CYBER-RHETORIC: LITERATURE, THEORY, TECHNOLOGY

WRIT 502-001 | 3 CREDIT HOURS

FALL 2014
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Cyber-Rhetoric
Course Website

Instructor
John Walter
Contact Info
Email: walterj@winthrop.edu
Skype: gunnhrafn
Office Hours (via Skype and zoom.us)
Mondays: 6:00-7:00 PM
Thursdays: 7:00-9:00 PM
& by appointment

Course Listserv Email Address

WRIT502001@class.winthrop.edu
Course Web Site
http://www.othinn.com/cyber-rhetoric
Course Twitter
@WRIT502 | hashtag #writ502
REQUIRED TEXTS

Hayles, N. Katherine. Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the

Literary. Notre Dame: U of Notre Dame P, 2008.
McLuhan, Marshall and Quentin Fiore. The Medium is the
Massage: An Inventory of Effects. 1967. Corte Madera, CA:
Gingko Press, 2001.
Ramsay, Stephen. Reading Machines: Towards an Algorithmic
Criticism. Urbana, IL: U of Illinois P, 2011.

WRIT 502-001 | Fall 2014 | Syllabus | 1

COURSE CATALOG DESCRIPTION

This class will examine the challenging possibilities now open for
literary study and literary theory. It considers works from Blake to
Borges to cyberpunk; works with online materials and literary archives;
wrestles with modern rhetorical and digital theorists; and experiment
with creating online texts and critiquing them.

COURSE INTRODUCTION
Any shift in the traffic of information can create not
only new thoughts, but new ways of thinking. Paul
Miller, aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, Rhythm Science
It is impossible to understand social and cultural changes
without a knowledge of the workings of media.
Marshall McLuhan, The Medium Is the Massage
It is the first step in sociological wisdom, to recognize
that the major advances in civilization are processes which
all but wreck the societies in which they occur [...]. The art
of free society consists first in the maintenance of the
symbolic code; and secondly in fearlessness of revision, to
secure that the code serves those purposes which satisfy
an enlightened reason. Those societies which cannot
combine reverence to their symbols with freedom of
revision, must ultimately decay either from anarchy, or
from the slow atrophy of a life stifled by useless
shadows. A.N. Whitehead, Symbolisms: Its Meaning and
Effect
As the era of print is passing, it is possible once again to
see print in a comparative context with other textual
media, including the scroll, the manuscript codex, the
early printed codex, the variations of book forms
produced by changes from letterpress to offset to digital
publishing, and born-digital forms such as electronic
literature and computer games. N. Katherine Hayles
and Jessica Pressman, Comparative Textual Media:
Transforming the Humanities in the Postprint Era
It is the business of the future to be dangerous. A.N.
Whitehead, Science and the Modern World

WRIT 502-001 | Fall 2014 | Syllabus | 2

In the months of May and June, readers of the New Republic

were treated to articles about the end of English Departments,
soon to be killed off by technology in the guise of the digital
humanities. In his article, New Republic Senior Editor Adam Kirsch
decries the doom he believes technology is wreaking. Less
alarmist, James Pulizzi also sees the end of the traditional
literature department as all but inevitable, not because they must
die but because they must shift and adapt to the new digital
environment.
It is true, as Pulizzi suggests, that literature departments,
especially English departments, are changing, even need to
change. But thats nothing new. English departments have always
been changing. We might point to the 1800s where at schools like
Harvard one of the most prestigious professorships was the
Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, or to the late 1800s
when American English departments did not teach American
literature the first American professor of American literature
had to jump ship from his literature department for a department
of history. Or we might point to the 1940s and the rise of the
then New Criticism, or to the 1960s as the start of a series of
waves of post-structuralist and post-modernist theories and
perspectives including but not limited to feminism, gender
studies, New Historicism, postcolonialism, multiculturalism and
ethnic studies, ecocriticism, trauma theory, memory studies, New
Materialism, object-oriented criticism, and speculative realism. Or
we might look again to the 1960s and the revival of classical
rhetoric and the beginnings of contemporary composition
studies, followed later by the growth of professional writing and
technical communication.
Kirsch, however, is right in sensing that something is
different. This is not just a change in the practice of theory or the
object of study, but a change in the very way we are structuring
our culture. We are no longer a culture of print. We are, instead, a
transitional culture moving from the print to digital age. In
arguing against the study and use of digital technology, Kirsch

