"Performing with(out) a 'Net: Identity and Cyberculture"

Introduction
It's impossible to guess what you've done in previous writing classes — both high school and college — but as a teacher, I realize that what you've done before matters less than your willingness to work hard and to perform as exceptional student-writers in this semester. In fact, in a course like "Advanced Composition," rather than think of you as "students," I prefer to think of you as "writers." Unlike "students," writers are usually self-starters, individuals with something to say and a desire to communicate those ideas with others.

But writers are also more than that. Writers realize that their ideas need to meet audiences, need to interact with other writers and thinkers because their own ideas and thoughts are more carefully refined when they engage with others. These individuals not only receive criticism well, but they go out of their way to return the favor, to give productive criticism to members of their writing group. The writers in this course — both students and teacher — make up that group. As writers together, we have important projects to undertake, and our success depends on each other. The projects below will demonstrate why.

And writers are also readers. No, one doesn't have to read everything voraciously to write, or even to write effectively, but reading is one of the key places for learning about ourselves and the world in which we live, whether that reading is in novels or poems, books or plays, newspapers or magazines — or the Internet! We no longer question whether the Internet and cyberspace is affecting our lives — its presence is ubiquitous — what's left is to question what that means. Therefore, for this semester, we will engage the broad topic of "cyberculture" and consider how individual and group identities are constructed are constructed in cyberspaces. By sharing a common topic, broadly conceived, we will have a powerful storehouse of shared information that will make us better readers and responders to each other as writers. Likewise, because the topic is so open, we will be able to develop an amazing array of projects on all sorts of topics.

Course Description
All sections of English 3810 are taught rather differently, depending on what teacher you happen to take. Some courses offer you something like "English 1200 Part 2," while others approach the course through a unifying theme or focus. Regardless, students are expected to perform at significantly more advanced levels than they did when they were enrolled in English 1100 and 1200. This semester, I have chosen the broad theme of "cyberculture" as a focusing devise for our writing and reading. One simply cannot live in the U.S. at this moment in history and not interact with cyberculture, whether it comes to us on television (through ads or the way professional football games create a hypermediated scoreboard for viewers) or in our time spent actually "online": Instant Messaging, e-mail, blogs, course website and projects, etc. We use the Internet fur pleasure, profit, and performing those tasks that school and work require of it. This semester, we will investigate various types of "cyberculture," playing with some online spaces as writers and readers, and we'll work on projects that investigate topics related to cyberspaces/cultures.

Goals of English 3810
Building on the knowledges gained from previous writing experiences, students in English 3810 will develop two major projects of their own choosing, as well as several short writing projects negotiated with, or assigned by, the professor. Writers who exit English 3810 with a grade of C or better will be expected to have performed at least competently in the following areas:

• Undertaking ambitious, mature, insightful projects that move beyond "school writing" (projects more complex in thought and genre and length than what students might write in English 1100 or 1200);
• Locating, evaluating, and synthesizing primary, print, and electronic bibliographic sources that contribute significantly to those projects and that demonstrate the writer's ability to use research in different ways and for different purposes;
• Conveying the results of writing and research to a particular audience that will learn from and potentially act on those findings;
• Using their experiences as writers and readers to assist class members with improving their projects by consistently offering high quality responses to those projects and participating in class discussions of those projects;
• Exploring and critiquing written/visual texts (both academic arguments/articles and popular-press writings) in advanced ways, seeing through the "obvious" to understand both the primary issues the writers/designers address and the tertiary/tangential arguments that develop beyond the writer's immediate purposes.

To meet these goals, you will write and read extensively, both formally and informally, often for every class meeting. You must be prepared to share your writing with your peers and professor on a regular basis. In order to get full credit for English 3810, you will complete the equivalent of a minimum of 20 typed, double-spaced pages of revised prose in an appropriate font face/size (Times 12 pt.).

