DTC/English 375: Language, Texts, Technology

Assignment #1: A Book Predicting Itself

For this project, you or you and a partner are going to create a book that predicts the future of the book. Try to imagine what the book will be 10 years from now, 25 years from now, or 50 years in the future.  What will this new book’s impact be on our culture? Even though you don’t have a crystal ball, the readings that you've done, videos we’ve watched, the field trip we’ve taken, and our in-class discussions, will allow you to think critically about books, language, technology, and text and make prognostications about the future. In other words, use the texts we’ve read in class as sources to support your ideas.

In your prognostication, I want you to think about the development of writing, the effects of literacy, print, and digital media on our culture.  As you compose your text and make your predictions, I want you to think about how technologies and circumstances in culture, society, and history, create environments for the development of literacy.

The questions below can serve as guides as you complete this assignment. You don’t need to answer each question in your project. Answering them in a list form will not be adequate for a passing grade on this project. Your prediction should be an academic essay using sources to support your ideas and arguments.

• What new technologies can you imagine will impact the future of the book?
  
• What reading habits and habits of mind will change the future of the book?
  
• What writing habits and habits of composition will change the future of the book?
  
• What does the history of writing, printing, and the book tell you about the future of the book?
  
• Will the book as we know it survive?
  
• What will the book of the future look like?
• What are a few social implications of the changes in the book that you foresee?

Book Requirements
1.     Your prediction should be between 1,000 and 1,500 words.

2.    Your book must be handwritten using ink or you can use your own digital typeface of your handwriting that you created and print your pages. Writing has gotta be legible and be mistake (grammar, punctuation, spelling) free!

3.     You must use relief printing to decorate and organize your book. SEE "Gottas" in Resources

4.    Your book should have a cover and a simple index with at least 6 entries of important terms/concepts you used in your essay.

Making a book and a typeface

You may choose to make a cardboard bound or paper cover book or journal.  You may use one of the links below to guide your creation of your book, or any other method you find appropriate. MAKE SURE YOU USE SOME FORM OF WHAT NICK SHOWED US (use glue and/or thread). You can find a variety of card stock and other supplies at places like Michael’s crafts, the Craft Warehouse, Hobby Lobby, Big Lots, or well-stocked office supply stores.

The following list is of tutorials I found on making books. You can find a lot on your own by just googling bookbinding. And don’t worry you don’t need all the special equipment they use.  For instance, you can make do with floss for thread and a sewing needle.

Approved tutorials!

• Bookbinding Tutorial Part 1
  
• Bookbinding Tutorial Part 2
  
• Simple Bookbinding Part 1
  
• Simple Bookbinding Part 2
  
• Bookbinding 101: Your First Book
• Your Fonts.com-allows you to use your own handwriting to make a typeface and add it to your library-costs $9.95
• Fontself-allows you to use your own handwriting to make a typeface. can't download to your computer but you can use the typeface to compose emails and post to facebook. then ya can take pictures of it to use in your book.