drawn from at least five outside sources. As you hopefully learned during the research seminar in the library yesterday, outside sources should include journal articles and/or books, in addition to less scholarly, non-peer-reviewed, and therefore less reliable internet sources such as websites. Your Stage 1 draft should include the text of the sonnet you are annotating, a list of five sources, and a brief description of each that responds to the questions posed in the assignment description.
2) Each of your sources presumably has an author or authors (if you can't find out who the author is, then that's a red-flag as far as credibility is concerned). In determining whether the author is credible, e.g., someone who can be trusted to know what s/he is talking about and to have done his/her research, read the biographical information about him/her provided in footnotes to an article or in an author blurb in a book. Do a bit of internet research to see what else s/he has written, where s/he works. Is the author a professional scholar from Harvard or a high-school student in Topeka, KS? Do you see why that sort of information makes a difference when you're judging how much credence to give a particular source? It's not that the high school student is necessarily wrong, just that his/her work probably hasn't been through the peer review process and may need to be checked with a bit more thoroughness than that of the Harvard professor. In some cases you may find that one particular article or book is cited or discussed in a number of your other sources. If it has received favorable treatment, then that weighs in favor of the author's credibility. If it has been panned and criticized, then that usually weighs against the author's credibility.
3) With regard to audience, it is true that on a basic level, everything about Donne is directed to people interested in Donne. Some sources, though, are intended for students and beginning researchers. Others are aimed at a more sophisticated and knowledgeable audience. This information is important because it helps your audience to determine where your research is coming from, whether it's credible, whether you're drawing upon a variety of sources to give an objective overview of the field or giving a one-sided view based on the information that gets returned in the top ten hits of a Google search.
4) I've given you some guidance with regard to credibility above. Additional factors include where the source was published (scholarly journal, which means peer-review and vetting before publication, or a self-published blog or website, which means less "screening" before publication), who is the audience (other experts, who are likely to be able to pick up on flaws in argument or research, or students or non-experts, who are less likely to be able to pick up on such things). Here again, a self-published blog or a study-guide generated for an undergraduate audience aren't necessarily "bad," but if you use them you want to make sure that they have other markers of credibility, such as a good bibliography of a variety of sources, corroboration by peer-reviewed sources, perhaps a forum of commentary (on a blog post, for example) that offers corroboration and/or corrections to the argument.
5) One of the big goals of research assignments such as this one is to develop students' information literacy, to get students to understand how to make decisions about what to believe and what to take with a grain of salt. We all know that just because we see it on the internet doesn't necessarily mean it's true. This assignment is in part about making the transition from being a skeptical and careful reader to being a knowledgeable reader, one who can make informed decisions about what information is reliable and needs to be taken into account, and what information is less reliable and therefore needs to be given less weight or perhaps even discounted altogether.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Copyleft
Copyleft
Copyleft is the use of copyright law to access, distribute, and modify versions of a work for free with the prerequisite that the modified versions of the work will remain free to access, distribute, and modify. In usual circumstances of copyright, the produced work is protected from modifications and unlawful distribution. Copyleft uses copyright with distribution terms. The distribution terms allows everyone to access the work and all forms of the work. This allows anyone to modify the work as long as the same distribution terms remain intact once the work has been modified. Copyleft can be seen as the in between of taking complete and no ownership of a work. The work is not left in the public domain, where no ownership of the work is claimed, nor are all copyright laws enacted on the work. Only some restraints are placed on the work. This allows the work to remain free, while others can improve the work and the work will still remain free. Furthermore, most people find that the main purpose of copyleft is to produce a better product through communal interactions.
The history behind copyleft shows that copyleft made a profound impact through a technology boom where an abundance of software arose. The GNU General Public License was founded by Richard Stallman after he left the company he was working with, to publish his software to a public domain where it could be improved by others without the issues of copyright. He used copyleft to ensure his work would only be improved on. Today GNU is used regularly to supply people with free software. Stallman states on the GNU website," I want to encourage free software to spread, replacing proprietary software that forbids cooperation, and thus make our society better."
This idealistic view of copyleft is intriguing. Everyone is able to access free software, and the software is enhanced regularly by communal brainpower. However, the issue arises; where is the incentive to publish free work? Stallman says that the incentive alone is the pride one takes in the free work that was published; yet the publisher’s benefits are in no way monetary. This system of copyleft can be seen as a Marxist standpoint. The capitalist system revolves around the incentive to create and engineer a new design for monetary value. Copyleft can be seen to go against this the American system.
In a sense, copyleft connects producers and consumers. The consumers now have an input in how a particular software functions. It also incorporates copyright, but in such a way that it eliminates a middleman. Copyleft allows programmers to improve upon software freely without the impact of proprietors who may want to steal a program and sell it.
Now that you have an idea of what copyleft is consider the following questions:
Questions:
1) Should we have the right to use copyleft? Do you think it degrades the American system of capitalism?
2) Do you think copyleft is the best way to improve a product?
3) There are claims that proprietor software developers use copyright to take away the users’ freedom and that copyleft is a means to guarantee this freedom. What are your views on this statement?
4) Could copyleft be considered a form of plagiarism? Explain.
Sources
"Copyleft -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 23 Feb. 2010..
Stallman, Richard. "Copyleft: Pragmatic Idealism - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)." The GNU Operating System. Web. 23 Feb. 2010..
"What is Copyleft? - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)." The GNU Operating System. Web. 23 Feb. 2010..
Copyleft is the use of copyright law to access, distribute, and modify versions of a work for free with the prerequisite that the modified versions of the work will remain free to access, distribute, and modify. In usual circumstances of copyright, the produced work is protected from modifications and unlawful distribution. Copyleft uses copyright with distribution terms. The distribution terms allows everyone to access the work and all forms of the work. This allows anyone to modify the work as long as the same distribution terms remain intact once the work has been modified. Copyleft can be seen as the in between of taking complete and no ownership of a work. The work is not left in the public domain, where no ownership of the work is claimed, nor are all copyright laws enacted on the work. Only some restraints are placed on the work. This allows the work to remain free, while others can improve the work and the work will still remain free. Furthermore, most people find that the main purpose of copyleft is to produce a better product through communal interactions.
The history behind copyleft shows that copyleft made a profound impact through a technology boom where an abundance of software arose. The GNU General Public License was founded by Richard Stallman after he left the company he was working with, to publish his software to a public domain where it could be improved by others without the issues of copyright. He used copyleft to ensure his work would only be improved on. Today GNU is used regularly to supply people with free software. Stallman states on the GNU website," I want to encourage free software to spread, replacing proprietary software that forbids cooperation, and thus make our society better."
This idealistic view of copyleft is intriguing. Everyone is able to access free software, and the software is enhanced regularly by communal brainpower. However, the issue arises; where is the incentive to publish free work? Stallman says that the incentive alone is the pride one takes in the free work that was published; yet the publisher’s benefits are in no way monetary. This system of copyleft can be seen as a Marxist standpoint. The capitalist system revolves around the incentive to create and engineer a new design for monetary value. Copyleft can be seen to go against this the American system.
In a sense, copyleft connects producers and consumers. The consumers now have an input in how a particular software functions. It also incorporates copyright, but in such a way that it eliminates a middleman. Copyleft allows programmers to improve upon software freely without the impact of proprietors who may want to steal a program and sell it.
Now that you have an idea of what copyleft is consider the following questions:
Questions:
1) Should we have the right to use copyleft? Do you think it degrades the American system of capitalism?
2) Do you think copyleft is the best way to improve a product?
3) There are claims that proprietor software developers use copyright to take away the users’ freedom and that copyleft is a means to guarantee this freedom. What are your views on this statement?
4) Could copyleft be considered a form of plagiarism? Explain.
Sources
"Copyleft -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 23 Feb. 2010.
Stallman, Richard. "Copyleft: Pragmatic Idealism - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)." The GNU Operating System. Web. 23 Feb. 2010.
