• Online readings (links will be provided)
• George P. Landow, Hypertext 3.0 (Johns Hopkins UP, 2006); ISBN 0-801808257-7
• James O’Donnell, Avatars of the Word, Harvard UP, 2000; ISBN 067400194X.
• Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair, Penguin, 2003; ISBN 0142001805
• William Gibson, Neuromancer, Ace, 2000; ISBN 0441007465
• Lynch and Horton, Web Style Guide (Yale, 2008): available online.

Other Tools:

• A flash drive
• Headphones equipped with a microphone for voice recording (you may purchase inexpensive sets at places like BestBuy, BigLots, Target, Office Depot, etc….get whatever works for you)
• At times you will be required to use various freeware, filesharing sites, wikis, and online authoring and digital media tools that may require you to sign up and allow your computers to accept cookies. 

Course Requirements (updated 11/3/08 to reflect class decisions):

• Active and informed class participation: 20%
• Four short writing assignments that critique your own textual practices and the work of others: 35% (short takes 1-3, 7% each; short take 4, 14%). REvisions of some of these pieces will be required.
• An experiment in digital explication of a text: 15%
• A collaborative experiment with creating a hypertext edition of a text: 20% (graduate students 15%); a revision will be required.
• A take-home final exam: 10%
• For graduate students only: a critical book review of a recent monograph on literature and technology: 5%

Goals

This class meets undergraduate content goals 1.1, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8; 3 (all points); 4.1, 4.3; and since this class meets the technology requirement for graduation, 5 (all points). It also meets General Education Technology Objectives (http://www.winthrop.edu/universitycollege/gen%20ed%20prgram%20%20aug%2007.pdf, see p. 8). We will collaboratively generate some specific goals for the class in week 2.

Rhizome

Collaboratively as a class we evolved a connected set of questions and ideas that are connected to the goals for the class. We have decided to call them the "class rhizome." They will govern much of what we do in the class.

Accommodations

Winthrop University is dedicated to providing access to education. If you have a disability and need classroom accommodations, please contact Gena Smith, Program Director, Services for Students with Disabilities, at 323-3290, as soon as possible.  Once you have your Professor Notification Form, please bring it to me so that I can discuss your accommodations well before the first accommodation is required. You must go through this official process to receive accommodation. 

Attendance/Class Behavior Policy

Attendance is expected. According to University Policy, if you miss 25% of the classes in a course (in a TR class, 7 classes), you cannot receive credit. If you are more than 10 minutes late for class, you will be counted absent. Your final grade will be lowered if you miss 4 or more classes, excused or unexcused; my usual policy is to deduct 3 points from your final grade for each absence beginning with the fourth. If some crisis arises that will require you to miss class, please contact me immediately so that we can discuss alternate arrangements. Cell phones and pagers must be turned off while class is in progress; if they go off, or if I catch you texting in class, you will be counted absent for the day. The official Winthrop University Attendance Policy and Final Examination policies are listed on page 29 of the Winthrop University Undergraduate Catalog 2008-2009. You are expected to abide by them.

Plagiarism/Documentation Policy

• Please review the English Department’s policy on the Correct Use of Borrowed Information at http://www.winthrop.edu/english/plagiarism.htm. You are responsible for reviewing the Code of Student Conduct in your Student Handbook and the description of plagiarism in The Prentice-Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Usage and handling source materials correctly. In this course, the penalty for plagiarism is a grade of zero on the assignment and possibly an F in the course, with a report to the Student Judiciary System if the infraction is extensive.

• All papers must be documented following the MLA parenthetical documentation style. This is explained in the Prentice Hall Reference Guide and in many other handbooks. You are responsible for following it.

• Any material taken from a source (your textbook, something from the library, something from the Internet, etc.) must be documented. There is a new edition of the MLA Handbook that covers Internet documentation; you can access these special forms at http://www.mla.org or through the Writing Center home page ( http://www.winthrop.edu/wcenter). 

• To demonstrate that you understand the correct use of borrowed information and the need for documentation, you must turn in both a hard copy of your paper and an electronic version through www.turnitin.com. I will be providing information on that service later in the semester.

Turnitin.com

We will be using www.turnitin.com, and I will provide you with more information about it shortly. Student tutorials for using turnitin.com are available at http://www.winthrop.edu/dacus/About/studentTIIinstructions.htm.

Late Paper/Assignment Policy

You may turn in one Short Take late during the course of the semester without penalty, provided that you let me know about it at least a day in advance. If you are taking this extension on a Short Take that is being shared with the class, please e-mail the class e-mail listserv to let them know your contribution will not be appearing. All other assignments are expected on time; if they are late, there will be a significant penalty, which may or may not include use of the Viking axe in my office.

