To: rmd12@psu.edu
Date: Jul 27, 2005 10:19 PM
Subject: Post article
Here's [that article from the Post I mentioned]. It's interesting the way the
article was written, like the comparison to Napster, making the spread of
public information seem like a renegade idea. Maybe I am naive, but it seems
to me that pressure from lobbyists is a sorry excuse to not be able to write
unbiased reports. And worrying about liability, or about stepping on someone's
copyrighted toes, to the point that the best solution seems to be denying
people of information altogether is equally lame (or something slightly more
articulate).
At least the website seems like a neat resource...
Jess"
"Thanks Jess! I will add it immediately, along with your email, to my course for teaching instructors how to use wikis to teach writing...Phew, that's a mouthful, but if you are not ok with the reproduction of your email on the wiki, please let me know. Here it is:
http://pbl.ist.psu.edu/cgi-bin/analog.pl?SeptemberNinth
We can remove your name if you like also. But thanks for the tip - this will be a very helpful teaching tool. If you have any other ideas about how to teach rhetoric to undergraduates or anybody else, feel free to add them to the wiki.
Was great to see you the other day, and I will keep my eyes open for job listings. You did the right thing!
Rich"
The Fundamentals of Dialogue:
(1) Address your interlocuter where they are. These does not mean you should talk "down" to them or "up" to them. Instead, forge a connection.
(2) Listen with eyes and ears.
(3) Be generous with your interpretation of [premises]. Query premises. How does dialogue differ from debate?
Assignment: Engage in a dialogue with a classmate on the topic: What paper topic would be cool and interesting to research for a FinalProject? Are there any relevant Congressional Reports or other documents that can help you here or here? Post the dialogue to the wiki. You may use IM and post the script (or even a selection of dynamic script) if you like. IM scripts can be useful for invention - that part of the writing process when you a creating your vision of the topic and the argument.
The Dialogue Continues: (optional)
"You mean think about a dialogue as an exchange of information that yields a bonus?" "I guess so, if I could define \"information\"".
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http://www.ethicalarts.org/photogallery7/Crowd.jpg
Whenever we argue, we argue in common. This is perhaps most clear when we engage in counter-argument. In our courts of law, we hear "objection!" as a request to introduce counterargument. [Counter-argument engages with objections] a composer imagines will bother a reasonable reader. Counter arguments need not only come from the imagination, although the imagination is a fine place to search for them. Dialogue is another tool we can use to discover and work with counter arguments.
From Dialogue to Audience, and the Commons: On the importance of actual audiences: Audiences are stakeholders that are affected by the decisions we make. They first take shape in our imagination.
Pattern Recognition:FindYerCluster and begin thinking about building your Zine
For next time:
Just Blogging: Find a narrative online or in the New York Times, and respond to it.
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http://www.lynchposters.com/images/Quiz-Show.jpg
A Reading Quiz will test your knowledge of your classmate's blogs as well as the NY Times for the past few weeks. If this quiz goes well, there will be no others.
(1) Why you are reading: community and topic formation. Look for patterns that indicate a topic you would be interested in working on for a FinalProject. Look for clusters of topics and people for collaboration.
(2) Narrative and Definition are both about what they leave out! ( premises and gutters)
Understanding Comics
Definition
Addiction and its Discontents; prolepsis and alternative histories as counterargument
Next time: FindYerCluster and begin thinking about building your Zine
One or Several Definitions
What should define your working group for the semester? Such a cluster should have at least three and no more than five members. You may, in time, form MegaClusters if you summon a MegaProject, but for now try pitching a cluster to work with.
One definition that Penn State has productively argued with itself about is diversity. definitional slide for fun and profit - polysemy and capture; making leaky definitions work for you. What should be Penn State's defintion of Diversity? Compose a definitional argument about
http://www.senate.psu.edu/record/record042704.htm#caandue
diversity. Draft is due 09/18 by midnight. Remember to engage the strongest counter arguments you can find to your position, and to treat them fairly. Your arguments will be stronger for it!
