Assignments and Grades for TCS 191

Technocultural Studies 191 — Writing Across Media

Winter 2015

Assignments and Grades

10 percent class participation

Students are expected to attend all classes, finish all assigned readings, and participate actively in class activities and discussion. Bonus participation points can be earned in a variety of ways, including by hosting, publicizing and/or attending TCS-relevant events (especially those organized by students), and by supporting the collaborative and productive spirit of the class in virtual, interactive, and web-based environments. Plan to speak and engage with classmates.

20 percent group assignment (Collaborative Presentation)

Show your peers and me what you can do as a group of four or so writer-performers. Choose five or more influences on your artistic and authorial philosophies (three or more influences being theoretical, two or more of them being artistic, and two or more of them exemplified or touched upon in assigned readings), and create a language- and media-rich theatrical presentation, with surprises, to be performed during the penultimate week of class. Presentations must reflect at least three media genres, that is, a written document (which may also be in part projected and/or read aloud), and two other modes of presentation raised in class this quarter. Focus on engagement with your audience and your source material, using creativity and risk-taking to help your classmates see something they hadn’t seen before.

30 percent individual assignments (Three assignments, 10 percent each, each with a separate paragraph or longer introduction or abstract)

(If you wish, one of these three assignments should be 50% longer than the word limits presented here, and be collaboratively written. Collaborations must also include a page of prose supporting an assertion about collaborative creativity / writing.)

Unless you regularly earn grades of A on essays submitted in writing classes, you should plan to submit a perfect page of prose (and to start on it in the first week of the quarter).

Note that on our Canvas home page, you should submit your three assignments under the headings of “Individual Assignment #1,” “Individual Assignment #2,” and “Individual Assignment #3.”Of the following six choices, you will write and submit only three for a grade (worth 10 percent each):

Explain, contextualize and exemplify the function / practice of writing in your specific chosen (researched) field, that is, your sub-genre of work in Technoculture. 500-1,000 words due by week three.
Write a radio script with sound effects and music (which you should include in some easily downloadable form) based on a poem, a work of art, a passage from any substantive theoretical essay, or a passage from an article in a source as substantive as the Times Literary Supplement, the New York Review of Books, or the New York Times Book Review. Four to ten pages due by week four.
Storyboard a scene from a favorite movie. Write a page justifying your choice and describing its technical or dramatic challenges / pleasures. The storyboard will include five to ten pages of words and images, and will be due by week five.
Imagine a film, especially in some way an experimental film, that you’d like to make. Explain the concept and include part of the script. 500-1,000 words due by week six.
Consider how you might innovatively update an assigned thinker’s groundbreaking idea, endeavor or text in the language, tone or mode(s) of the 21^st century. Present 500-1,000 words in your re-vision, making sure to include relevant, substantive and current popular, academic, and/or aesthetic allusions. Due by week eight.
Write a perfect page of prose. Submit early in the quarter about 250 words in which you briefly support a well-crafted and interesting assertion about a topic in Technoculture, broadly defined. Receive comments and re-submit in office hours multiple times until it is “perfect” (at which point it will earn you an “A”). Unconfident writers are especially encouraged to choose this option. Due multiple times in office hours, with the final draft to be evaluated by week ten. Single authors only. Once approved, submit the “A” page of prose via SmartSite.

No matter which three of these six you choose, thoroughly and repeatedly revise your prose before submitting your work for a grade. With the exceptions of options numbers one and six, full credit will not be awarded to submissions that lack a separate prose introduction.10 percent in-class presentation of readings (to be re-submitted on the final day of class.

Each class participant will write and submit (about 30 copies of) a single two-page Position Paper responding assertively to an assigned reading. (10% of your grade) These will be read out loud in class. Some of you will write these collaboratively. See the sign-up sheet.
Each class participant is further invited to keep a reading journal of responses to assigned readings. Some journal-keepers use the left pages of a journal to include evidence of factual responses and research (e.g., defining terms, explaining concepts, and demystifying allusions), while using the journal’s right pages to offer personal (creative, reflective, and emotional) responses to assigned readings. The reading journal is an optional assignment, though a recommended one if you are to learn the most from assigned readings and earn full credit from this assignment category. Also, consider sharing your reading journal online, such as via Tumblr.

30 percent final assignment — Create and present a major creative, substantive example of a studied genre of writing. 2000 or more words, 500 to 750 of which must be analytical, historical, and/ or theoretical. If you formally request it, and if we have time, you may have a chance to present or perform part of the creative (non-expository) part of this assignment in the last week of class (no more than five minutes per individual performance). Final projects due Week Ten.

Checklist for TCS 191 Assignments – Plan to check at least seven boxes.

	Attend every class, arrive on time, participate eagerly, hands off smartphone, keyboard or mouse while someone else is speaking
	Design and perform a collaborative multimedia presentation with three or more classmates (plan ahead)
	Explain the function of writing in your field	You should complete only three of these six assignments.
	Write a radio script
	Storyboard a favorite movie scene
	Present a film concept
	Update another’s idea or theory
	Write and submit multiple times a page of “perfect” prose
	Respond to an assigned reading with a position paper (option for pairing up)
	Consider the optional reading journal