Duplicate Submission of Papers

You may not submit a paper for a grade in this class that already has been (or will be) submitted for a grade in another course, unless you obtain the explicit written permission of me and the other instructor involved in advance. This is to conform to the Student Code of Conduct, §V, which states: "Academic misconduct includes but is not limited to … presenting the same or substantially the same papers or projects in two or more courses without the explicit permission of the professors involved." (Student Code of Conduct §V: http://www.winthrop.edu/studentaffairs/Judicial/judcode.htm). 

Instructor Accessibility

You can expect me to be available as a resource from which to draw and to obtain feedback. I am very responsive to email questions as long as I know who the email is from and have all information necessary to provide a complete answer. Please be sure to “sign” your emails as oftentimes email names are confusing at best (e.g., brownb1@winthrop.edu could be Bob Brown or Beth Brown). Please make sure to speak slowly and comprehensibly if leaving a voicemail so that I can decipher the name, message, and return phone number as well.  

What you cannot expect of me is to be available 24/7. While I do check my email and voicemail regularly, including weekends (if I am in town), I do not necessarily check them more than once a day or late in the evenings. Therefore, if you procrastinate on an assignment, you may not have the information you need to complete the assignment appropriately. Please plan your time accordingly to maximize the probability that you will receive a response in time for it to be useful.

Safe Zones Statement

This classroom is a place where you will be treated with respect as a human being – regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, political beliefs, age, or ability. Additionally, diversity of thoughts is appreciated and encouraged, provided you can agree to disagree. I expect that ALL students consider the classroom a safe environment and that we will all work to make it so.

Expectations

• This is an intense course, especially with the challenge of mastering several new technological tools. Emphasis will be placed on a lot of discussion and a lot of peer-work. Therefore, you are expected to do the reading before class and to come to class prepared to participate actively for the full class period, whether we’re talking, writing, or geeking. You are also expected to take reading notes and class notes and to try to integrate these materials into a coherent picture. Smiling silence will not earn you a high class participation grade in a course at this level; fake being an extrovert for the next four months.
• As a 500-level class, you will be expected to dip into secondary criticism of the works we read as well as the primary texts themselves. The class reading list and resources page will offer you some good places to start, but you should get into the habit of probing more deeply on your own as well, using appropriate scholarly resources.
• The official versions of all course materials (including policies, assignments, and calendar) will be maintained on our class website (http://faculty.winthrop.edu/kosterj/writ510.htm). They will change from week to week, so keep up.
• Attendance is expected. University policy is that students who miss more than 25% of classes (4 classes on a one-night per week class) must receive a grade of F. If you miss more than two classes, expect your final grade to be lowered at least three points for every absence. Two tardies equals an absence; also, leaving before class is dismissed counts as an absence.
• You must submit all assigned work as scheduled to pass the class. I will allow one extension of 48 hours on a graded assignment for the class, provided that you request that extension before the assignment is due. Failure to present a substantive draft of an assignment when one is required (either for classes or conferences) will lower your final grade on that assignment by ten points.
• You must participate in class critiques and submit revisions as required to meet writing-intensive regulations.
• All students are required to subscribe to the class e-mail listserv and to check for messages on a regular basis (especially before class). If you are not enrolled when the class begins, you will probably need to subscribe manually to the listserv. Ask me for directions how to do so.
• You are expected to purchase the texts and bring them to class as assigned. If you do not choose to purchase your books from the Bookworm, please check the ISBN so that you can get the right edition wherever you choose to shop.
• I expect you to observe the English department’s conventions for the appropriate use of borrowed information and documentation, available at http://www.winthrop.edu/english/writing/plagiarism.htm.  Plagiarism of any sort is unacceptable in the class and will result in an F grade for the class. Please ask me in advance if you have any questions about how you are using borrowed materials in your work. All work is presumed to be original for this class unless I give explicit written permission otherwise.
• We will use www.turnitin.com for all papers written in this class. Your class ID# is insert class ID number. I will provide you with the password in class.
• All written work must conform to MLA style. See Harris’ Prentice Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Composition, 6th ed., or the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5th ed., if you have any questions. I always welcome questions about how to document material correctly; bring them by the office or e-mail me.
• Cell phones and pagers must be turned off during class. If yours goes off during class, you will be counted absent for the day. Same goes for texting, surfing, downloading, or other non-authorized class activities--don't do them in class unless you wish me to become wonderly wroth and bring my axe to class.
• Failure to plan or prepare on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.
• If you need to earn a particular grade for some reason (eligibility, scholarships, etc.), start working on it from day 1. If you wait until late November, it will probably be too late for you to pull off a miracle. Remember, I don’t give grades; you earn them through your performance (the outcome of your effort).
• If some unforeseen circumstance causes you to miss a number of classes, let me know while things are going on. There are steps we can take to avoid disasters. If you wait till everything is resolved before communicating me and stroll back in to say “Did you miss me?” there are far fewer ways to salvage the situation. I’m not your mother and I will not nag you or chase you down; it’s your responsibility to meet the requirements of the class in a timely manner.
• Graduate students will note that there are some additional course requirements for them. This is required by the SACS accreditation board for joint undergraduate/ graduate classes.