asks, Was it necessary in the past 500 years for a humanist to

know how to set type and publish a book?
Kirsch believes that the answer is no, and therein lies the
problem with his attempt to defend the humanities from
technology. Renaissance Humanism was born within the newly
established printing houses of
Europe. The first Humanists
did not just learn how to set
type and publish books, they
embraced the printing press;
got their hands on as many
hand-written manuscripts of
Greek and Roman literature,
philosophy, mathematics, and
science as they could; set
them to type; and published,
published, published.
Kirsch is unaware of
these facts because he is
trapped within a catch-22. To
be aware of how the printing
press gave rise to Renaissance Humanism, Kirsch would have had
to have studied the history of media technologies, something
which he seems loathe to do because he believes it to be
antithetical to humanistic concerns.
As Hayles and Pressman argue, that we are transitioning from
a print to a digital culture allows us to more readily recognize that
print and its modes of thought, patterns of behavior, and
organizational structures were a temporary condition fostered and
encouraged by a technology around which we shaped our culture.
That era, the Age of Print, is ending, just as the manuscript
culture of medieval scholasticism ended with the rise of print.
And that is what this course is about: In recognizing, as DJ
Spooky reminds us, that shifts in the traffic of communication
will alter modes of thought; in seeking to understand the
workings of electronic and digital media, as Marshall McLuhan
WRIT 502-001 | Fall 2014 | Syllabus | 3

suggests we need to do, so that we might understand the social

and cultural changes around us; in revising the ways we practice
English studies even as we maintain our symbolic codes so that
we might, as A.N. Whitehead argues, stave off cultural stagnation.
If the business of the future is to be dangerous, then the
answer is not to hide from it but, as McLuhan
suggests, to contemplate what is happening.
Or, as Michel de Montaigne, the Renaissance
writer and inventor of the essay a genre
thoroughly entwined with the rise and logics
of print once wrote, The thing of it is, we
must live with the living. That is what this
course is about: To understand how English
studies might live within a digital world.
COURSE GOALS
Goals for all courses in
the Department of
English, including those
that meet requirements
for NCATE certification, are described at
http://www.winthrop.edu/cas/english/
default.aspx?id=20751. In accordance with
the English Department content and
skill goals for undergraduate students,
students will

Winthrop English
Department
Website

demonstrate knowledge of various forms of written texts,

including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, essay, and other
literary genres (Department of English Goal 1.1);
demonstrate knowledge of standard reference tools,
methods, and forms of documentation used in scholarly
research (Department of English Goal 1.7);

 understand that composing is a practice that covers a wide

range of processes, functions, purposes, rhetorical situations
and strategies, an categories of discourse (Department of
English Goal 3.1);
display a broad view of what constitutes texts, including
both print and non-print media, and demonstrate an
understanding that technological advancements can change
both what is considered text and how text is prepared
(Department of English Goal 3.2);
recognize such characteristics of good writing as substantial
and relevant content, organization, clarity, appropriateness of
tone, and correctness in mechanics and usage (Department of
English Goal 3.3);
demonstrate a basic understanding of the processes
appropriate to composing in a variety of forms and for a variety
of audiences and purposes (Department of English Goal 3.4);
construct persuasive arguments based on careful analysis
and deliberation and using a voice and format suitable for the
intended audience (Department of English Goal 3.5);
write research papers on appropriate topics, demonstrating
correct use of standard reference tools, methods, and
technology and of primary and secondary sources and
providing proper documentation of sources (Department of
English Goal 3.6);
demonstrate average mastery of these characteristics and
processes as measured by the English Departments Rubric for
Writing/English Courses (Department of English Goal 3.7);
and
demonstrate the ability to speak clearly, confidently, and in
conformity with current standards of usage (Department of
English Goal 3.8).
In accordance with the English Department core goals for
technological skills (Goal 5), students will be able to
use technology to prepare documents (advanced word
processing) (Department of English Goal 5.1);
WRIT 502-001 | Fall 2014 | Syllabus | 4

