Required Access
- Laptop computer for the days we have in-class case studies and workshops
- Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat Reader, campus e-mail, and Blackboard
- Printing capability (for those secure readings or class handouts you want to have in hard copy)
- Portable media (USB drive, CD-RW, etc.) for backup submission of your multimodal component
Paper is sometimes a necessity in this course, so you will need to figure out a strategy ahead of time for getting things printed on the occasions they are required. Please be advised that tablets are not laptops. If laptop access is a problem on the days they are required, please see me at the beginning of the semester so we can make other arrangements for you to have a production device.
Required Reading
- Assorted critical essays and webtexts in our Blackboard Course Library (Bb)
- The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, Third Edition by Murfin and Ray (ISBN 9780312461881)
- The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (ISBN 9780375714832) for section 01
- or Arab in America by Toufic El-Rassi (ISBN 9780867196733) for section 02
- When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs (any ISBN is fine, if you can find it)
This course requires that you have material forms of all of our texts, either in print/book format or downloaded in secure electronic format. Partial, incomplete, or preview copies do not meet this requirement. You must bring texts to class on the dates they are assigned without exception. This means that readings marked (Bb) should be brought to class in either digital (laptop, e-Reader, etc.) or print format. Readings brought to class on your smart phone won’t do you or your classmates very much good. The Bedford Glossary must be brought to class on quiz days.
Assignments & Responsibilities
Intellectual Participation (10%)
Once during the semester, you will “lead discussion” by presenting on a lexical term relevant to our reading that day. On all other days, I will measure your intellectual participation according to (1) how consistently and well you prepare outside of class; and (2) how consistently and well you complete activities in class. While you are in class I hold you to professional forms of conduct, including arriving on time and staying engaged. It isn’t enough to simply occupy your seat. We’ll be using various technologies during class time for legitimate functions. Talking on your cell phone, texting on any gadget, reading e-mail, or shopping online are not considered legitimate uses and functions of those technologies, so please refrain from doing them.Preparatory Exercises & Quizzes (20%)
I will regularly assign multimodal exercises to help you prepare in advance of class. In the spirit of Erasmus’ training of the mind, these exercises are vital ways of learning new material. Your best preparation is to be thoughtful with how you read prior to class: annotate where passages don’t make sense, look up unfamiliar terms in the OED Online, and take note where you do understand a writer’s implicit or explicit meaning, or where you see interesting relationships emerge between texts. I will also give occasional quizzes to help you learn new lexical terms, and I will always announce them in advance. PE prompts and quiz terms will be posted on our blog well in advance of each class.Bi-Weekly Discussion Blog (20%)
Beginning in the third week of the semester, you will be asked to compose a post on our course weblog and to respond in depth to another post about every other week. In some weeks, I may ask for an additional post related to something we are doing in class. The purpose of the blog is two-fold: (1) to give you a creative space for working out difficult concepts; and (2) to provide a space for responding to one another’s thinking, extending discussions beyond the classroom. These posts may be some of the most concentrated and challenging writing you do in this class, and they should be smartly and thoughtfully composed. Specific guidelines are outlined on our "Discussion Blog" page.
Short Critical Discussions (30%)
Throughout the semester, I will ask you to compose two short critical discussions (~3 single-spaced pages each, with a Works Cited list). In these discussions, you will respond to one of several prompts designed to help you master some of the theories and concepts underlying our critical problems. These prompts may ask you to apply, extend, or explain a particular concept, or they may ask you to develop an idea from your blog posts into a coherent argument. All prompts will ask you to carefully and expertly synthesize two (or more) critical texts into a clear, thesis-driven discussion. Throughout the semester I will distribute three prompts, but you will only need to complete two.Final Project: Long Critical Discussion & Multimodal Argument (20%)
For the final project, I’ll invite you to revise, extend, or deepen one of the short critical discussions into a longer essay (~4 single-spaced pages, with a separate Works Cited list) that takes up a new paradox or invents a new critical problem. To “essay” means to endeavor, to try towards or to claim, so you’ll focus it on a critical discovery you have made as a result of re-synthesizing and re-presenting what you have already read, and you’ll unfold that discovery in a series of smaller claims that orchestrate, rather than merely summarize, the critical texts you discuss. Your discovery should be interesting and vital, not redundant or obvious. It should advance your own and others’ thinking about what we’re doing in this class; it should not simply opine or defend a position. In addition to the essay, I’ll ask you to create or construct an additional multimodal component communicating something about your argument that could not be communicated in essay form alone. In spite of its brevity, this project should be thoroughly, artfully, and expertly composed. In April, I will ask you to submit a brief proposal in which you plan your critical discussion and describe and justify your multimodal component.Evaluation & Grading
Each assignment has specific evaluation criteria that we will review in class. You should always feel free to meet with me if an assignment is unclear, if you get stuck, or if my first response on an assignment is unhelpful. You may also meet with me at any time if you are unsure of where you stand in the course. At the semester’s end, I will drop your lowest blog score and your lowest PE/quiz score. All else will be calculated into a final grade, using the 4-point system described in the Academic Regulations and Procedures (http://registrar.fsu.edu/ bulletin/undergrad/info/acad_regs.htm).
