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UWC 2101C
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UWC2101C: Writing & Critical Thinking: Information & Society |
| Instructor: Dr. Harvey
Molloy |
To Post to our discussion group go to IVLE and then search for UWC2102C.
Contents
- Introduction and Description
- Objectives
- Readings
- Assignments and Assessment
- Policies: attendance, deadlines, requirements.
- Syllabus
Introduction
In our daily lives we process thousands of messages: advertisements, instructions, phone calls and emails; and increasingly find ourselves immersed in complex, information-rich environments such as shopping malls and web sites. Our goal is to reflect on the subtle, often complex, relationships between information technologies and our own individual cognitive processes and social institutions and practices. We will study a diverse range of papers from the fields of cultural theory, anthropology, business communication, information design, engineering, computer science and media studies as well as two short stories and the film Sneakers. The emphasis throughout the course is encouraging students to pose and explore their own research questions relevant to the the topic "Information and Society."
The class is a studio-based course held in the cyberarts studio.
Objectives
This course is a writing workshop dedicated to teaching students the basic skills needed to write an academic paper. The aim of this course is to make students careful readers and confident, disciplined writers. Students will learn how to ask good questions and how to shape ideas into persuasive arguments. Students will also gain experience writing texts for online publication.
The course is founded on the premise that learning to write an academic paper is a valuable skill that allows us to develop and refine our own ideas. Writing a paper is a process that allows us to transform an initial associative web of ideas into a coherent, rewarding form. Although the genre of the academic paper, and the techniques we employ to write it, come from outside ourselves, writing a research paper allows us to persuade others of the validity and worth of our own views. Yet the paradox, and beauty, of research is that often these ideas do not exist - or we are unaware of them - before we begin to discover them in our writing. It is not as if the paper merely allows us to say something we have on our minds before we begin writing. The magic of research is that the process of writing itself brings unique types of ideas into existence.
Throughout the course we will continually return to the following questions:
How do we, as scholars, write papers that will engage our readers?
How do we develop as writers?
How can we make our writing precise, interesting, and convincing?
How can we ensure that our readers never feel that we are merely "going through the motions" of producing an essay?
Our emphasis is not on covering the mechanics of writing such as spelling and grammar (though these are important). In the workshops students will read papers by other students and receive comments on completed drafts of their own work before they are submitted for a final grade. This will provide students with invaluable experience in dealing with the final stages of scholastic writing including how to receive and incorporate comments from other readers into their work.
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