use technology to learn content (researching online,

critically evaluating materials found on the Internet and in other
electronic media, documenting material correctly) (Department
of English Goal 5.2);
use technology to collaborate with other writers (e.g.,
cooperative editing if appropriate) (Department of English
Goal 5.3);
use technology to communicate effectively with audiences
(using such vehicles as web pages, e-mail, and/or discussion
lists) (Department of English Goal 5.4); and
use technology to deliver information (using such vehicles
as presentations, page design, and/or desktop publishing) in a
rhetorically effective manner (Department of English Goal 5.5).
At the 500- and 600-level, students should be able to meet
the five basic undergraduate goals for technological skills and also
be able to
exploit existing technologies for literary study (e.g. making
best use of online reference works, online text collections and
archival materials, etc.) (Department of English Goal 5.12);
incorporate technology into classroom presentations
(Department of English Goal 5.13);
consider alternative electronic means of presenting critical
and creative viewpoints (Department of English Goal 5.14);
and
understand the technological implications for publishing
and presenting scholarly paper (Department of English Goal
5.15).

COMMUNICATION AND OFFICE HOURS

Contacting Your Instructor
Because I am teaching our course remotely from Washington,
DC, maintaining open channels of communication is both vital
and limited to online interaction. While you can expect me to be
available as a resource from which to draw and to obtain
feedback, I can not be available 24/7. Please plan your time so
that you can get a response to a message from me in time for it to
be useful.
Please note: I do not have an on-campus office, I do not
have campus phone or voice mail, and I am not able to pick
up material left in the English Department. Therefore, the
best ways to contact me are as follows:
During Office Hours
During office hours, the best way to contact me is via Skype
where we can interact via audio or video chat depending upon
your preference. Currently, I am looking into the possibility of
holding one hour of group office hours per week via Zoom
(zoom.us) or Google Hangout for anyone who wants to talk
about the class and class-related issues as a group.
Outside of Office Hours
Outside of office hours, the best way to contact me is via
email, even if it is to schedule a Skype conversation outside of my
scheduled office hours. I will check my Winthrop email address at
least once a day usually a few times during the day and will
respond as I can. Please give me a full 24 hours to respond. If
after 24 hours you have not heard from me, assume that I did not
receive your message and feel free to send a follow up. If I
havent responded in less than 24 hours, assume that I have not
been able to check my email and I will respond as soon as I can.
Class-related emails should be considered a form of
professional communication. Please use an appropriate,
WRIT 502-001 | Fall 2014 | Syllabus | 5

informative subject heading, a professional salutation or greeting,

and sign off with your first and last name.
If you are looking for me to provide you with specific
information or are asking me to perform a specific task for you,
please state that upfront. You can offer an explanation or context
in the following paragraph(s).
General Questions and the Course Listserv
The best and fastest way to get answers to general questions
regarding assignments, course policies, etc., is to send an email to
the course listserv (WRIT502001@class.winthrop.edu). Not only
will this allow me to answer a general question once rather than
repeatedly for multiple individuals, theres a chance that one of
your classmates might know the answer and be able to respond to
your question before Ive had a chance to see it.
Winthrop automatically generates a listserv for each class
using the Winthrop e-mail addresses of all students enrolled in a
class on the first day of instruction. If you add the class late or if
you prefer to use an alternate e-mail address, you must personally