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http://museum.gov.ns.ca/infos/micro/scopef.gif
Working with Definitions
Defining Diversity
Basic Prose Style by Craig Waddell - The basics, and free
Old information - new information. In most sentences and paragraphs, you should flow from old information to new information. Follow that simple rule!
ExtraCredit: Compose a definition for the Wikipedia
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http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/fractals/collect/1998/Music.jpg
More Definition: What is music? TropeADope
Suggested Reading:
You can even properly and objectively redefine upstairs and downstairs into instairs and outstairs! - Buckminster Fuller, Inexorable Evolution pp. 15-35.
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http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/h/c/hcc114/attComp.jpg
all together now: rhetorical process as rhythm
assignment in 4 parts
The image above was sampled from levitated.net's illustration of attractor sets. The programmers who designed this illustration seemed to have music in mind when they wrote this script. "People seek connections with others whom have common interests," they claim. "Through these connections, they are unknowingly brought into a vast network of friends and associates." Sound is one of the best connectors we have -- making and discussing sound yields many unintended and unexpected connections. Last week, we asked you to use dynamic text interfaces to FindYerCluster. Now that we've begun to dabble with sound, we'd like to once again rehearse forming a commons, this time focusing our attention on sound.
rhetorical force of the sample
Listen: Jean Knight - Mr. Bigstuff, NWA - Xpress Yourself. At first, Dr. Dre seems to have borrowed bass, guitar, and horns. Yet the bass line comes from elsewhere, and nonetheless works just as seemlessly with the Stax house band guitars and horns as Duck Dunn's bassline did in the first place. As a group, find similar examples of molecular music making, and write about the different effect that the "same sound" can have when it is displaced into different sonic contexts. Click here for a page full of iconic exemplars of musical sampling, highly recognizable sounds that became recognizable precisley because they have been sampled into many diverse contexts. Communities form just to track such movement. Yeah. Now, consider the ways that popular samples muster attention. What else do samples do?
1.Use freesound to select samples for a specific purpose.
gimme moire: beat-matching
2. sequencing and sharing sounds within a cluster (tuning and prolepsis)
resonance - rhetorical principle of movement; the artists formerly known as audience
rhythmic entrainment
read and listen: 3 notes and runnin' - selecting from the commons, mixing, uploading to the commons
*audacity fx - mix it, trope it
Audacity is a free easy-to-use sound editor that allows you to dramatically alter sounds and turn your computer into a remix engine with almost miraculous capacities
multiple arbitrary function generators and patchbays - depatterning/patterning
noise and "the beholder's share"
3.remixing with effects, for affect
narrative and dialogue : recursion on SeptemberSeventh
now get audacious with your peers' prose: the spectrum of tonal effects
Postproduction: it's the sharing
4. sequencing and sharing sounds with another cluster
Review How tos.
Fit and finish: CropandBurn to FormPDFs.
How to take text off the wiki and turn it into a lovely printed document. Now hand it in!
Second Graded Assignment Due: remixed best definitional argument. Mixmaster blog.
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http://www.usc.edu/schools/annenberg/asc/projects/comm544/library/images/742bg.jpg
From Definition to Transformation How to write a How-To
How to look at Salvador Dali's "Metamorphosis of Narcissus"
Recursion on SelfNarrative remixes : Tuning a How-To to an audience.
Assignment: Write up a How To and post it to the wiki. What are the characteristics of your intended audience? If you like, you can add and/or SignificantlyImprove one from wiki.ehow.com
let's try this one in class
here's another example that needs some revision
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http://www.interq.or.jp/japan/se-inoue/picture/measure1.jpg
Enthymeme: an Algorithm or recipe for testing arguments because it helps you reflect your premises and find your audiences. When you program a computer, you tell it what to do: a computer will accept the logic of the syllogism "sight unseen." Circuit closed. Enthymemes, on the other hand, are open to question, and evolved as prototypical participatory structuring of language. When we write and then pause to carefully consider and tinker with the major premise of our enthymemic proof, we can determine patterns of resonance and dissonance; in other words, we can find a compositional rhythm just by cooking up enthymemes, as long as we remember to use them to fine-tune (listen) for audiences. Tuned and retuned again, enthymemes are like solicitous syllogisms. Enthymemes tune into uncertainty, and effective enthymemes tune to the exigence that defines one particular commons or another, clustered as they are around a particular narrative, question, or problem.
