Weekly Assignments

For the week of Dec. 18

Final draft of essay 3 due by 6:30pm on Monday, Dec. 18. Upload essay to WebCT.

If completing the web version of essay 3, it is due by 5:00pm on Wed., Dec. 20. Provide a link from your course web site and email the professor to let him know it has been completed.

Final Learning Record is due by 11:00pm on Friday, Dec. 22. The final Learning Record is quite similar to the midterm Learning Record=, except that you will be taking into consideration the entire semester. Using your midterm Learning Record document, add/change your Observations and Work Samples to reflect the whole semester, and complete Parts B2 and C2. Save the file as "lastname-final-lr.doc" and upload it to the assignments section of WebCT under "Final Learning Record."

When adding a Work Sample be sure to fill in each part of the form: Date, Title, Assignment (if not assignment, select "Unassigned Work"), Format (Word document, email, forum posting, etc.), location (WebCT, in print, etc). Please create a folder on your computer called "yourlastname-worksamples-final". Put copies of all your work samples in that folder (unless they are hard copies that don't have an electronic version which you can just drop off at my office). You will then compress the folder so it can be uploaded to WebCT.

When completing your final Learning Record, be sure to re-read the comments made on your midterm Learning Record.

For Monday, Nov. 27

Please read in Tufte’s Beautiful Evidence, "Words, Numbers, Images--Together." No posting due.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

For Monday, Nov. 20

Please read in Tufte’s Beautiful Evidence, "Corruption in Evidence Presentations: Effects without Causes, Cherry-Picking, Overreaching, Chartjunk, and the Rage to Conclude" (pages 140-155) and "The Cignitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Currupts Within" (pages 156-185). We are skipping around so don't worry that you haven't read the chapters before these. Please also post a response to the following on the Tufte, Writing Spaces, and Remediation discussion topic on WebCT:

Many of you in your responses to the first Tutfe reading made wonderful connections between Tufte's discussion of evidence and Bolter's and Sante's texts. For this posting I would like you discuss these connections. In particular, please consider the following questions: How does Tufte's discussion of mapping and beautiful evidence challenge, change, or have little effect on your understanding of Bolter's writing spaces and Sante's evidence? Are the mappings an example of remediation? Be sure to define the terms in your response so you can be specific as possible.

At the end of your discussion, pose a question to your classmates (avoid questions like, "So, what do you think?"). Though students are not required to post a response, I encourage you to do so. Starting the conversation outside of class, as you have seen, helps bring the in-class discussion to new, exciting levels.

Please post your response by 12:00 noon on Monday, November 20.

Please draft your response using Microsoft Word (or other word processor), check it for spelling, and then paste it the response field. Your initial response should be at least 1/2 page, single space, using Times New Roman font size 12, on a page with 1" margins. Your second response can be half that size.

The next essay assignment will be handed out in class.

For Monday, Nov. 13

Please read in Tufte’s Beautiful Evidence, the Intro, Ch1, and Ch2, and post a response to the following on the Tufte 1 discussion topic on WebCT:

This posting is going to be similar to the first Sante posting. Tufte throws quite a bit of information at the reader in the form of beautiful images and beautiful prose. The combination of the two, however, can be quite overwhelming to the point of intimidation. As a result, I would like you locate a section of the text that you found particularly insightful and thought-provoking, particularly confusing, or that you are skeptical of (avoid discussions along the lines of "The images are so beautiful.").

Type the passage into your response--include page numbers--and discuss your response or responses to the passage in terms of one of the images he references. At the end of your discussion, pose a question to your classmates (avoid questions like, "So, what do you think?"). Though students are not required to post a response, I encourage you to do so. Starting the conversation outside of class, as you have seen, helps bring the in-class discussion to new, exciting levels.

Please post your response by 12:00 noon on Monday, November 13.

Please draft your response using Microsoft Word (or other word processor), check it for spelling, and then paste it the response field. Your initial response should be at least 1/2 page, single space, using Times New Roman font size 12, on a page with 1" margins. Your second response can be half that size.