enroll in the listserv. You can find the instructions for doing so at
http://www.winthrop.edu/technology/default.aspx?id=7081.
Course Twitter
While using Twitter is not a requirement for this course, there
is a course Twitter account (@writ502) will be used to distribute
course related information. All vital information will also be
distributed via the course listserv and/or posted to the course
website. The hastag for course-related Twitter posts is #writ502.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS, ASSIGNMENTS, AND GRADES
Grading for Undergraduate Credit
This class will use the plus/minus grading system. In this
class, the following numerical equivalents for grades are used: A
92-100; A- 90-91; B+ 88-89; B 82-87; B- 80-81; C+ 78-79; C
72-77; C- 70-71; D+ 68-69; D 62-67; D- 60-61; F 0-59.

Forum discussion posts (Informed and Active Participation)

and blog posts (Online Writing Activities) will not be accepted
late.
Late submissions of other assignments (the Questionnaire,
Literacy Practices, McLuhan and Electronic Edition Proposals,
McLuhan Project, Textual Interventions, Electronic Edition, and
Final Synthesis will be penalized 10 points per day, beginning
from the time the assignment was due. (For example, if an
assignment is due at 10:00 PM and you submit it at 10:15 PM, it is
considered late and will be penalized 10 points. If an assignment
is turned in at 10:15 PM the day after it was due 24.25 hours
from its original deadline it will be penalized 20 points.)
No work will be accepted after 10:00 PM, Dec. 16 without
prior arrangement.
Undergraduate Requirements
Assignment

Grading for Graduate Credit

This class will use the plus/minus grading system. In this
class, the following numerical equivalents for grades are used: A
92-100; A- 90-91; B+ 88-89; B 82-87; B- 80-81; C+ 78-79; C
72-77; F 0-71.
Grades, Incomplete
Grades of incomplete will only be at the discretion of the
instructor in light of a valid, documented reason. The instructor
reserves the right to raise the grade if incomplete work is
completed within one year, or by an earlier date specified by the
instructor.
Late Assignment Policy
You are required to submit all assignments to me on their due
dates, submitted as per the assignment guidelines.

WRIT 502-001 | Fall 2014 | Syllabus | 6

% of Grade

Informed and active

participation (Forum
discussions)

10%

Online Writing Activities

30%

Short Assignments:
Questionnaire, Literacy
Practices, McLuhan Proposal,
Electronic Edition Proposal

10%

McLuhan Project

15%

Textual Interventions

15%

Electronic Edition

20%

Graduate Requirements
Assignment

COURSE CALENDAR WITH IMPORTANT DATES

% of Grade

Informed and active

participation (Forum
discussions)

10%

Online Writing Activities

25%

Annotated Bibliography

10%

Short Assignments:
Questionnaire, Literacy
Practices, McLuhan Proposal,
Electronic Edition Proposal

10%

McLuhan Project

15%

Textual Interventions

10%

Electronic Edition

20%

Week/Topic

Important Dates

Week 1 (Aug. 26-29): Introduction

and Provocations

Questionnaire Due: Aug. 29,

10:00 PM

Week 2 (Sept. 1-5): Media, Mediums,

Materiality: English Studies as a
Technological Endeavor

Labor Day: Sept. 1

Week 3 (Sept. 8-12): The Medium is

the Massage

Literacy Practices Due: Sept. 8,

10:00 PM

Week 4 (Sept. 15-19): Working with

Electronic Editions

McLuhan Proposal Due: Sept.