"What is Copyleft? - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)." The GNU Operating System. Web. 23 Feb. 2010.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Multimodal Donne Annotation Assignment Description
ENGL1102/Spring 2010/Wharton
Individual Assignment 3: Multimodal Donne Annotation
Overview:
The goal of this assignment is to create a multimodal composition that provides an overview of the interpretation and commentary surrounding one of John Donne's Holy Sonnets. In our discussion of Wit, we have been talking about how the play, in addition to offering an original dramatic narrative, also works as a sort of commentary upon and interpretation of a number of the Holy Sonnets. While some of the ideas that Edson expresses in the play are uniquely her own, she is also drawing upon a large body of critical work that provides numerous ways of looking at and thinking about Donne's poetry.
In this project, you will be exploring that same body of critical work as it relates to the sonnet you have chosen to annotate. Some of you may be familiar with the annotated bibliography as a piece of academic writing. This project is intended to develop some of the same research and rhetorical skills as an annotated bibliography, while at the same time continuing your work with multimodality.
Where the previous two assignments have focused on communicating your own ideas and interpretations, this assignment will focus on understanding and communicating the ideas and interpretations of others in a coherent, comprehensive, and objective manner.
Assignment Description:
Your final composition must include the following:
As noted, in its goals and objectives, this composition shares a great deal with the annotated bibliography. For a good, detailed description of the annotated bibliography, see the Cornell University Library's website "How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography." Like an annotated bibliography, your final composition will include citations and annotations that "inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited."
In format, however, your composition will differ markedly from an annotated bibliography. Rather than a written list of citations accompanied by annotations, your composition will take the form of an annotated text of one of Donne's Holy Sonnets. For some good advice on annotating poetry, see the University of West Georgia website "How to Annotate a Poem." Of the annotations you include, at least half of them must include audio, visual, and/or other non-verbal content.
Your composition may take the form of a Word document in which the text of the sonnet you've chosen is set out along with footnotes or endnotes that contain your citations and annotations. It might also take the form of a website that consists of a hypertext markup of the sonnet you've chosen, in which the citations and annotations are set out in linked pages and/or as mouseover text/images. You can also use a PDF program, such as Adobe InDesign to create a PDF document. I encourage you to be creative and to use technologies with which you are competent and familiar.
To help you brainstorm, here are a few examples of annotated texts that integrate some of the strategies you'll be deploying in this assignment:
I will use the attached rubric as a guide when grading your projects. Comments on your work will in most cases consist of a summary of how the rubric applies to your work, and extended comments on the final draft.
Individual Assignment 3: Multimodal Donne Annotation
Overview:
The goal of this assignment is to create a multimodal composition that provides an overview of the interpretation and commentary surrounding one of John Donne's Holy Sonnets. In our discussion of Wit, we have been talking about how the play, in addition to offering an original dramatic narrative, also works as a sort of commentary upon and interpretation of a number of the Holy Sonnets. While some of the ideas that Edson expresses in the play are uniquely her own, she is also drawing upon a large body of critical work that provides numerous ways of looking at and thinking about Donne's poetry.
In this project, you will be exploring that same body of critical work as it relates to the sonnet you have chosen to annotate. Some of you may be familiar with the annotated bibliography as a piece of academic writing. This project is intended to develop some of the same research and rhetorical skills as an annotated bibliography, while at the same time continuing your work with multimodality.
Where the previous two assignments have focused on communicating your own ideas and interpretations, this assignment will focus on understanding and communicating the ideas and interpretations of others in a coherent, comprehensive, and objective manner.
Assignment Description:
Your final composition must include the following:
- The text of the sonnet you are annotating
- Ten (10) annotations that describe and discuss ideas and interpretations drawn from at least five (5) outside sources
- Complete MLA-style citations to the outside sources that you have used
- At least five (5) of the ten annotations should include audio, visual, and/or other non-verbal content
As noted, in its goals and objectives, this composition shares a great deal with the annotated bibliography. For a good, detailed description of the annotated bibliography, see the Cornell University Library's website "How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography." Like an annotated bibliography, your final composition will include citations and annotations that "inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited."
In format, however, your composition will differ markedly from an annotated bibliography. Rather than a written list of citations accompanied by annotations, your composition will take the form of an annotated text of one of Donne's Holy Sonnets. For some good advice on annotating poetry, see the University of West Georgia website "How to Annotate a Poem." Of the annotations you include, at least half of them must include audio, visual, and/or other non-verbal content.
Your composition may take the form of a Word document in which the text of the sonnet you've chosen is set out along with footnotes or endnotes that contain your citations and annotations. It might also take the form of a website that consists of a hypertext markup of the sonnet you've chosen, in which the citations and annotations are set out in linked pages and/or as mouseover text/images. You can also use a PDF program, such as Adobe InDesign to create a PDF document. I encourage you to be creative and to use technologies with which you are competent and familiar.
To help you brainstorm, here are a few examples of annotated texts that integrate some of the strategies you'll be deploying in this assignment:
You might want to consider incorporating visual representations of textual material and information, such as:
- Word clouds, which you can generate using Wordle:
- Information Clusters or Maps:
- And flowcharts, to describe the evolution of an image or narrative development:
With regard to audio, you may want to consider incorporating audio files that demonstrate how a particular line scans or might be scanned (i.e., how the punctuation and meter of a line work), when such information is relevant to thinking about how that line is to be interpreted.
As you are putting together your composition, make sure that you consider factors such as readability/usability/accessibility (e.g., whether your audience can read or access the annotations), integration of visual, audio, and non-verbal material, and the critical context in which the sonnet you are annotating is situated.
Elements of the Composition:
Text of the sonnet
- Should be complete and legible
- Must include the number of the sonnet as provided in the online edition we're using for class
Annotations
- May offer summaries of interpretations offered by other readers of the poem, with citations to the source(s) where those interpretations can be found
- Can include text, images, and/or audio
- Should be clearly tied to the text of the poem through written description and/or visual means (e.g., notes, arrows, hyperlinks, etc.)
- Must incorporate your own summaries, descriptions, discussion of and thoughts about the outside sources and interpretations you have included
- Must consist of more than links to online materials discussing the sonnet you've chosen
Citations
- Must follow MLA format as closely as possible
- Should be incorporated into the annotations to which they are relevant
- Will be evidence of your research, showing that you've used at least five (5) outside sources
Assignment Stages:
All drafts, including Stage 4 your final draft, will be posted to your original blog. In some, perhaps all cases your blog posting may consist of a link to your actual draft on the web along with instructions of how to access and view it. You can use your Prism account to upload and store Word documents, PDFs, etc., which you may then link to your blog post.