For Friday, Oct 27, and Monday, Oct 30

For Friday, Oct 27 by 5:00pm

Please complete peer responses for two of your peers (assigned in class) using the following peer response sheet, which is available for download in pdf and word documents. To complete the assignment you will be using Microsoft Word commenting. To set up Word Commenting on your computer see pages 3 and 4 of the above peer response sheet. In order to complete this assignment you must use a copy of Microsoft Word; no other application will work. (OpenOffice may have a commenting function, but I'm not sure.) When you have completed the peer response email it back to the author and upload a copy to WebCT.

If your response group would like to have the responses due earlier you are of course more than welcome to do that.

For Monday, Oct 30 by classtime

Please complete the final draft of project 2. Bring a printed version and upoload a copy to WebCT. Please also have a digital image which you wouldn't mind using on your home page.

For Thursday, Oct 12, and Monday, Oct 16

For Thursday, Oct 12 by 5:00pm

Make sure you have attempted to connect to the Rowan servers no later than Thursday. You can find information about how to connect from home at http://www.rowan.edu/toolbox/network/. Direct all questions about this to Rowan ITS, not Professor Wolff. He will not be able to help you. You will need to connect from home in order to complete the hypertext. Not being able to connect from home will not be a legitimate excuse for not completing this assignment.

In "Documentary" Sante observes that "Photography is a medium; that is, an intermediate agency between the scene or object depicted and the eyes of the viewer" (61) Later, in "Evidence," he suggests that "Somehow these photographs were supposed to represent the truth, some of the truth, some kind of truth. They gave witness to something that happened, in a room or a field, that a person or persons had existed. . . . Their function, therefore, must have been literally as sourvenirs, memory aids, records for records sake. They probably served as markers for reference, tools for training novice homicide deterctives. . ." (97). Toward the end of his discussion he argues that the "pictures are are evidence of an end we are afraid to recognize" (99). This, of course, is only one example of what they may be evidence of.

For this posting (on WebCT under the heading "Images and Evidence"), then, I would like you to consider the following for one of the below linked-images (or sequence of images):

  1. What are they evidence of? Note that each image is evidence of more than just one thing. How do those multiple evidences work together or against each other?
  2. Thinking back to Bolter's discussion of writing spaces, how are these imagine extending or redefining the idea of a "writing space"? In other words, can these photographs be "read" as one would read a text? If so, how does that change the nature of what is and what is not a "text"?

At the end of your discussion, pose a question to your classmates (avoid questions like, "So, what do you think?"). Each person will post a response. Please avoid all discussions of how sad or horrifying they are or how we hope that nothing like this happens again. That is understood. I am looking for a discussion of the implications of the pictures in terms of the evidentiary and textual value.

These are fairly complex and difficult questions. As a result, this posting will be longer than others. Please draft your response using Microsoft Word, check it for spelling, and then paste it the response field. Your initial response should be at least 1 page, single spaced, using Times New Roman font size 12, on a page with 1" margins. In class you will be paired with someone. Please respond to your partner's question by noon on Monday, Oct. 16. Your second response can be half that size.

For Monday, Oct 16 by 5:00pm

Please complete the final version of the hypertext and write your one page discussion as outline in the Project 1 assignment.

For Thursday, Oct 5, and Monday, Oct 9

For Thursday, Oct 5 by 5:00pm

Please read in Sante, the images, "Documentary," "Police Aesthetics," and "Evidence," and post a response to the following prompt in the WebCT discussion forum entitled "Sante 1":

Sante's three essays are filled with an amazing amount of dense prose and fascinating insights into the nature of photography, its impact on the viewer, and what it is evidence to. For this posting, I would like to select a passage from either "Documentary" or "Evidence" (not "Police Aesthetics") that you found particularly insightful and thought-provoking, particularly confusing, or that you are skeptical of. Type the passage into your response--include page numbers--and discuss your response or responses to the passage in terms of one of the crime scene photos. At the end of your discussion, pose a question to your classmates (avoid questions like, "So, what do you think?"). Each person will post a response.