15, 10:00 PM

Week 5 (Sept. 22-26): Changing

Notions of Text and Textual
Engagement
Week 6 (Sept. 29 Oct. 3):
Changing Notions of Literature
Week 7 (Oct. 6-10): Changing
Notions of Pedagogy

McLuhan Project Due: Oct. 6,

10:00 PM

Week 8 (Oct. 13-16): Changing

Notions of Composition

WRIT 502-001 | Fall 2014 | Syllabus | 7

Week 9 (Oct. 21-24): Textual

Hacking and Remaking

Course Withdrawal Deadline:

Oct. 24

Week 10 (Oct. 27-31): (Post-)

Cyberpunk / Electronic Literature I

Electronic Edition Proposal

Due: Oct. 27, 10:00 PM

Week 11 (Nov. 3-7): Databases and

Archives

Election Day: Nov. 4

Week/Topic

Important Dates

Week 12 (Nov. 10-14): Reading and

Writing Algorithmically
Week 13 (Nov. 17-21): Electronic
Literature II

Textual Interventions Due:

Nov. 17, 10:00 PM

Week 14 (Nov. 24-28): Electronic

Literature III

Thanksgiving Break: Nov.

26-28

Week 15 (Dec. 1-5): Electronic

Literature IV

Annotated Bibliography Due:

Dec. 2, 10:00 PM (graduate
students only)

Week 16 (Dec. 8): Wrap up

Last Day of Class: Dec. 8

Electronic Editions Due: Dec.
10, 10:00 PM

WRIT 502-001 | Fall 2014 | Syllabus | 8

COURSE POLICIES
Academic Honesty
Students are expected to abide by the Student Code of
Conduct and the Student Conduct Code Academic Misconduct
Policy as presented in the online Student Handbook, available for
download at http://www.winthrop.edu/uploadedFiles/
studentconduct/StudentHandbook.pdf. Students are also
expected to have read and understand the English Departments
guide to The Correct Use of Borrowed Information, available at http://
www.winthrop.edu/uploadedFiles/cas/english/
CorrectUseBorrowedInfo.pdf.
In short, plagiarism in all its forms (word-for-word copying,
the mosaic, and uncited paraphrases), cheating, unauthorized
collaboration, submitting work produced in whole or part by
others, and other forms of academic misconduct will be
prosecuted as per the guidelines in the Student Handbook (pp.
38-43) and Winthrop Universitys Academic Misconduct guides
found at http://www.winthrop.edu/ai/. Instructor imposed
sanctions might ranging from a zero for the assignment to a
failing grade for the course.
In practical terms, this means that you should produce the
work you submit and acknowledge your engagement with the
ideas of others. If you consult an encyclopedia for information,
cite it. If you find an idea in something you read, even if you do
not copy the text word-for-word, cite it. If you use someone else's
words, put quotes around them and cite it, even when it is the
words of your fellow classmates. If you use an image from the
web or a printed source, attribute the source of that image
You should acknowledge sources from the start; plagiarism is
plagiarism whether it is in a first draft or in the final product. If
you are unsure whether or not you should cite something, ask
your instructor. If you do not have time to discuss the issue with
your instructor, cite first and ask later, or, at the very least, include
a brief note with your assignment to indicate the issue in

question.
For the purposes of this course, collaboration is not collusion
(unauthorized collaboration) and collusion is not collaboration.
When you collaborate, you discuss; when you collude, you pass
off as yours work that is not your own. While having someone
rewrite or "fix-up" your paper for you is collusion, having
someone peer-review or proof-read your work is not. To avoid
collusion, ask yourself this question: is this person pointing out
for me problems to rewrite and/or correct myself, or is this
person rewriting and/or correcting these problems for me? The
former falls under collaboration, the latter under collusion. While
issues of academic honesty are far from simple, there are three
simple things you can do to avoid most problems: Do you own
work, cite your sources, and ask when you are unsure.
Attendance Policy and Participation
Because attendance in an online course without a set meeting
time is tricky, attendance will be practiced through informed and
active participation in our courses discussion forums.
Failure to engage in informed and active participation for
more than two (2) weeks during our course will result in a grade
of N if the student withdraws from the course before the
withdrawal deadline; after that date, unless warranted by
documented extenuating circumstances as described in the
Withdrawal from Courses section of the Student Handbook, a grade
of F or U shall be assigned.
For more information on what counts as informed and active
participation, please see the Informed and Active Participation
Assignment Guidelines.
Classroom Behavior
The policy on student academic misconduct is outlined in the
Student Conduct Code Academic Misconduct Policy online
(http://www.winthrop.edu/uploadedFiles/studentconduct/
StudentHandbook.pdf). Our online classroom environments
including but not limited to our blogs, course listserv, Blackboard
WRIT 502-001 | Fall 2014 | Syllabus | 9

