WRD 104: Composition & Rhetoric II

Notes from today:

> Download and install the SeaMonkey browser
> Create a “remix” folder on your desktop
> Open the NYT and select an article
> File > Edit Page
> Immediately “Save As” index.html to your remix folder
> Practice remixing text and images
> Remember to save often

“Writing in the digital age increasingly requires remixing, that is, the transformative reuse and redistribution of existing material for new contexts and audiences. Creation, innovation, and invention in the digital age demand that information be widely shared and widely reused; digital writing practices require ‘plagiarism’ (in some sense).”

“Remixing — or the process of taking old pieces of text, images, sounds, and video and stitching them together to form a new product — is how individual writers and communities build common values; it is how composers achieve persuasive, creative, and parodic effects. Remix is perhaps the premier contemporary composing practice.” — DeVoss & Ridolfo, “Composing for Recomposition: Rhetorical Velocity and Delivery,” 2009.

Examples for class:

• Adbusters
• “Obi-Wan Kenobi Is Dead, Vader Says”
• More extensive NYT parody
• Another one, not as extensive and not as well received
• Girl Talk
• WRD104 SQ2011

It seems to me that if it was good enough for Watson & Crick — they discovered the molecular structure of DNA, the Double Helix — it’s good enough for you:

Watson, J. D., & Crick, F. H. C. (1953) A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA). Nature 171, 737–738.

From the New York Review of Books, February 11th, note how the writer integrates argument with contextual analysis:

In its casting, content and positioning (little more than an hour after Obama told a pre-Super Bowl interviewer that he deserved a second term because of his successful economic policies, in the midst of the most widely watched telecast in American history), “It’s Halftime in America” was a most effective bit of political theater—maybe the best of its kind since Ronald Reagan’s 1984 “Morning in America.” 

 But note how he also draws on textual analysis along the way:

• “A lone lean figure strides purposefully through a dark tunnel, maybe a highway underpass.”
• “The music is solemn, soothing, just short of uplifting, and Eastwood’s narrative is suddenly specific”
•  ”Cue rusty factories. ‘But we all pulled together—now Motor City is fighting again.’
• “That’s what we do. The spot has a sense of gentle but firm forward motion, created by slow dolly shots and moving cars.”

This week we will take some time to consider some more differences between print and digital literacy, when we integrate links and visual images in your ongoing projects. 

• To add an image from your computer, select Insert Media on your toolbar:

• To create a link, select text that you’d like to highlight, select the link tool, and enter a URL: 

(more…)

Wednesday, February 22 6 pm Scott Turow and Judge Richard Posner will talk about the future of books, authors, and libraries in the digital age at the next “Conversations at the Newberry,” a new series of discussions to generate thought-provoking discourse for and frame important questions about enduring issues that are timely today.

An attorney and author of nine best-selling works of fiction, including his first novel, Presumed Innocent (1987), Scott Turow has written numerous op-ed pieces and conducted interviews about the future of libraries and the digitization of books. The New York Times has called Judge Richard Posner “the most influential jurist outside the Supreme Court.” The author of more than 2,500 published judicial opinions and 30 books, some of Judge Posner’s current research focuses on intellectual property, a field that has become particularly contentious in light of the ease with which intellectual property is digitally disseminated, and of evolving notions of artistic integrity and engagement.

(more…)

… maybe too late to use as a source, but still a good read:

Psychology Majors, rejoice:

WSJ: What’s Wrong With the Teenage Mind?
NYT: Hysteria and the Teenage Girl 

Everyone:

NYT: The Mixtape of the Revolution 
NYT: Contraception Ruling Draws Battle Lines at Catholic Colleges 
WP: Studying the purpose of college