Course Projects

Reading responses (5): 20%

As assigned: your reading responses should be dialogic in nature; that is, we want to see and to hear you in dialogue with the texts under consideration, as they will serve as the basis for our discussions and reflections. Your reading responses are meant to encourage you to actively engage in a meaningful conversation with the readings — both individually and comparatively. As you make notes, you should regularly re-read your previous pages of notes and comments, noting any new connections. Writing is a way to produce new knowledge as you attempt to do interpretative phrasing. Reading-response platforms TBA.

Project Proposal (500-750 words): 10%

Due Week Five. Drawing on our collective, shared knowledge of multimodality and new-media compositions, you will propose an audience-based project that depends on text and image in the service of an argument or advocacy. Your proposal will allow you to situate your own work — scholarly, professional, creative, or community-based — in the contexts of what we’ve been reading and discussing. Integrate, quote, and cite at least two of our sources — Kress, Wysocki, Lauer, and our collective working definition of multimodality — in support of your project aspirations.

Audience based text-and-image project: 40%

Your major project for the course has several iterative components:

  • Your willingness to share collective expertise in class discussions and during workshops
  • Your ability to articulate intended rhetorical effects and the steps you took to achieve those effects
  • Your ability to describe an audience of readers for your work and your attitude toward that audience
Your project may be a way for you to situate yourself and your aspirations among the range of readings and discussions in which we have engaged — that is, an academic or professional project with an identifiable academic or professional audience.

Or you may pursue a more open ended inquiry-based or creative project, the purpose, and goals of which can be negotiated with me.

Course portfolio with reflective essay (500-750 words): 30%

Your course e-portfolio should be designed and composed with a professional audience in mind and should include:

  • Reading responses
  • Project proposal
  • Project prototype
  • Project iterations
  • Final project files
  • Reflective essay of 500-750 words

We will negotiate e-portfolio platforms: I recommend iWeb for MAC owners, or an Acrobat Pro portfolio; any platform that results in local files will be acceptable.