Please draft your response using Microsoft Word (or other word processor), check it for spelling, and then paste it the response field. Your initial response should be at least 1/2 page, single space, using Times New Roman font size 12, on a page with 1" margins. Your second response can be half that size.

For Thursday, Oct 9 by Classtime

Please complete Final and Hypertext drafts of Project 1. Upload Final Draft to WebCT and add hyperlink to your hypertext version in the comments section.

To connect to the Rowan network from home, please see Rowan Network Resources and follow the instructions. I strongly suggest that you attempt to connect from home by Thursday so you can get tech help if needed.

For Thursday, Sept 28, and Monday, Oct 2

For Thursday, Sept 28 by Noon

Please read two of the following hypertext fiction stories. Many are quite circular and difficult to figure out, so just follow your instincts. Try to spend at least 20 minutes on each story that you try.

When you have finished reading the two stories, please post a response to the following prompt on the course discussion forum, located on the course WebCT site:

The hypertexts you have read use linking in a variety of different ways. Some have links at the botto, others link through the text, and still others make whole paragraphs the links. Thinking of one of the two stories you read, please discuss how both the linking structure and the names of the links effected your reading of the story, and how you chose to navigate through it. In your discussion, be sure to refer to the story directly and make a breif comparison to the other story you read.

Please draft your response using Microsoft Word (or other word processor), check it for spelling, and then paste it the response field. Have your response be at least 1/2 page, single space, using Times New Roman font size 12, on a page with 1" margins. Your response is due by 5:00pm on Thursday, Sept. 28.

For Monday, Oct. 2 by classtime

Please read pages 97 - 99 in Sante's Evidence.

Project 1 rough draft due at classtime.

For Thursday, Sept 21 and Monday, Sept 25

For Monday, Sept 25 by Noon

Please complete Parts A1 and A2 and your first two observations. Upload Parts A1 and A2 to the Part A folder in WebCT and the two Observations to the Observations folder in WebCT.

A Bolter assignment will be posted by Thursday to give time for students who do not have the book to get it.

For Thursday, Sept 14 and Monday, Sept 18

For Thursday, Sept 14 by 5:00pm

Please make sure you have all the required materials listed on the syllabus. As of this writing the Rowan Bookstore did not have copies of Luc Sante's Evidence. You can check online to see if it has arrived (note: for some reason the course is listed under English, not Writing Arts). If it has not arrived, please order a copy online from Barnes and Noble which has it at a discount. We will be using it starting the week of Sept. 25, so order it as soon as possible.

If you do not know your Rowan email address or how to access it, please see go to Rowan Network Account Activation and follow the instructions. I will be sending email to your Rowan address, so if you do not consider it your primary email address please make a habit of checking it on a regular basis.

Please read chapters 1 and 2 in Bolter and post a response to the following prompt on the course discussion forum, located on the course WebCT site:

In Chapters 1 and 2 of Writing Space Bolter introduces two of the key terms we will be discussing this semester: writing spaces and remediation. For this post, please identify three of the writing spaces you use most frequently, discuss their characteristics, and what makes them unique. Then, choose two of those spaces, and using Bolter's definition of remediation, discuss how one remediates the other (or how they remediate themselves).

Please draft your response using Microsoft Word (or other word processor), check it for spelling, and then paste it the response field. Have your response be at least 1/2 page, single space, using Times New Roman font size 12, on a page with 1" margins. Your response is due by 5:00pm on Thursday, Sept. 14.

For Monday, Sept 18 by 12:00 noon

Read through the Learning Record information web site, especially the pages for students. Then come up with 5 written questions you have about the Learning Record process. Post your questions to the course WebCT Learning Record Discussion Topic (there is a forum on the Learning Record site; please do not use that one). We will be using your questions to frame our discussion of the Learning Record on Monday.

Post a detailed response to one of your classmate's postings. In order to ensure that each posting has at least one response, please respond to the post just below yours. The last person to post a response will respond to the first person's post.

Please read chapters 3 and 4 in Bolter and post a response to the following prompt on the course discussion forum, located on the course WebCT site: TO BE ADDED ON SEPT. 14.

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