Stage 1: Rough Draft comprising text of the sonnet you'll be annotating and an annotated list of at least five outside sources (Posted to your individual blog as "Multimodal Donne Annotation: Stage 1" by class time on Wednesday, March 3, 3 points)
- Your list of sources should provide a complete MLA citation for each source
- The annotation for each source should should provide: (1) a description of the source, (2) a discussion of its author and intended audience, (3) a consideration of factors related to its credibility, (4) a summary of the ideas and information you think you might be drawing from that source, and (5) a discussion of how the source in question responds to, expands upon or adds to the other sources in your list
In-class peer-review of Stage 1, reviews of two (2) peers to be completed in class Wednesday, March 3, 3 points)
Stage 2: Rough Draft comprising text of the sonnet you'll be annotating, an annotated list of at least five outside sources, and an outline or description of the subject matter and proposed format of your final composition (Posted to your individual blog as "Multimodal Donne Annotation: Stage 2" by class time on Friday, March 5, 3 points)
- This draft should incorporate a revised version of all the information provided in your Stage 1 draft
- It should also provide an outline or description of the format that you'll be using for your final draft and a summary of the contents of each of your ten (10) annotations
Out-of-class peer-review of Stage 2, reviews of two (2) peers to be completed by 11:00 pm on Saturday, March 6, 3 points)
Stage 3: Rough Draft of your composition comprising the text of your chosen sonnet with at least five annotations (Posted to your individual blog as "Multimodal Donne Annotation: Stage 3" by class time on Monday, March 8, 3 points)
- This draft should be an attempt to realize the form in which your final draft will be cast
- So if you are planning on turning in a hypertext markup of the poem for the final draft, this draft should be a hypertext markup as well
- Use preparation of this stage to prepare for and iron out any anticipated or unanticipated difficulties in execution that you may encounter
Out-of-class peer-review of Stage 3, reviews of two (2) peers to be completed by 11:00 pm on Tuesday, March 9, 3 points)
Stage 4: Final Draft (Posted to your individual blog as "Multimodal Donne Annotation: Stage 4" by 11:00 pm on Friday, March 12, 82 points)
- Since this is the final draft, I expect all formatting and linking issues to be resolved at this point, wonky formatting and broken links, like typos and grammatical errors, will negatively impact your final grade
Assignment Goals and Desired Learning Outcomes:
- Rhetorical Awareness: The purpose of this composition is to demonstrate that you have done substantial background research into the critical context surrounding the sonnet you've chosen to annotate and that you have selected sources after careful consideration of the information and scholarship that are available. It should also demonstrate that you have carefully considered and effectively communicated what each source adds to your understanding of the sonnet. In addition, it should show that you've thought about how different ideas and information can be effectively conveyed using different communicative modes.
- Stance and Support: Making an argument involves using appropriate evidence drawn from appropriate sources. Material (summaries, paraphrases, quotations) drawn from all of your sources should be relevant to and integrated with your annotations, and you should provide proper attribution in MLA format when you incorporate the words, work or ideas of another in your annotations.
- Organization: A composition follows a logical progression. Ideally, your final draft should have a form that reflects an understanding of the critical context surrounding the poem you are annotating and an awareness of the needs of your audience in understanding that critical context. Consider how to annotate the poem that makes sense in terms of providing information where it is relevant to the text of the poem, while at the same time giving an overview of possible interpretations.
- Conventions: This assignment is designed to get you thinking about the conventions of multiple modes of communication and how those conventions influence a composition that incorporates more than a single dominant mode. Ideally, your composition should reflect an awareness of the conventions of visual, aural and electronic media while also complying with conventional rules regarding citations and documentation, grammar, punctuation and mechanics in the textual component.
- Multimodal Integration: In this assignment, you will work with integrating multiple modes into a unified work. Ideally, your final draft will demonstrate some understanding of how multiple modes of communication work together to create the final composition.
Grading Rubric:
I will use the attached rubric as a guide when grading your projects. Comments on your work will in most cases consist of a summary of how the rubric applies to your work, and extended comments on the final draft.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Adaptation Criticism.
Adaptation Criticism is the commentary on how true the reworking of a piece of literature is to the original. Adaptations take the form of a new novel, a play, a song, or a film. Often, in changing the literature to become a new piece, the original ideas are lost or changed. For the purposes of this assignment, we will focus primarily on “page to screen” adaptations, as these are what we as a whole are most familiar with.
Thomas Leitch, a professor at the University of Delaware, has examined the distinctions between how people perceive a piece of literature and how they perceive a film adaptation of that same piece. He has listened the twelve fallacies of film adaptation, most of which state that screenplays are yet another step in the adaptation of an original text. Take the film “Gone With the Wind.” Margaret Mitchell wrote the novel with an idea in mind – an idea of how Tara should look, what Scarlett looked like, and how Atlanta looked at the time. In writing the screenplay, the screenwriter had a different view of the same things and put his or her own ideas into the script. In creating the film, the director, cast, and crew added their own opinions and ideas. So, by the time the film reaches its consumers, the original ideas held by Margaret Mitchell have been influenced and changed by countless numbers of people.
Leitch’s fifth fallacy states that “Novels deal in concepts, films deal in percepts.” You can gain a specific idea from a novel, from reading the words of the author. However, it is a bit more difficult to do the same with a film. The director must almost always change certain parts of the novel to convey the message to the audience. The actors are also able to give a viewer more visual clues to something going on in the plot than if that same viewer were trying to read the novel. His sixth fallacy states that “Novels create more complex characters than movies because they offer more immediate and complete access to character’s psychological state.” Have you ever read a book and completely understood the character? Understood their thoughts and actions? Yet when you watch the screen adaptation the character is nothing like you thought that person to be? In a book you are able to read a character’s thoughts and gain a better understanding of that character, but in a film, you must accept the actor or actress as the character and their actions become the actions of the character.
Think about and discuss.
1. How do you perceive film adaptations?
2. Although not discussed, how did you perceive the play adaptation of The Canterbury Tales at the Shakespeare Tavern? Did it live up to your expectations of the novel?
3. What are some other, modern examples of “page to screen” adaptation? Do you think they followed the book or not?
4. Is there a line where film adaptation changes the author’s original message? Does this overstep any copyright laws or legal procedures?
Leitch, Thomas. "Twelve Fallacies in Contemporary Adaptation Theory." Criticism 51.2 (2009): 149-71. Web. 13 Feb 2010..
Thomas Leitch, a professor at the University of Delaware, has examined the distinctions between how people perceive a piece of literature and how they perceive a film adaptation of that same piece. He has listened the twelve fallacies of film adaptation, most of which state that screenplays are yet another step in the adaptation of an original text. Take the film “Gone With the Wind.” Margaret Mitchell wrote the novel with an idea in mind – an idea of how Tara should look, what Scarlett looked like, and how Atlanta looked at the time. In writing the screenplay, the screenwriter had a different view of the same things and put his or her own ideas into the script. In creating the film, the director, cast, and crew added their own opinions and ideas. So, by the time the film reaches its consumers, the original ideas held by Margaret Mitchell have been influenced and changed by countless numbers of people.
Leitch’s fifth fallacy states that “Novels deal in concepts, films deal in percepts.” You can gain a specific idea from a novel, from reading the words of the author. However, it is a bit more difficult to do the same with a film. The director must almost always change certain parts of the novel to convey the message to the audience. The actors are also able to give a viewer more visual clues to something going on in the plot than if that same viewer were trying to read the novel. His sixth fallacy states that “Novels create more complex characters than movies because they offer more immediate and complete access to character’s psychological state.” Have you ever read a book and completely understood the character? Understood their thoughts and actions? Yet when you watch the screen adaptation the character is nothing like you thought that person to be? In a book you are able to read a character’s thoughts and gain a better understanding of that character, but in a film, you must accept the actor or actress as the character and their actions become the actions of the character.
Think about and discuss.
1. How do you perceive film adaptations?
2. Although not discussed, how did you perceive the play adaptation of The Canterbury Tales at the Shakespeare Tavern? Did it live up to your expectations of the novel?
3. What are some other, modern examples of “page to screen” adaptation? Do you think they followed the book or not?
4. Is there a line where film adaptation changes the author’s original message? Does this overstep any copyright laws or legal procedures?
Leitch, Thomas. "Twelve Fallacies in Contemporary Adaptation Theory." Criticism 51.2 (2009): 149-71. Web. 13 Feb 2010.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Parody vs. Satire
Parody vs. Satire
Parody and Satire are terms which are often used interchangeably. There is a grey area between the two, often blurred and thus the terms are often mistaken for each other. A parody, according to So What . .. About Copyright? What Artists Need to Know About Copyright and Trademarks , generally imitates or mimics a style or look, while a satire is often a humorous or political critique of a vice or error. The main difference between the two is that parodies are protected under the copyright law, more specifically the law of fair use, while satires are not.
