ENGLISH 3010: DOCUMENTING YOUR WORLDS
Dr. Edbauer-Rice
Fall 2007
T/Th 11:00-12:30
147 Stanley
Contact information:
Email: ricejh@missouri.edu
(Please allow at least 24 hours for a response.)
Office: 12 Tate Hall
This course could also be called “Experimental Rhetorical Research,” since we will be writing and thinking about topics that have never been charted before (at least not in the precise ways they’ll be addressed by you). This is an advanced writing course that focuses on the methods, creative possibilities, and rhetorical insights of documentary genres.
Each student will be responsible for creating a unique project that documents a specific aspect of life in Columbia, Missouri. Places are complex layers of events, bodies, stories, images, happenings, legends, and relations. As a documentary writer, you will track some of these complexities that have remained undercover for too long. Moreover, you will not just make the “strange” more familiar; you will actually make the “familiar” a bit more strange.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
The Combination
Roadstrips
Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes
+ several course readings (PDF)
+ participation on class wiki: http://comp.missouri.edu/wiki
ASSIGNMENTS
Weekly textual finds (20%).
Weekly “finds” are notes and riffs on some aspect of our week’s readings. You should take some idea from the reading (or other assigned text for the week) and mull it over. What ideas does it give you? How could you use this idea? Can you extend this idea? The textual “finds” should focus on one specific aspect of the reading. Don’t just summarize the reading—that’s not the point. You should “highlight” one idea and extend it into your own theories and inventive practices. On weeks when we have more than one reading, you may choose to write/think about whichever reading particularly sticks with you. Your textual finds are due on paper each Tuesday. Approx. 250-300 words.
Weekly fieldnotes (20%).
These are weekly observations, research, idea brainstorms about topics related to your documentary. At first, these posts will simply record your observations and ideas about the place around you. You should post your notes on our wiki before Thursday’s class. Approx. 500-1000 words. http://comp.missouri.edu/wiki
Research proposal (10%)
Intellectual engagement (10%)
Note that this does not say “participation grade.” That’s because this 10% doesn’t just come from your ability to show up on time and stay awake. Rather, this course will depend on your engagement with ideas, arguments, counter-arguments, and original contributions. Prepare to talk, ask questions, and get involved. Warning: I take this very seriously. If you do not participate beyond the minimum requirements, you will receive a grade of 1 (out of 4 possible points).
Documentary project (30%)
This is the big project toward which you will be working all semester. The final project will look very different for each student, depending on which media you decide to use and what kind of rhetorical goals you adopt. We will talk together about what expectations (length, time, etc.) I will have for your individual project. Points deducted for no design proposal, storyboard, or draft.
Presentation (10%)
You will present your project in a ten-minute performance at the end of the semester. This should be more than a description of your project; it should also be more than a typical class talk. This is your chance to perform the core of your findings. Be inventive: do a reading from your piece, invite someone you interviewed to chime in, use music to set a mood, show images behind you while talking, play us a selection from your piece, give a meta-commentary on the whole experience, etc, Some of you will deliver this presentation in class, but four to five of the best projects will be presented in a public symposium. The best documentaries will be chosen by class votes.
IDEAS FOR DOCUMENTARY
The topic you choose should be something that lends itself to close, first-hand research. This means that you will be conducting original research through observation, interviews, images, sounds, etc. Your topic will be related to a local subject, but that is a very wide definition. Consider the following ideas as just a few examples:
- History of a local establishment
- A local controversy
- A yearly event or festival
- Little-known aspect of Columbia
- The rise (and fall?) of local music groups
- Social relations among Columbia residents
GRADES
Grades will be awarded according to a four-point scale (1-4). Final grades will break down like this:
4.0-3.6 = A
3.5-3.0 = B
2.9-2.5= C
2.4-2.0= D
1.9-0 = F
LATE POLICY
You have one chance to turn in work late. After that, no work is accepted late for any reason. That includes: illness, family trouble, roommate trouble, hospital visits, flat tires, a chemistry test, or any other reason.
ATTENDANCE POLICY
See late policy language for a general idea. You have three “free” absences for any reason. After that, I will begin deducting a half point for every absence from your final grade. (So, a 3.4/B becomes a 2.9/C.) That includes: illness, family trouble, roommate trouble, hospital visits, flat tires, a chemistry test, or any other reason except University-related activities.
TECHNOLOGY HELP OR ANY OTHER HELP
I’m always happy to offer help outside of class. You just need to send me an email requesting a time to meet.
SCHEDULE
* online readings and PDFs are found on the course website
August 21/23: Introduction to Course
- Sign up for wiki
- Create first “node” on wiki
August 28/30: Discovery
- Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, chapters 1 and 2
- Walter Benjamin, Arcades Project (PDF copy)
September 4/6: “Stranging” the familiar
- James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (Preface-Part II, “On the Porch”)
- Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, chapter 3
September 11/13: Making the strange more familiar (Technology: blogumentary/ web 2.0)
- Hometown Baghdad (online)
- “The Machine is Us/ing Us” (online)
September 18/20: Making patterns in the collections
- Folk Songs for the Five Points (online)
- “Accidental Documentaries” in This American Life (online)
- Pittsburgh Signs Project (online)
- American Highway Project (online)
- Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, chapter 4
September 25/27: Workshops (Technology: audio)
- Audacity tutorial (online)
October 2/4: Rhetorical goals
- Bill Nichols, Introduction to Documentary (PDF copy)
- The Combination
- Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, chapter 5
*** Research proposal due: Specific date _________
Revised Schedule for English 3010
October 9/11: Critique of proposals (meet in small groups)
- Read Bill Nichols (PDF online)
- Read others’ proposals and write responses: ideas and critiques. (This will be the equivalent of your “textual find”).
- Continue fieldnotes.
*iMovie/Movie Maker tutorial for interested people. I will arrange individual times to meet with you.
October 16/18: Narrative (meet in small groups)
- Read Roadstrips
- Share a small piece (1-2 pages or the equivalent) of initial writing on your project. Send a copy to your group members by Sunday, October 14h.
- Read others’ work and write responses: ideas and critiques, (This will be the equivalent of your “textual find”).
- Continue fieldnotes.
October 23/25: Continued Critique (meet in small groups)
- Share a small piece (1-2 pages or the equivalent) of writing on your project. Send a copy to your group members by Sunday, October 21st.
- Read others’ work and write responses: ideas and critiques. (This will be the equivalent of your “textual find”).
- Continue fieldnotes.
October 30/1: Workshops (meet in normal classroom)
- Present ten minutes on your writing so far. Bring enough copies for everyone to look at (14 copies). Or put online for us all to see in class.
November 6/8: Workshops (meet in normal classroom)
- Present ten minutes on your writing so far. Bring enough copies for everyone to look at (14 copies). Or put online for us all to see in class.
November 13/15: Designs (visual)
- Read “99 Ways to Tell a Story” (PDF copy)
→ FULL, COMPLETE draft due to me: November 15th.
→ Exchange full draft with two other people not in your group by November 15th.
November 27/29: Peer commentary. Vote on public presentations
December 4/6: Presentations
* Public presentations TBA *
