technologies of writing

 

 

Course Description:

 

This course begins from the premise that writing technologies matter—after all, written work couldn't exist without them.  More than just affording words on a tablet, page, or screen, writing technologies shape the kinds of written work that can be done, and even imagined.  In this class, we'll explore the connections between technologies and writing through examining the interplay of the physical properties of these tools, the kinds of values people have attributed to them, and the ways they have been used over time.  Some of the questions we'll be asking include: who developed these technologies and why?  Who used these tools first, and how?  How were they later appropriated?  How has the field of English studies taken up these technologies?  We'll also try to to write with as many technologies as we can get our hands on—typewriters, different kinds of pen/pencil/paper combinations, different software and online packages (including obsolete and outdated versions), and different hardware (if available).  By the end of the course, you should have a greater familiarity with the histories of contemporary writing technologies and how these histories have shaped current use.  You will also develop a first-hand understanding of a particular writing technology's situated use by observing and interviewing people using that technology over the course of the semester.  This course should help you gain a more reflective perspective on these tools, which can facilitate your coordination of a variety of technologies for future writing projects, and expand your sense of the rhetorical possibilities available to you when using any particular technology.

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Written Work:

 

Assignment 1: Defamiliarizing Technology

 

Respond to the initial readings on technology studies and its use/reuse in culture by using a technology of writing unfamiliar to you (either entirely new, or something you haven't used in a long time).  This could mean writing something out with pen and paper if you've used computers for all your writing the last few years, or crayons, or IM, or a wiki, or a typewriter, or any other technology.  After you've completed your response, write up a reflection piece detailing your experience with using this unfamiliar technology.  How did it seem to affect your writing process?  Your ideas?  Your thoughts about writing?  Use the technology of your choice for this second part.

 

Assignment 2: Thick Description

 

Spend several hours observing a few locations where literate activity takes place, then create a thick description that details the kinds of writing technologies used, the ways they are used (individually, collaboratively, mixture), their frequency of use, and other observations you think are relevant.  Make some initial interpretations regarding the connections between technology, practice, and environment.

 

Assignment 3: Creative Use

 

Respond to the readings on the histories of writing technologies using PowerPoint.  Try to draw on the various styles we've examined in class (Lessig, Tufte, Pecha Kucha, Beyond Bullet Points) to create something different from the bullet point templates provided by the program and common to many slideshows.

 

Assignment 4: Technology in Action

 

Produce a situated account of a specific writing technology that you've observed in use by a particular group of people, or in a single location.  Center this account on a particular interpretation you'd like to bring out—what have you learned about the way this technology shapes and is shaped by the literate activity of the people you've observed and talked to?

 

Assignment 5: Structuring the Present

 

Trace out the history of the technology you've studied in the field.  How was it made, by whom, for what purpose? Do you see traces of those uses in the scenes you observed?

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Readings:

 

Unit 1: Situating Technology

 

  1. Bertram Bruce: "Innovation and Social Change"
  2. Dennis Baron: "Pencils to Pixels"
  3. Ron Eglash: Introduction to Appropriating Technology
  4. Steven Johnson: "Tool for Thought"
  5. Edward Tufte: "Powerpoint is Evil"
  6. TechRhet/Kairosnews postings about OpenOffice.org vs. Microsoft Word writing software
  7. Anne Wysocki: "Opening New Media to Writing" from Writing New Media

 

Unit 2: Researching Writing Technology

 

  1. Charles Bazerman & Paul Prior: What Writing Does and How It Does It
  2. Clifford Geertz: "Think Description" and "Deep Play"
  3. Seth Chaiklin and Jean Lave: chapters from Understanding Practice
  4. Bruno Latour: selections from Science in Action and Pandora's Hope
  5. Christina Haas: "On the Relationship Between Old and New Technologies"

 

Unit 3: Histories of New Media Writing Technologies

 

  1. New Media Reader: readings from JCR Licklider, Douglas Engelbart, Vannevar Bush, Ted Nelson
  2. N. Katherine Hayles: chapters from How We Became Posthuman
  3. Tim Berners-Lee articles on the invention of the Web
  4. Jay David Bolter: Writing Space
  5. George Landow: Hypertext 2.0
  6. Qwerty vs Dvorak readings
  7. Freidrich Kittler: Gramophone, Film, Typewriter

 

Unit 4: Contemporary Accounts

 

  1. Cynthia Selfe and Richard Selfe: "Politics of the Interface"
  2. Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin: Remediation
  3. Lee Honeycutt: "Researching the use of Voice Recognition Writing Software
  4. Richard Powers: voice recognition articles and interviews
  5. James Porter: "Cyberwriter's Tale"
  6. Gunther Kress & Theo Van Leeuwen: Multimodal Discourse

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