So what exactly is the fine line between a parody versus a satire? They both generally but need not, whether directly or otherwise, make use of humor and they both serve for entertainment purposes. However, parodies are used solely for entertainment purposes whereas satires use the humor somewhat obviously to convey a message. Also, parodies, due to their nature, comment on the original works that they mimic, in other words they give credit to the original works that they make fun of within the context of their humor. In relation to the law of fair use, which states that “to be original, a work must contain a grain of creativity”, we can see that parodies, although using the ideas and themes of an original work, alter the original work for the sake of humor as well as commenting on the original work within the humor; they do not detract from the original work. Satires, however, simply branch off of the original works for their own political or critiquing purposes, without commenting or giving credit to the original works and so can be viewed as a form of plagiarism. Moreover, parodies are usually about or usually make a play on fictional circumstances or characters, whilst satires deal with non-fictional material.
In the context of the Canterbury Tales, we can see that the Tales was a satire of Medieval English society, a critique of the cross section of society of the day. However, because his commentaries and ideas were disguised so well under the pretence of humor, that is they were not completely apparent, he was able to play his work off as a parody. Another reason why the Tales could be seen as a parody instead of a satire was that the Tales were written completely in Middle English. Even though some of the source material for the Tales was also written in English, some were also written in Latin and so Chaucer’s choice to translate the Latin to write in English would also lend some semblance of originality to the Tales and not as a complete replicate.
So...
1) Do you think satires should also be protected as parodies are and why? And if not, do you think parodies should have the protection that they do?
2) What are some contemporary examples of parody/satire? Be sure to specify which one.
3) Who should decide whether something should be satire or parody?
4) How has the role of the Canterbury Tales as a parody/satire changed over time?
Citations:
Litman, Jessica, Kay Murray, and. Christine Steiner. “What Every Artist Should Know About Copyright and Trademark Law.” So What . . . About Copyright? What Artists Need to Know About Copyright and Trademarks. Ed. David Bollier et al. Public Knowledge, 2005. 11-47. http://www.crt.louisiana.gov/culturalassets//images/howto/so-what-about-copyright.pdf
Webster's Online Dictionary
Parody and Satire are terms which are often used interchangeably. There is a grey area between the two, often blurred and thus the terms are often mistaken for each other. A parody, according to So What . .. About Copyright? What Artists Need to Know About Copyright and Trademarks , generally imitates or mimics a style or look, while a satire is often a humorous or political critique of a vice or error. The main difference between the two is that parodies are protected under the copyright law, more specifically the law of fair use, while satires are not.
So what exactly is the fine line between a parody versus a satire? They both generally but need not, whether directly or otherwise, make use of humor and they both serve for entertainment purposes. However, parodies are used solely for entertainment purposes whereas satires use the humor somewhat obviously to convey a message. Also, parodies, due to their nature, comment on the original works that they mimic, in other words they give credit to the original works that they make fun of within the context of their humor. In relation to the law of fair use, which states that “to be original, a work must contain a grain of creativity”, we can see that parodies, although using the ideas and themes of an original work, alter the original work for the sake of humor as well as commenting on the original work within the humor; they do not detract from the original work. Satires, however, simply branch off of the original works for their own political or critiquing purposes, without commenting or giving credit to the original works and so can be viewed as a form of plagiarism. Moreover, parodies are usually about or usually make a play on fictional circumstances or characters, whilst satires deal with non-fictional material.
In the context of the Canterbury Tales, we can see that the Tales was a satire of Medieval English society, a critique of the cross section of society of the day. However, because his commentaries and ideas were disguised so well under the pretence of humor, that is they were not completely apparent, he was able to play his work off as a parody. Another reason why the Tales could be seen as a parody instead of a satire was that the Tales were written completely in Middle English. Even though some of the source material for the Tales was also written in English, some were also written in Latin and so Chaucer’s choice to translate the Latin to write in English would also lend some semblance of originality to the Tales and not as a complete replicate.
So...
1) Do you think satires should also be protected as parodies are and why? And if not, do you think parodies should have the protection that they do?
2) What are some contemporary examples of parody/satire? Be sure to specify which one.
3) Who should decide whether something should be satire or parody?
4) How has the role of the Canterbury Tales as a parody/satire changed over time?
Citations:
Litman, Jessica, Kay Murray, and. Christine Steiner. “What Every Artist Should Know About Copyright and Trademark Law.” So What . . . About Copyright? What Artists Need to Know About Copyright and Trademarks. Ed. David Bollier et al. Public Knowledge, 2005. 11-47. http://www.crt.louisiana.gov/culturalassets//images/howto/so-what-about-copyright.pdf
Webster's Online Dictionary
Monday, February 8, 2010
Recasting *The Canterbury Tales* Assignment Description
ENGL1102/Spring 2010/Wharton
Individual Assignment 2: Recasting The Canterbury Tales
Overview:
The goal of this assignment is to create a multimodal composition that describes a new or updated character for Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, and explains and justifies the rationale behind the choices that you make in constructing your new or updated “pilgrim.” This is an opportunity to expand upon the choice that you made in the first assignment regarding a new setting for the “General Prologue.” So your new or updated Canterbury character should be one that you might find in the new setting that you described in Assignment 1, “Resetting The Canterbury Tales.” Your final composition will comprise two essential elements:
In our discussions of The Canterbury Tales we have explored how Chaucer draws upon and transforms literary source materials, social and professional stereotypes, and the people he may have seen around him every day to create characters that fill specific roles and help to convey purpose and meaning within his work. We have talked about how the choices that he makes in adapting source material help us to understand and interpret the Tales themselves, as well as Chaucer’s own understanding and interpretation of, and response to his sources. We have also seen a modern stage adaptation of The Canterbury Tales, in which the modern author or adapter made specific choices about setting and characterization that themselves offer up an interpretation of the Tales and their meaning for a modern audience.
This assignment asks you to create a multimodal composition that offers your own interpretation of at least one of The Canterbury Tales and your thoughts on the role that characterization plays in creating meaning within the tale upon which you have chosen to focus and, to some extent, the Tales as a whole. So, part of your job in creating a new or updated character is deciding which of the Tales he or she might tell and how he or she would tell it. Your interpretation of the tale you choose should be shaped by your own thoughts on:
Elements of the Composition:
Two-minute video
All drafts, including Stage 3 your final draft, will be posted to your individual blog. Peer-reviews will be posted as comments to your peer’s individual blog. Remember that all assignment stages must be completed in order to avoid receiving an unsatisfactory grade for an incomplete assignment.
*****Video equipment can be rented from the library, and video editing software is available in the library’s multimedia center. If you are planning on using the library’s resources, make sure that you plan accordingly.*****
Stage 1: Rough Draft of ***either*** your essay or your video (Posted to your individual blog as “Recasting The Canterbury Tales: Stage 1” by class time on Friday, February 12, 4 points)
Stage 2: Rough draft of whichever element for which you do not yet have a draft (Posted to your individual blog as “Recasting The Canterbury Tales: Stage 2” by class time on Monday, February 15, 4 points)
In-class peer-review of Stage 2, reviews of two (2) peers to be completed in class Monday, February 15, 4 points
Stage 4: Final Draft (Posted to your individual blog as “Recasting The Canterbury Tales: Stage 3” by 11:00 pm on Monday, February 22, 80 points)
Stage 5: Reflection (Posted to your individual blog as “Recasting The Canterbury Tales” Stage 5” by 11:00 pm on Monday, March 8, 4 points)
How did your composition evolve from one draft to the next in response to peer feedback and/or your own consideration of it? How does your final draft use more than alphabetic text to convey your argument? What composition strategies worked well for you in this assignment, and how might they work well in other rhetorical situations?
Assignment Goals and Desired Learning Outcomes:
Rhetorical Awareness: The rhetorical situation comprises your purpose, audience and context. The rhetorical situation influences the kind of arguments that you can make as well as how you make them. You should have a clear idea of your audience, purpose and context before you begin composing, and your final draft (which includes both elements) should reflect your awareness of all three. Ideally, your composition should express your unique personality as an author, in addition to making a persuasive argument for your interpretation of the tale you have chosen and how characterization affects meaning in The Canterbury Tales.