Texts

• Bell, David. An Introduction to Cybercultures. London: Routledge, 2000.
• Excerpts from Bell, David and Barbara M Kennedy, eds. The Cybercultures Reader. London: Routledge, 1999. (these will be PDFs available from links on the course schedule and assignments links)
• Internet-based websites/articles as listed on the course schedule
• Handbook of Your Choice (or use the online handbooks available at "Links & Blogs")

Other Required Materials

• Three-Ring binder for creating a Writing Portfolio
• One Sony Micro-Vault 256 MB USB Drive; you'll be getting some free software as part of the course, as well as some articles for reading, all of which I'll put on the USB drive for you, which we can then use in class on the computers. This drive will be especially useful as you work on your Digital Storytelling project. You should have these by the end of the second week of class. You can order from Staples or buy one at Staples on Greenville Blvd. You should buy a separate USB drive for this course as you will, from time to time, have to leave it with me and I'd hate to have your USB drive if you have other important course materials on it.
• Computer Microphone and headphones (most of you will already have these; if not, you can pick them up cheaply, less than $10 each)
• Two or three CD-R/CD-RW discs for "publishing" your finished Digital Story.

Instructor Expectations
I expect the writers I'm working with to work with me, to be in class and on time each class meeting, to devote a minimum of twelve (6) hours per week outside of class to course-related work and not to wait until the end of the semester to try to do/revise all of their work. I expect writers NOT to complain about writing and research, but to try to have fun and enjoy the projects we will work on this semester. And I expect writers to feel that they can talk to me about their work, their concerns about their writing, and their goals for this course. I do NOT expect students to be expert writers, for if they were, they wouldn't need this course.

I do NOT believe in a "bell-curve" or in making the students' grades for this course fall along an A — F continuum. Every student who works at the A-level consistently (based on the Course Outcomes Rubric) should expect to receive an A in the course, keeping in mind that A-writers complete all work on time and at an exceptional level throughout the semester; they come to class everyday during the semester; they never (or on very rare occasion) ask for extended deadlines; they don't make excuses for poor or late performance; they are exceptional peer-responders to their class colleagues; they take a leadership role in the class, consistently going beyond the "minimum" requirements for assignments; and they seek the one-to-one help they need (from teachers, peers, or the University Writing Center) throughout the semester rather than procrastinating and expecting someone else (teacher, peer, writing consultant) to solve their problems for them. If you can be that sort of student, I look forward to awarding you the A you will have earned.

Projects
Most of English 3810 is writer-directed. Writers in this course choose their topics for major projects, as long as those topics somehow intersect with the course theme and the readings we're doing as a group. However, all writers are expected to complete one (1) substantial "academic" project of 8 - 10 pages, one (1) "new media" project, 10 - 15 one-page rhetorical précises, and an analytical cover letter for their writing portfolios. Portfolios consist of all project drafts (rough drafts, middle drafts, workshop drafts, finished drafts), peer responses (both to and from classmates and teacher), short writing assignments, and other projects we work on during the course of the semester, as well as a link to the writer's blog. ** All projects must be turned in on-time and complete for students to receive credit. Only projects turned in on-time and complete may be included in the portfolio. Incomplete portfolios may receive, at best, a D. Your portfolio grade IS your course grade, so consistent diligence is required to do well in this course. **