(1) Grade a paper in class, compressing the argument into an enthymeme with major and minor [premise] - 20 minutes
(2) Definition redux; definition and counter argument; the rule of three; essential versus operational; looking essential- 10 mins
(3) Work over some defintional arguments deploying enthymeme.
(3) Looking for the essential difference: From Definition to Analogy
[Analogies in the field]
analogy and counterargument: the pitfalls of sameness and difference
Assignment: (1) Find an analogy (2)Introduce it and discuss its audience and context. (3) Discuss the likely effect of the analogy on your audience (4) Give counterargument by finding an essential difference between the two terms of the analogy. How would you point out this difference to this audience? To a different audience?
(1) analogy and counter-argument: the pitfalls of sameness and difference
(2) Rhetorical Process: the invention of better analogies through prolepsis
(3) Rhetorical Process: Revising argument and revising analogy
(4) Ethos and argument; Registering to Vote; the arguments against registering to vote
Assignment: Revise your analogy blog into a complete analysis of the effects of the analogy. Be as specific as possible about the analogy's effects on other audiences. Respond to another student's analogy blog and suggest counter-arguments as well as different audiences with different responses.
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http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/images1/madon_heav_dur.gif
FindYerCluster and and build your Zine
More differentiation: On the distinction between union and rapture
Assignment: Take your revised definitional paper and revise it by introducing an analogy that reframes the argument. Remember that new counter arguments may emerge with your analogy. Draft analogy argument due October 4 at midnight. Final revision will be due October 6 at midnight.
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http://www.masters-of-photography.com/images/full/salgado/salgado_covers.jpg
Review analogy blogs in class. Final analogy revision due October 6.
Crap Shoots
Did Cortez have Greeters?
Stop me before I eat again
Next time:
Revise another student's analogy blog. Introduce at least one new counter argument.
Read Browsing Genocide
From Analogy to Causation; the importance of being causal
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Analogies are also good transitional tools. What is the best analogy to use to communicate Darfur?
Analogy of the past
Our own skeletons
Unwanted Analogies and Unintended Consequences
What are the differences?
The Rwanda Analogy
Next time:
Prepare by learning about E-Portfolios
Blog!
Next: causality
Causality, problem solving and everyday life: The causal narrative
What caused Darfur?
Weekend Assignments: (1) Revised Analogy blog submitted for grading. (2) Read Causation and Cambodia and blog about at least one other site you find on the cambodian genocide.
Did that really happen? The Case of the Moon Landing and Visual Rhetoric
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Work on causal drafts
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Revised causal argument is due to wiki by midnight.
From telos to amplification: making everything a cause. How to cause "diversity"? A case study from The School of Information Sciences and Technology]
Blog!
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http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2004/25/images/a/formats/web_print.jpg
Looking around for Order: Stigmergy
The universe has been unfolding for between 12 and 14 billion years, and in that time a good deal of order has emerged. Once established, order - such as a spiral - can, then, become a model, a sample even, for further order - we need not ever begin from "scratch" in such an orderly ecology. We can even, indeed, begin from \"scratch\" - the interruption of one order that allows another to emerge. This principle of playing with already existing order is known as stigmergy, and can be a useful principle when faced with a task in multimedia composition. Instead of staring at a blank screen, trying to "produce" something out of nowhere, find a template or a model and begin to play with and alter it. Troll for tropes, ape archetypes. Begin with this definition of stigmergy and remix it until you understand it. What might be [some sources of stigmergy] for your rhetorical process?
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http://www.imagesonline.bl.uk/britishlibrary-store/Components/291/29134_2.jpg
The Heart Sutra is a sixth century Buddhist text designed to empty the reader's mind, allowing it to become still. In such stillness, thinking or contemplation can happen. How do the rhetorical strategies in the sutra - repetition, reversal - help to empty your mind even as it offers you content? What are some other ways in which language can be used to alter consciousness? How does altering consciousness differ from communication?