Stance and Support: Making an argument involves using appropriate evidence drawn from appropriate sources. Material (summaries, paraphrases, quotations) drawn from all of your sources should be relevant to and integrated with your argument, and you should provide proper attribution in MLA format when you incorporate the words, work or ideas of another in your essay. When you rely on your own personal experience and knowledge, you should clearly identify it as such, and such examples should also be relevant to and integrated with your argument.
Organization: A composition follows a logical progression from introduction to conclusion. Ideally, your final draft should have a form that reflects the logical progression of your argument and an awareness of the needs of your audience in understanding it, rather than one that follows a pre-determined formula (e.g., the video followed by a “five paragraph theme”). Consider how you might use text to introduce the video in your blog and control where and when your audience plays it, “wrapping” your text around it so that it encourages your audience to see the video as an integrated part of your argument.
Conventions: This assignment is designed to get you thinking about the conventions of multiple modes of communication and how those conventions influence a composition that incorporates more than a single dominant mode. Ideally, your composition should reflect an awareness of the conventions of visual, aural and electronic media while also complying with conventional rules regarding citations and documentation, grammar, punctuation and mechanics in the textual component.
Multimodal Integration: In this assignment, you will work with integrating multiple modes into a unified work. Ideally, your final draft will demonstrate some understanding of how multiple modes of communication work together to create the final composition.
Grading Rubric: I will use the attached rubric as a guide when grading your projects. Comments on your work will in most cases consist of a summary of how the rubric applies to your work, and extended comments on the final draft.
Individual Assignment 2: Recasting The Canterbury Tales
Overview:
The goal of this assignment is to create a multimodal composition that describes a new or updated character for Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, and explains and justifies the rationale behind the choices that you make in constructing your new or updated “pilgrim.” This is an opportunity to expand upon the choice that you made in the first assignment regarding a new setting for the “General Prologue.” So your new or updated Canterbury character should be one that you might find in the new setting that you described in Assignment 1, “Resetting The Canterbury Tales.” Your final composition will comprise two essential elements:
- A two-minute video, which may incorporate both “found” and “original” video, images, sounds, and music, that depicts and describes your new or updated character.
- A 750-word essay that describes, explains, and/or justifies your new character.
In our discussions of The Canterbury Tales we have explored how Chaucer draws upon and transforms literary source materials, social and professional stereotypes, and the people he may have seen around him every day to create characters that fill specific roles and help to convey purpose and meaning within his work. We have talked about how the choices that he makes in adapting source material help us to understand and interpret the Tales themselves, as well as Chaucer’s own understanding and interpretation of, and response to his sources. We have also seen a modern stage adaptation of The Canterbury Tales, in which the modern author or adapter made specific choices about setting and characterization that themselves offer up an interpretation of the Tales and their meaning for a modern audience.
This assignment asks you to create a multimodal composition that offers your own interpretation of at least one of The Canterbury Tales and your thoughts on the role that characterization plays in creating meaning within the tale upon which you have chosen to focus and, to some extent, the Tales as a whole. So, part of your job in creating a new or updated character is deciding which of the Tales he or she might tell and how he or she would tell it. Your interpretation of the tale you choose should be shaped by your own thoughts on:
- Chaucer’s purpose in writing the tale you have chosen and The Canterbury Tales as a whole
- the relationship between the tale you have chosen, the Tales as a whole, and the social and historical context in which Chaucer wrote
- the relationship between the tale you have chosen and the pilgrim that Chaucer originally chose as its teller
- the significance of each character as a “source” of his or her tale
- Chaucer’s use of character to distance himself from, or bring himself closer to the author(s) of his source material
Elements of the Composition:
Two-minute video
- must provide a description/explanation of your new or updated character and must offer some indication of which of The Canterbury Tales he or she would tell, and how he or she would tell it
- should consist of no more and no fewer than two minutes of footage
- can make use of standard videography, photography, digital or computer generated imaging techniques, free-hand drawing/animation, or any combination thereof
- should probably include audio
- may make use of both “found” and “original” video, images, sounds, and/or music
- should show consideration of the following:
- what is Chaucer’s purpose in writing The Canterbury Tales?
- how do the pilgrims work as the sources of their tales?
- how does Chaucer use characterization to comment upon or transform the meaning/nature of his source material?
- what is the relationship between your new or updated character and the Canterbury tale he or she will tell?
- how do the choices you’ve made in creating or updating your character reflect your interpretation of the Canterbury tale you’ve chosen?
- how do the choices you’ve made in creating or updating your character convey or change the meaning of the Canterbury tale you’ve chosen?
- what attitude to the Canterbury tale you’ve chosen are you trying to evoke, and how does that relate to the attitude evoked by the Chaucer’s original teller of that tale?
- what adjectives are generally associated with the character you’ve chosen, and how do those adjectives relate to the adjectives one might use to describe the teller Chaucer originally created for the tale you’ve chosen?
- how does the video work with the essay to present a complete description and justification of your new or updated character, and your decision to assign him/her as the teller of the tale you’ve chosen?
- should consist of no fewer than 750 words
- *****should state your thesis clearly*****
- should be organized around your thesis, with paragraphs organized around the main points of your argument
- should be relatively formal in tone and should provide specific evidence, drawn from Chaucer’s text, the source material, our class discussions, and the other two elements of your composition, in support of all of your major points
- may include visual, non-verbal or other modes of composition in addition to written text
- should show some consideration of all the items listed above in the description of the video, in addition to the following:
- what is your interpretation of the tale you’ve chosen and The Canterbury Tales as a whole?
- how does the video help to present and/or explain your interpretation?
- how have you integrated the essay with the video as a single, seamless, composition?
All drafts, including Stage 3 your final draft, will be posted to your individual blog. Peer-reviews will be posted as comments to your peer’s individual blog. Remember that all assignment stages must be completed in order to avoid receiving an unsatisfactory grade for an incomplete assignment.
*****Video equipment can be rented from the library, and video editing software is available in the library’s multimedia center. If you are planning on using the library’s resources, make sure that you plan accordingly.*****
Stage 1: Rough Draft of ***either*** your essay or your video (Posted to your individual blog as “Recasting The Canterbury Tales: Stage 1” by class time on Friday, February 12, 4 points)
- video rough draft -- Should consist of at least four minutes of footage and should be uploaded to the web--for example to your public folder on Prism or to a video-hosting site such as YouTube. “Posting” the video to your blog involves embedding a link to the video in your blog posting in such a way that the video plays or can be played within the blog without transitioning to a new site or opening a new tab/window like this:
- essay rough draft -- Should consist of at least 500 words and should offer a clear, arguable, specific thesis and a complete overview of your proposed argument.
Stage 2: Rough draft of whichever element for which you do not yet have a draft (Posted to your individual blog as “Recasting The Canterbury Tales: Stage 2” by class time on Monday, February 15, 4 points)
- your second draft should consist of a new posting to your individual blog that comprises a draft of ***either*** your video or your essay, whichever you did not do for Stage 1.
- see above for detailed instructions on what counts as a draft
In-class peer-review of Stage 2, reviews of two (2) peers to be completed in class Monday, February 15, 4 points
Stage 4: Final Draft (Posted to your individual blog as “Recasting The Canterbury Tales: Stage 3” by 11:00 pm on Monday, February 22, 80 points)
- the final draft should be a blog posting that integrates the final draft of your video and the 750-word essay
- *****your final draft MUST include a works-cited list that identifies ALL source material, including anything drawn from the texts we’ve been discussing in class, as well as the sources of found material in your video*****
- once again, “posting” this stage to your blog involves embedding a link to the video in your blog posting in such a way that it plays or can be played within the blog without transitioning to a new site or opening a new tab/window
- since this is the final draft, I expect all formatting and linking issues to be resolved at this point, wonky formatting and broken links, like typos and grammatical errors, will negatively impact your final grade
Stage 5: Reflection (Posted to your individual blog as “Recasting The Canterbury Tales” Stage 5” by 11:00 pm on Monday, March 8, 4 points)
How did your composition evolve from one draft to the next in response to peer feedback and/or your own consideration of it? How does your final draft use more than alphabetic text to convey your argument? What composition strategies worked well for you in this assignment, and how might they work well in other rhetorical situations?