forums, and other spaces should provide safe environments for

exploring ideas and challenging assumptions. Students are
expected to listen respectfully to the voices of other individuals
and to share their own opinions and values in a positive,
respectful manner. Students and the instructor are expected to
treat each member of the class with respect and civility.
Classroom behavior that a reasonable person would view as
substantially or repeatedly interfering with the conduct of the
class will not be tolerated in this course. Students who engage in
disruptive behavior will be subject to sanctions as specified in the
Student Conduct Code.
Duplicate Submission of Assignments
You may not submit an assignment for a grade in this class
that already has been (or will be) submitted for a grade in another
course, unless you obtain the explicit written permission of your
English instructor and the other instructor involved in advance.
File Management and Data Backup Policy
As part of managing your files well, you should keep backups
of your electronic data separate from your computers hard drive
and portable storage devises. Hard drives crash, computers get
ripped off, laptop power cords fail, USB drives get lost (or even
eaten by dogs). Despite my repeated pleas for making backup
copies of all work, I have had students lose their only copies of a
project for each of the reasons listed above (and by other means
as well). You want to keep backup copies of your work so this
does not happen to you.
Online Course Sites
We will make use of two web sites for our course, the course
web site and our Blackboard site. The course web site will host
the online course documents, assignment guidelines, the schedule,
handouts, links to resources, etc., and the Blackboard site will
primarily be used to host forum discussions, assigned readings to

be distributed via .pdf, lecture videos and podcasts, and to submit

assignments unless the assignment guidelines stipulate otherwise.

assignments that I used, sometimes wholesale, in the design of

this course.

Students with Disabilities

Winthrop University is dedicated to providing access to
education. If you have a disability and require specific
accommodations to complete this course, contact the Office of
Disability Serves (ODS) at 323-3290. Once you have your official
notice of accommodations from the Office of Disability Services,
please inform me as early as possible in the semester.

Image Credits
Drawing by Alan Dunn, The New Yorker, 1966
The Future of Books by Kyle Bean. A working laptop
inserted into a book.
A photo of one of three prototype Blink (book + link)
created by Manolis Kelaidis. The books, The Making of
blueBook: Completing the Connection between the Analogue and
Digital Worlds, were printed with conductive ink. The
boxed words, such as Mona Lisa, function as touchsensitive hotlinks that will call up information on a
connected computer.
A sketch of the variable-card counting mechanism for
Charles Babbages planned but unbuilt Analytical Engine.
The notes on the Analytical Engine written by Ada
Augusta, Countess of Lovelace and daughter of Lord
George Gordon Byron include the first algorithm
intended to be performed by a machine, making her the
first computer programmer.

Syllabus Change Policy

This syllabus is subject to change. All changes will be
announced on the course web site. The course web site will reflect
the most up-to-date version of the syllabus and will be the one we
use to resolve any questions or issues.
RESOURCES
The English Departments home page is
http://www.winthrop.edu/cas/english/.
Please check there for links to instructors'
webpages, course materials, and quick links
for English majors.

Winthrop English
Department
Facebook Page

Writing Center
The Writing Center provides support for
all students in all Winthrop classes free of
charge. It is located in 242 Bancroft (x-2138). Check its web page
(http://www.winthrop.edu/wcenter/) for current hours.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank and acknowledge both Dr. Jo Koster
and Dr. Sarah Spring for their gracious sharing of past syllabi and
WRIT 502-001 | Fall 2014 | Syllabus | 10