How to Be Successful in This Course
Attend and Arrive on Time
Because this class emphasizes regular participation and collaboration, your attendance and promptness are mandatory. However, because your lives are complex constellations of activity, I offer the following attendance policy:- If you miss class, you must still turn in what is due.
- You can be absent 3 class periods without receiving any grade reduction. However, the University and I are expecting you will use absences only when you need them, i.e., for excused or documented illness, childcare, jury duty, religious holy days, military duty, and sanctioned university business.
- At 4 absences, we begin to notice you are gone, and your “Intellectual Participation” grade drops 15% for each absence.
- At 9 absences, you can no longer pass the course. Five weeks is too long to be away.
- Frequent or excessive lateness will be counted as absence, as will leaving early.
- In the event of weather-related emergencies, please check your e-mail for Bb notifications of how we will conduct class online.
- In compliance with university policy, exceptions may be made in extreme cases (i.e., extended short-term military service, etc.) but are not guaranteed.
Submit Your Work on Time
Unless otherwise specified, all assignments must be submitted by the beginning of class on the date they are due. Blog posts must be completed by posted deadlines in order to receive credit. If you know that you will have a conflict with mid-term exams on the day a major project is due, you may submit assignments early or contact me in advance with written documentation to discuss your options with me. If you have a legitimate absence, a documented family emergency, or severe illness and cannot attend class when something is due, you must contact me in advance to discuss your options for submission. If and when hard copies are due in class, print them in advance so that “technological difficulties” do not affect your ability to submit them on time.Read Curiously and Prepare for Discussion
No one is too cool for school. Some of our readings will seem immediately accessible, while others will seem impenetrable at first, due to terminology, length, or authorial voice. Overall, I think you will enjoy them and I believe you can master them. However, you should expect to read with curiosity, annotate unfamiliar terms, or prepare for discussion questions, which will always be posted in advance.At no time should you feel like you are being evaluated on whether or not you like something we read, or on whether you stand to the right or the left of any issue. You are being evaluated on how clearly and thoughtfully you can communicate your ideas about the complexities of what we read. I am not necessarily interested in having you change your positions as a result of what we read, but I am always interested in helping you to enhance or complicate the positions that you take. I am also interested in helping you become a more critically reflective writer, publicly and academically—someone who can engage readers and keep them engaged. To that end, our classroom and course blog are spaces for public performance, so I need you to be committed to good communal practices when you perform, which includes upholding FSU’s Student Conduct Code in every sense (http://srr.fsu.edu/Student-Conduct-Code).
Exercise Academic Integrity in All Things
You are responsible for reading and abiding by the FSU Academic Honor Policy, and for living up to your pledge to “… be honest and truthful and … [to] strive for personal and institutional integrity” in all things (http://fda.fsu.edu/Academics/Academic-Honor-Policy). All of your work for this class should be specific to the tasks I have assigned, rather than recycled from another class. While it is reasonable to receive tutoring, help, or support for your writing and your work with course technologies, every aspect of your projects (including visuals, design, and written text) must be authentically yours. Cheating and all forms of misrepresentation, including plagiarism and constructing assignments via paper mill, can result in automatic failure of the course. You plagiarize (or violate trust) by misrepresenting someone’s work as your own when you:
- have someone compose your assignment for you or turn in someone else’s work;
- copy, paste, or “patchwrite” published information into your assignment;
- deliberately use sources without attribution.
As you complete more advanced projects, it becomes important to incorporate sources productively and fairly. Feel free to ask me if you are unsure at any time about what constitutes “fair use” of a source.
Seek Accommodations If You Need Them
The Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC) can arrange for assistance, auxiliary aids, or related services if you think a temporary or permanent disability will prevent you from fully participating in class, or if you need our course materials in an alternative format. Contact them at (850) 644-9566 (voice), (850) 644-8504 (TDD), or http://www.disabilitycenter.fsu.edu/ with your individual concerns. You must be registered with the SDRC before classroom accommodations can be provided, and you should bring a letter to me requesting accommodations in the first week of class.