Assignment Goals and Desired Learning Outcomes:
Rhetorical Awareness: The rhetorical situation comprises your purpose, audience and context. The rhetorical situation influences the kind of arguments that you can make as well as how you make them. You should have a clear idea of your audience, purpose and context before you begin composing, and your final draft (which includes both elements) should reflect your awareness of all three. Ideally, your composition should express your unique personality as an author, in addition to making a persuasive argument for your interpretation of the tale you have chosen and how characterization affects meaning in The Canterbury Tales.
Stance and Support: Making an argument involves using appropriate evidence drawn from appropriate sources. Material (summaries, paraphrases, quotations) drawn from all of your sources should be relevant to and integrated with your argument, and you should provide proper attribution in MLA format when you incorporate the words, work or ideas of another in your essay. When you rely on your own personal experience and knowledge, you should clearly identify it as such, and such examples should also be relevant to and integrated with your argument.
Organization: A composition follows a logical progression from introduction to conclusion. Ideally, your final draft should have a form that reflects the logical progression of your argument and an awareness of the needs of your audience in understanding it, rather than one that follows a pre-determined formula (e.g., the video followed by a “five paragraph theme”). Consider how you might use text to introduce the video in your blog and control where and when your audience plays it, “wrapping” your text around it so that it encourages your audience to see the video as an integrated part of your argument.
Conventions: This assignment is designed to get you thinking about the conventions of multiple modes of communication and how those conventions influence a composition that incorporates more than a single dominant mode. Ideally, your composition should reflect an awareness of the conventions of visual, aural and electronic media while also complying with conventional rules regarding citations and documentation, grammar, punctuation and mechanics in the textual component.
Multimodal Integration: In this assignment, you will work with integrating multiple modes into a unified work. Ideally, your final draft will demonstrate some understanding of how multiple modes of communication work together to create the final composition.
Grading Rubric: I will use the attached rubric as a guide when grading your projects. Comments on your work will in most cases consist of a summary of how the rubric applies to your work, and extended comments on the final draft.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Blog Post 1: Translatio Imperii et Studii
To understand the concept of Translatio Imperii et Studii, it is important to first break down exactly what the latin phrase means. Imperii, first and foremost, refers to political power and legitimacy while Studii refers to knowledge and culture, specifically in writing. Translatio literally means transfer or movement. Together these elements refer to the geographical and chronological movement of knowledge, culture, political power, and political legitimacy between one civilization and another. The concept of this transfer begins in the Middle Ages with the struggle between nations for European supremacy. Nations called upon their Roman ancestry, as in the cases of France and England, to legitimize their claims to power. This declaration of power in the name of the Roman empire serves as a prime example of Translatio Imperii, as political power is transferred from the previous Roman empire to give legitimacy to the political power of both France and England.
Simultaneously, as political power transferred from culture to culture, so too did knowledge and ideas. When looking at the emerging literature before and after the Medieval period, for example, there are many correlations between the romantic motiffs of Anglo-Norman text and the later writings of Sir Thomas Malory(Schwartz).
Translatio Studii becomes increasingly important when considering the scope of this class. Look no further than the direct correlations between the stories and settings presented in Boccaccio's The Decameron and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. In fact, these two works, with the addition of John Gower's Confessio Amantis, provide us with important examples of knowledge and ideas in literature transferring between cultures and times periods. For instance, let us consider the Wife of Bath's Tale as presented by Chaucer. This particular tale correlates directly with many of the story elements and themes in Gower's Tale of Florent, which was written around the same time. For instance, the idea of woman's sovereignty, as well as chivalry amongst men, contributes heavily to both stories, as well as many shared plot and setting elements. This case provides a great example as to how certain motifs can transfer between authors of the same period, while The Decameron, which shares a very similar structure and purpose with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, provides a great example as to how idea transfer between cultures and times. In regards to the scope of this class, Translatio Studii is a primary explanation as to how literature is adapted over time and space.
Think and Respond!!:
Can you think of any contemporary trends in which Tranlsatio Imperii et Studii takes place?
How can Translatio Imperii et Studii be applied to domestic sovereignty, as in the Tale of the Wife of Bath?
At what point does Translatio Studii deviate from a new system of thought, using old ideas, to a simple recasting of the original text?
Citations:
Schwarts, Deborah. "Translatio Studii et Imperii." 1999-2002.
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~schwart/eng513/courtly/translat.htm.
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. "Translatio Imperii." Wikipedia(2009).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translatio_imperii.
Simultaneously, as political power transferred from culture to culture, so too did knowledge and ideas. When looking at the emerging literature before and after the Medieval period, for example, there are many correlations between the romantic motiffs of Anglo-Norman text and the later writings of Sir Thomas Malory(Schwartz).
Translatio Studii becomes increasingly important when considering the scope of this class. Look no further than the direct correlations between the stories and settings presented in Boccaccio's The Decameron and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. In fact, these two works, with the addition of John Gower's Confessio Amantis, provide us with important examples of knowledge and ideas in literature transferring between cultures and times periods. For instance, let us consider the Wife of Bath's Tale as presented by Chaucer. This particular tale correlates directly with many of the story elements and themes in Gower's Tale of Florent, which was written around the same time. For instance, the idea of woman's sovereignty, as well as chivalry amongst men, contributes heavily to both stories, as well as many shared plot and setting elements. This case provides a great example as to how certain motifs can transfer between authors of the same period, while The Decameron, which shares a very similar structure and purpose with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, provides a great example as to how idea transfer between cultures and times. In regards to the scope of this class, Translatio Studii is a primary explanation as to how literature is adapted over time and space.
Think and Respond!!:
Can you think of any contemporary trends in which Tranlsatio Imperii et Studii takes place?
How can Translatio Imperii et Studii be applied to domestic sovereignty, as in the Tale of the Wife of Bath?
At what point does Translatio Studii deviate from a new system of thought, using old ideas, to a simple recasting of the original text?
Citations:
Schwarts, Deborah. "Translatio Studii et Imperii." 1999-2002.
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~schwart/eng513/courtly/translat.htm.
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. "Translatio Imperii." Wikipedia(2009).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translatio_imperii.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Resetting the Canterbury Tales: Stage 4 Final Draft
As the prologue to Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales unfolds and the gentle ebbs of spring rush in, so too do a small band of pilgrims on their way to honor the resting place of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury. As each of the pilgrims sits, journey worn, in the Tabard Inn tavern, Chaucer takes the opportunity to provide a unique glimpse at this particular caste of characters. What makes this glimpse unique is not the variety of characters, but the setting itself. Each pilgrim, though of different social classes and backgrounds, seems devoid of rank. As pilgrims, a lowly Miller sits with as much distinction as a respected Clergyman, or so Chaucer makes it seem. This lack of class division and distinction allows the reader to carefully analyze each character; casting aside any social pretense or stereotypes and allowing said reader to see these characters in new lights. For instance, amongst the group is a Pardoner, a man of the church, and as such readers of Chaucer’s time would expect him to be virtuous, however, he is described as one of the most dishonest characters of the group. Among them there is also a Monk, who, despite his holy vows, is one of the most gluttonous, secular characters in the party. Though Chaucer does take the time to establish characters both entertaining and familiar, such as the promiscuous Wife of Bath or the foul-mouthed Miller, even in those characters, Chaucer utilizes them to present new ideas to the reader, such as sovereignty and the presence of vulgarity. Thus, as Chaucer utilizes the setting of a pilgrimage as a tool to strip social pretense from his characters, The Canterbury Tales functions as a social commentary for its time, using the guise of a pilgrimage to provide the reader with a unique observation of each of the main characters, who represent new looks at the old stereotypes of Chaucer’s time.