• Rhetorical Précis • English 3810 will use the "rhetorical précis" as a model for how to summarize, analyze, and respond to published essays / articles / websites. Students will be required to write ten to fiften over the course of the semester. All précis will eventaully be included in the students' course portfolios.
• Discovery Writings • As preparatory for work in the course, and for the major projects, we will, from time to time, write a couple of "discovery drafts." These short writings will sometimes be done in class, sometimes at home, but will always be used to invent information for projects or to think, in writing, about topics addressed in readings or class conversations.
• Major Project I • Your major "academic" project should involve some theme or issue we've discussed as a class and which you have conducted individual research on. You're encouraged to think about a project that somehow connects to your major discipline in some way; for example, a secondary education major might explore some issue involving cyberculture and high school/middle school students, while a political science major might do research on political blogs and discuss what impact (if any) they may have/may have had on recent elections or on social consciousness more generally.
• Major Project II • After midterm, students will begin invention activities for their New Media Projects, which will take the form of "digital stories" this semester. These projects will begin by using fairly traditional writing techniques, move through storyboarding, and culminate in a "movie" that encompasses images, text(s), and sound; the movie will be burned to CD and made available for classmates to view. There will also be a reflective memo that analyzes and explains each digital story from the composer's perspective.
• Project Responses • Students will be required to perform thoughtful, constructive, engaged peer reviews of their classmates' major projects. They should keep copies of these responses to include in their course portfolios.
• Analytical Portfolio Cover Letter • Following the assignment guidelines, students will turn their analytical lenses on themselves and their own "archives" of work during the semester, paying particular attention to the processes they went through in developing their projects, conducting research, and revising writing into various sorts of texts for distribution to larger audiences. This project will have been through several "rough drafts" throughout the semester as students write Project Memos at each stage during the course.

Attendance
Classtime will be spent primarily on writing, reading, and discussing texts; after midterm, we will do most of our New Media Projects in class where we all have access to computers. As such, absences from class are should be avoided; they interfere significantly with peer response and prevent students from getting important computer work done. Students are allowed three (3) absences with no grade reduction; thereafter, each absence may result in a significant reduction of the student's final grade. Students who miss NO days of class during the semester will receive a three (3) point bonus on their final portfolio grade.  It is your responsibility to sign-in to class each day.  ** If you were in class and forgot to sign-in, then you were absent. Excessive lateness, likewise, will eventually be considered "absence" and count against students**

Late Work
We all have very busy, trying lives, and as such, there come times when we have to complete some work late. Each student in this class is allowed an occasional late précis or other short piece of writing. Neither major projects nor drafts of major projects may be turned in late. Students who know they will be out of town may, however, turn projects in early.

** Since all major projects must be workshopped (peer response) in class for students to receive credit, late projects that do not go through workshop will be ineligible for inclusion in the portfolio, which will result in an incomplete portfolio. Incomplete portfolios may receive, at best, a D. Your portfolio grade IS your course grade, so consistent diligence is required to do well in this course. ** (I hope this is a Draconian as I have to get at any time in my teaching career!)

Conferences
Students should schedule conferences with me when they do not understand comments I've made on their projects or when they become confused about the expectations of this course. Likewise,I may require a certain number of individual and/or group conferences during the semester. Missing a scheduled conference means that your portfolio will be missing the work we discussed during said conference, resulting in an incomplete portfolio and a grade of D, at best. If you cannot make a scheduled conference, I need to know six (6) hours in advance so that we can reschedule and so that other students can make use of my office time.

Academic Integrity
Students are expected to be honest about individual effort and responsible to peer/secondary source materials that are included in their projects. Both plagiarizing and turning in work written partially or completely by someone else are forms of academic dishonesty and carry serious penalties, the least serious of which is a grade of zero on the particular assignment (and thus a D, at best, in the course), but could also result in failure of the class and even expulsion from the university. Students who keep up with their work and consult with their peers and their professor have no reason or need to "cheat."

Computers in the Classroom
Because we meet in a computer-mediated classroom, we will make almost daily use of the machines.  However, certain computer-related behaviors will not be tolerated.  You may check your email or free-surf the web as you please before and after class, but after I announce the beginning of class by starting the roll, any student still using email, chat programs, or web browsers for non-class-related activities will loose points for participation or may even be considered absent from class for the day. **Likewise, students retain sole responsibility for keeping electronic copies of all their work.**  Lost or stolen disks, erased disks, home computer crashes, printer problems, etc. do NOT excuse you from turning in work or having copies of all your work on disk at the end of the semester.  Remember to make frequent back-up copies of files and keep copies on multiple disks.

Accommodations for Students with Special Needs
East Carolina University seeks to comply fully with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Students requesting accommodations based on a covered disability must go to the Department for Disability Services, located in Brewster A-114, to verify the disability before any accommodations can occur. The telephone number is 252-328-6799.