Try simply looking at the form of this ancient text, without seeking to understand its meaning. A very useful way to begin writing is from what Zen tradition calls \"Beginner's Mind\" - a state of mind where you don't know anything, don't feel any remorse about not knowing, and can then begin to ask very simple questions.
This musical group from Mali seeks to alter consciousness. What strategies does it share with the Heart Sutra? What state of mind does it help induce in you as you listen?
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http://pbl.ist.psu.edu/cgi-bin/analog.pl?action=edit&id=OctoberTenth
Sampling and Stigmergy: Using and Sharing Templates
Definitional Blog: What is Plagiarism?
Definitional Blog: What is a MashUp?
Knowledge Sharing and Blogs: Blogging Soldiers
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Work on revisions of samples in class. Try asking it these three questions:
*Is there an agent and an action in each sentence?
*Is information organized from old to new from sentence to sentence? Paragraph to paragraph?
*Is there a claim and a set of reasons that is defended?
Find a sample to begin thinking about your final project and your Zine.
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http://www.qdosentertainment.co.uk/productions/boogienights/images/boogiesign.jpg
Evaluative Argument
Evaluative arguments are useful for making decisions and helping others make decisions. You might, for example, make an evaluative argument about a movie, arguing that your roommate should go to the movie because it was so "awesome." He or she will likely ask for more details, and a convincing argument from you would include a claim and a set of reasons to support the claim. Or you may argue with the theatre manager and make your case that you should receive your money back because the movie print was bad or the projector was malfunctioning. One good way to make an evaluative argument is to think about the ways you might alter the object or event being evaluated, as in " It was a good meal, but the black beans were too salty." In this case, you imply that you would have added less salt. Choose a movie or a film and evaluate it, providing readers with a claim such as "Boogie Nights bears repeated viewings" and a set of reasons to justify the claim, such as "The film's opening shot welcomes viewers into a labyrynth of compelling characters caught between their own egos and the shifting technology of video and film." Note that an evaluative argument is often a causal argument in disguise: the opening shot causes me to become fascinated with a world that would otherwise hold little interest for me. Filling out this argument would entail breaking down the aspects of the shot and the film that, taken together, cause me joy and insight.
Remember that any evaluative argument is, like any other argument, tuned to the preferences and inclinations of particular audiences, even as you seek to transform the preferences and actions of your audiences.
Assignment:
Choose a film or song and make an evaluative argument about it. Be sure to view the film and/or listen to the song before writing! And be as specific as possible about segments of the song of film in your discussion. Online films abound - try the Prelinger archives or www.commontunes.org for free music. Or you could evaluate a classmate's musical composition from freesound, or your own.
Evaluation due October 30
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Field Evaluations: How Evaluations Exceed Their Audiences
Wiki Culture
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Proposal Arguments are great way to get things done. They summarize a project and show that it is both interesting and feasible. Look over the links. How would you alter these proposals for proposals pitched to this wiki?
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http://www.glenview.il.us/glen/Download%20Thumbnails/Request-For-Proposals-Cover.jpg
Working Through Proposals
Same samples:
Final Paper Music
Film Papers
Your Curriculum
Next time: Draft Proposal Text Due to wiki; What problem or question are you going to address? Why does it matter? To whom?
Some Words About Division
A wiki "page", of course, is not a page at all, but is instead a potentially InfiniteWindow of information.
Assignment: (1) Refine proposal to include at least three sources, including two from the library. ( 2)Offer feedback and counterarguments to two other student's proposals. (3) Start thinking about which sources you would want the class to read to discuss.
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Some Words About Division
A wiki "page", of course, is not a page at all, but is instead a potentially InfiniteWindow of information.
Assignment: (1) Refine proposal to include at least three sources, including two from the library. ( 2)Offer feedback and counterarguments to two other student's proposals. (3) Start thinking about which sources you would want the class to read to discuss.
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DueDates
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