Thus, with Chaucer’s use of setting as a means to take a fresh look at society, this project intends to follow to do the same. This resetting of the Canterbury Tales takes place during one of the great contemporary American pilgrimages…holiday traveling. This new take starts in an airport terminal in the wake of an unrelenting blizzard. As a result, many flights are delayed indefinitely; however leaving the airport in this weather is not an option. Thus a flight of passengers, stranded in the airport, band together in the local terminal pub to kill the time with drinks and merriment. While there, the captain, not drinking of course, proposes that they all go around telling jokes and that the passenger with the best joke gets a drink and a meal paid by all. The setting chosen for this project correlates closely to Chaucer’s setting in that it follows a group of weary travelers however puts an obviously modern twist on an old story. Either way, the setting will effectively strip the characters of their pretense, as all of them will be trapped in a similar, tiresome situation. So, the setting of an airport, and bar therein, will effectively mimic Chaucer’s tactic of placing a large amount of various people in a similar, precarious situation, forcing them to ignore distinctions and join together and provide news takes on old stereotypes. Thus, in the end, Chaucer’s basic tool for bringing a story like this to an audience is just as effective, as seen in this reincarnation and contemporary readings of the Canterbury Tales.
Citations:
Minus the Bear. "Absinthe Party in the Fly Honey Warehouse." Highly Refined Pirates. Suicide Squeeze, 2002.
Thus, with Chaucer’s use of setting as a means to take a fresh look at society, this project intends to follow to do the same. This resetting of the Canterbury Tales takes place during one of the great contemporary American pilgrimages…holiday traveling. This new take starts in an airport terminal in the wake of an unrelenting blizzard. As a result, many flights are delayed indefinitely; however leaving the airport in this weather is not an option. Thus a flight of passengers, stranded in the airport, band together in the local terminal pub to kill the time with drinks and merriment. While there, the captain, not drinking of course, proposes that they all go around telling jokes and that the passenger with the best joke gets a drink and a meal paid by all. The setting chosen for this project correlates closely to Chaucer’s setting in that it follows a group of weary travelers however puts an obviously modern twist on an old story. Either way, the setting will effectively strip the characters of their pretense, as all of them will be trapped in a similar, tiresome situation. So, the setting of an airport, and bar therein, will effectively mimic Chaucer’s tactic of placing a large amount of various people in a similar, precarious situation, forcing them to ignore distinctions and join together and provide news takes on old stereotypes. Thus, in the end, Chaucer’s basic tool for bringing a story like this to an audience is just as effective, as seen in this reincarnation and contemporary readings of the Canterbury Tales.
Citations:
Minus the Bear. "Absinthe Party in the Fly Honey Warehouse." Highly Refined Pirates. Suicide Squeeze, 2002.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Resetting *The Canterbury Tales* Assignment Description
ENGL1102/Spring 2010/Wharton
Individual Assignment 1: Resetting The Canterbury Tales
Overview:
The goal of this assignment is to create a multimodal composition that describes a new setting for the “General Prologue” to Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, and explains and justifies the rationale behind your choice of setting. Your final composition will comprise three essential elements:
In our discussions of the “General Prologue,” we have explored how Chaucer’s choice of setting influences the meaning of The Canterbury Tales and how it might be seen as a response to and/or transformation or translation of Boccaccio’s Decameron. We have also discussed how the setting of the “General Prologue” relates to Chaucer’s possible purpose in writing the Tales.
This assignment asks you to create a multimodal composition that offers your own interpretation of the “General Prologue,” an interpretation that should be shaped by your own thoughts on:
Elements of the Composition:
Three-image slideshow
--should consist of no more and no fewer than three (3) images
--should incorporate original images that you have created yourself
--can make use of photography, digital or computer generated imaging
techniques, free-hand drawing, or any combination thereof
--should show consideration of the following:
--should be no longer and no shorter than 30 seconds
--may consist of found as well as original audio
--can incorporate ambient noise, music, spoken-word or any combination
thereof
--should show consideration of the following:
--should consist of no fewer than 500 words
--*****should state your thesis clearly*****
--should be organized around your thesis, with paragraphs organized around
the main points of your argument
--should be relatively formal in tone and should provide specific evidence,
drawn from Chaucer’s text, the source material, our class discussions,
and the other two elements of your composition, in support of all of
your major points
--may include visual, non-verbal or other modes of composition in addition
to written text
--should show some consideration of the following:
All drafts, including Stage 4 your final draft, will be posted to your individual blog. Peer-reviews will be posted as comments to your peer’s individual blog. Remember that all assignment stages must be completed in order to avoid receiving an unsatisfactory grade for an incomplete assignment.
Stage 1: Slideshow Rough Draft (Posted to your individual blog as “Resetting The Canterbury Tales: Stage 1” by class time on Monday, January 25, 4 points)
--Picasa
--photobucket
--Smilebox
Stage 2: Slideshow and Rough Draft of Audio Track (Posted to your individual blog as “Resetting The Canterbury Tales: Stage 2” by class time on Wednesday, January 27, 4 points)
Stage 3: Essay Rough Draft (Posted to your individual blog as “Resetting The Canterbury Tales: Stage 3” by class time on Friday, January 29), 4 points
Stage 4: Final Draft (Posted to your individual blog as “Resetting The Canterbury Tales: Stage 4” by 11:00 pm on Monday, February 1, 72 points)
Rhetorical Awareness: The rhetorical situation comprises your purpose, audience and context. The rhetorical situation influences the kind of arguments that you can make as well as how you make them. You should have a clear idea of your audience, purpose and context before you begin composing, and your final draft (which includes all three elements) should reflect your awareness of all three. Ideally, your composition should express your unique personality as an author, in addition to making a persuasive argument for your interpretation of the “General Prologue.”
Stance and Support: Making an argument involves using appropriate evidence drawn from appropriate sources. Material (summaries, paraphrases, quotations) drawn from all of your sources should be relevant to and integrated with your argument, and you should provide proper attribution in MLA format when you incorporate the words, work or ideas of another in your essay. When you rely on your own personal experience and knowledge, you should clearly identify it as such, and such examples should also be relevant to and integrated with your argument.
Organization: A composition follows a logical progression from introduction to conclusion. Ideally, your final draft should have a form that reflects the logical progression of your argument and an awareness of the needs of your audience in understanding it, rather than one that follows a pre-determined formula (e.g. the slideshow with audio, followed by a “five paragraph theme”). Consider how you might use text to introduce the slideshow in your blog and control where and when your audience plays it, “wrapping” your text around it so that it encourages your audience to see the slideshow and audio as integrated parts of your argument.
Conventions: This assignment is designed to get you thinking about the conventions of multiple modes of communication and how those conventions influence a composition that incorporates more than a single dominant mode. Ideally, your composition should reflect an awareness of the conventions of visual, aural and electronic media while also complying with conventional rules regarding citations and documentation, grammar, punctuation and mechanics in the textual component.
Multimodal Integration: In this assignment, you will work with integrating multiple modes into a unified work. Ideally, your final draft will demonstrate some understanding of how multiple modes of communication work together to create the final composition.
Grading Rubric:
I will use the attached rubric as a guide when grading your projects. Comments on your work will in most cases consist of a summary of how the rubric applies to your work, and extended comments on the final draft.
Individual Assignment 1: Resetting The Canterbury Tales
Overview:
The goal of this assignment is to create a multimodal composition that describes a new setting for the “General Prologue” to Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, and explains and justifies the rationale behind your choice of setting. Your final composition will comprise three essential elements:
- A three-image slideshow that uses original images (i.e. images that you have created yourself) to depict and describe the new setting
- A 30-second audio track, incorporating either original or “found” (i.e., pre-existing, composed by someone else) audio, that describes, explains and/or justifies the new setting, and
- A 500-word essay that describes, explains, and/or justifies the new setting.
In our discussions of the “General Prologue,” we have explored how Chaucer’s choice of setting influences the meaning of The Canterbury Tales and how it might be seen as a response to and/or transformation or translation of Boccaccio’s Decameron. We have also discussed how the setting of the “General Prologue” relates to Chaucer’s possible purpose in writing the Tales.
This assignment asks you to create a multimodal composition that offers your own interpretation of the “General Prologue,” an interpretation that should be shaped by your own thoughts on:
- the meaning of the “General Prologue,”
- its relationship to the social and historical context in which Chaucer wrote, and
- its significance as a “frame” for the Tales.
Elements of the Composition:
Three-image slideshow
--should consist of no more and no fewer than three (3) images
--should incorporate original images that you have created yourself
--can make use of photography, digital or computer generated imaging
techniques, free-hand drawing, or any combination thereof
--should show consideration of the following:
- how do your images visualize your interpretation or re-interpretation of the “General Prologue” and/or The Canterbury Tales?
- what mood are you trying to evoke, and how does that relate to the mood created by Chaucer’s original setting?
- what adjectives are generally associated with the setting you’ve chosen, and how do those adjectives relate to the adjectives we’ve used to describe Chaucer’s original setting?
- what sort of characters will you find congregating in the setting you’ve chosen, and how do they relate to the Canterbury pilgrims?
- how does the slideshow work with the audio track and the essay to present a complete description and justification of your new setting?
- if you have incorporated written elements, how do those elements help to integrate the slideshow with the audio track and the essay as a single, seamless composition?
--should be no longer and no shorter than 30 seconds
--may consist of found as well as original audio
--can incorporate ambient noise, music, spoken-word or any combination
thereof
--should show consideration of the following:
- how does the audio track help to present and/or explain your interpretation of the “General Prologue”?
- what sounds are associated with your setting, and how do they relate to the sounds that might have been associated with Chaucer’s original setting?
- how does the audio track work with the slideshow and the essay to present a complete description of your new setting?
- how have you integrated the audio track with the slideshow and the essay as a single, seamless, composition?
--should consist of no fewer than 500 words
--*****should state your thesis clearly*****
--should be organized around your thesis, with paragraphs organized around
the main points of your argument
--should be relatively formal in tone and should provide specific evidence,
drawn from Chaucer’s text, the source material, our class discussions,
and the other two elements of your composition, in support of all of
your major points
--may include visual, non-verbal or other modes of composition in addition
to written text
--should show some consideration of the following:
- what is your interpretation of the “General Prologue”?
- how do the slideshow and the audio track help to present and/or explain your interpretation?
- how have you integrated the essay with the audio track and the slideshow as a single, seamless, composition?
All drafts, including Stage 4 your final draft, will be posted to your individual blog. Peer-reviews will be posted as comments to your peer’s individual blog. Remember that all assignment stages must be completed in order to avoid receiving an unsatisfactory grade for an incomplete assignment.
Stage 1: Slideshow Rough Draft (Posted to your individual blog as “Resetting The Canterbury Tales: Stage 1” by class time on Monday, January 25, 4 points)
- the rough draft of your slideshow should consist of at least nine (9) images that provide a visual description of your chosen setting
- “posting” the slideshow to your blog involves uploading photos to a site such as Flickr, Picasa, photobucket, or Smilebox, creating a slideshow, and embedding a link to the slideshow in your blog posting in such a way that the slideshow plays or can be played within the blog without transitioning to a new site or opening a new tab/window like this:
- the following links provide tips on how to create a slideshow and embed it in your blog:
--Picasa
--photobucket
--Smilebox
- if you use non-digital means to create your images, e.g. freehand drawing, you will need to scan them to create digital images that can then be uploaded to the web
Stage 2: Slideshow and Rough Draft of Audio Track (Posted to your individual blog as “Resetting The Canterbury Tales: Stage 2” by class time on Wednesday, January 27, 4 points)
- your second draft should consist of a new posting to your individual blog that integrates your slideshow (either the draft from Stage 1, or a revised version) with a draft of your audio track
- “posting” this stage to your blog involves embedding a link to the slideshow with audio in your blog posting in such a way that it plays or can be played within the blog without transitioning to a new site or opening a new tab/window
- Audacity, is a free, open-source program that you can download and use to create your audio track
- You can get tips on using Audacity, here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq
Stage 3: Essay Rough Draft (Posted to your individual blog as “Resetting The Canterbury Tales: Stage 3” by class time on Friday, January 29), 4 points
- this third draft should be blog posting that incorporates a draft of your slideshow with audio and text that outlines your thesis and argument for the 500-word essay
- once again, “posting” this stage to your blog involves embedding a link to the slideshow with audio in your blog posting in such a way that it plays or can be played within the blog without transitioning to a new site or opening a new tab/window
Stage 4: Final Draft (Posted to your individual blog as “Resetting The Canterbury Tales: Stage 4” by 11:00 pm on Monday, February 1, 72 points)
- the final draft should be a blog posting that integrates the final draft of your slideshow with audio and the 500-word essay
- *****your final draft MUST include a works-cited list that identifies ALL source material, including anything drawn from the texts we’ve been discussing in class, as well as the sources of found audio*****
- once again, “posting” this stage to your blog involves embedding a link to the slideshow with audio in your blog posting in such a way that it plays or can be played within the blog without transitioning to a new site or opening a new tab/window
- since this is the final draft, I expect all formatting and linking issues to be resolved at this point, wonky formatting and broken links, like typos and grammatical errors, will negatively impact your final grade
- How did your essay evolve from one draft to the next in response to peer feedback and/or your own consideration of it? How does your final draft use more than alphabetic text to convey your argument? What composition strategies worked well for you in this assignment, and how might they work well in other rhetorical situations?
Rhetorical Awareness: The rhetorical situation comprises your purpose, audience and context. The rhetorical situation influences the kind of arguments that you can make as well as how you make them. You should have a clear idea of your audience, purpose and context before you begin composing, and your final draft (which includes all three elements) should reflect your awareness of all three. Ideally, your composition should express your unique personality as an author, in addition to making a persuasive argument for your interpretation of the “General Prologue.”
Stance and Support: Making an argument involves using appropriate evidence drawn from appropriate sources. Material (summaries, paraphrases, quotations) drawn from all of your sources should be relevant to and integrated with your argument, and you should provide proper attribution in MLA format when you incorporate the words, work or ideas of another in your essay. When you rely on your own personal experience and knowledge, you should clearly identify it as such, and such examples should also be relevant to and integrated with your argument.
Organization: A composition follows a logical progression from introduction to conclusion. Ideally, your final draft should have a form that reflects the logical progression of your argument and an awareness of the needs of your audience in understanding it, rather than one that follows a pre-determined formula (e.g. the slideshow with audio, followed by a “five paragraph theme”). Consider how you might use text to introduce the slideshow in your blog and control where and when your audience plays it, “wrapping” your text around it so that it encourages your audience to see the slideshow and audio as integrated parts of your argument.
Conventions: This assignment is designed to get you thinking about the conventions of multiple modes of communication and how those conventions influence a composition that incorporates more than a single dominant mode. Ideally, your composition should reflect an awareness of the conventions of visual, aural and electronic media while also complying with conventional rules regarding citations and documentation, grammar, punctuation and mechanics in the textual component.
Multimodal Integration: In this assignment, you will work with integrating multiple modes into a unified work. Ideally, your final draft will demonstrate some understanding of how multiple modes of communication work together to create the final composition.
Grading Rubric:
I will use the attached rubric as a guide when grading your projects. Comments on your work will in most cases consist of a summary of how the rubric applies to your work, and extended comments on the final draft.
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