DTC 355: Multimedia Authoring, Exploring the New Rhetorics

About Course

What the heck is Multimedia Authoring?
Pretend you've put on your high-heels and are on your way to a party. Or pretend you've put on your cowboy boots and are on your way to a Faith Hill concert. Then think about how you speak in these different situations. At the party, I reckon slang and acronyms are being used your momma wouldn't want to hear. And I reckon at the concert, you might lose your voice from screaming "Dump McGraw."

There is something in common about these situations that is the focus of our future study. The commonality we are looking at is Multimedia Authoring.

In other words, whether you are the high-heel wearing, slang and acronym using person or the Faith Hill-o-phile in cowboy boots, you are using a variety of communication mediums (clothing on bodies and your vocal apparatus) to author yourself. Yeah, it sounds strange. In more words, it just means by wearing particular clothes (a visual and tactile medium), you are constructing yourself as a particular person in a situation. Maybe at the party, you showed respect by being dressy, or maybe your high-heels meant you were at the height of fashion. Or maybe it helped you appear taller or longer legged or more intimidating than usual. Similarly, the way you spoke reflects how you authored yourself to an audience—how withit were your acronyms and your slang. So there you are, already you are a multimedia author. But you still have to take the course.

And the reason you still have to take it is because English/DTC 355 takes this idea of multimedia authoring and applies it to the creation and critique of primarily digital texts. We will examine how rhetoric functions in constructing arguments that do not use traditional mediums L I K E the WORdS I am TypING that will be printed on paper. In different words, we will learn how authors or rhetoricians utilize not only TexT, but how they use color, shapes, sounds, smells, tastes, and fonts to create multimedia arguments. We will learn how to talk about this and in order to gain a better understanding of these types of arguments you will create your own multimedia arguments.

To author multimedia, you can't just be rhetorically savvy; you have got to be digitally savvy as well. In this course, in addition to upping your rhetorical savvy, you will up your digital savvy by learning a variety of digital programs—Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop, and ComicLife, for instance.

We'll have in-class tutorials and use Lynda. com to learn Adobe Photoshop, iMovie, and Dreamweaver.

Course objectives
To become technorhetors by

• investigating the rhetorical dimensions of multimedia texts
• demonstrating the ability to rhetorically analyze multimedia texts
• investigating the socio-historical dimensions of multimedia texts
  
• demonstrating an understanding of the socio-historical dimensions of multimedia texts
  
• generating a variety of multimedia texts for a variety of audiences that demonstrates an understanding of the rhetorical construction of multimedia texts
• upping your digital savvy

Required materials

• Sams Teach Yourself HTML and CSS in 24 hours by Julie C. Meloni and Michael Morrison
• The Non-Designers Design Book 3rd edition by Robin Williams
• You will have to register for Lynda.com once you get the information (Lynda.com teaches you how to use Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop, and iMovie.)
• You must register for your own domain name and use a web hosting service to post your work

Policies

• Reading: All non-digital readings (books) should come with you to class. You should have read the assigned reading before coming to class.
  
  
• Attendance: Since we will be working collaboratively on many assignments, and since learning is a communal effort, your regular attendance is vital. If you miss more than six classes, you will receive an “F” for the course. And since some things come up unexpectedly, please remember you have six absences to account for these unexpected happenings.
  
  
• Late work: Here is the deal. You can turn in one assignment, homework, or reading response one week late.  This assignment must be an individual project.  You must email me on or before the due date and announce to me that this is the assignment you will turn in one week late.  Otherwise, late work is not accepted UNLESS you consult with me and it is agreed upon beforehand.
  
  Quizzes can be made up if you have an excused absence on the day of the quiz.
  
  
• Technology: Cellular phones calls and texting are banned forthwith from our classroom.  If you do call or text or your phone rings, then you will be given a warning. The second time will result in an absence. Laptops, cell phones and iPads are allowed for taking notes and class discussion related searches.  They are not for random surfing, texting, skyping, or tweeting no matter how uninterested you might be. IPAD EXCEPTION-If an iPad rings or bleeps an incoming text does during class, you are exempt from the above rule for two occurrences as long as you allow me to use your iPad for five minutes.
  
  
• Students with disabilities: I am committed to providing assistance to help you be successful in this course. Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have a documented disability. Classroom accommodation forms are available through the Disability Services Office.If you have a documented disability, even temporary, make an appointment as soon as possible with the Disability Services Coordinator, Cherish Tijerina, West Building, Room 269J, at 372-7352 or ctijerina@tricity.wsu.edu. You will need to provide your instructor with the appropriate classroom accommodation form. The form should be completed and submitted during the first week of class. Late notification can delay your accommodations or cause them to be unavailable. All accommodations for disabilities must be approved through the Disability Services Coordinator.
  
  
• Academic Honesty: Plagiarism is not tolerated in any form. You will fail the course if you commit plagiarism knowingly or unknowingly. Please come to my office if you have any questions about citing sources. WSU has developed helpful resources on plagiarism which identifies two types of plagiarism:
  
  Intentional plagiarism (i.e. cheating), “where one knowingly appropriates the work of others and    passes it  off as their own.”
  
  Unintentional plagiarism (i.e. misuse of sources), which includes “accidental appropriation of the  ideas and materials of others due to a lack of understanding of the conventions of citation and  documentation.” 
  
  See the following sites for more information on the university’s treatment of plagiarism:
  Library Instruction Services
  Office of Student Conduct
  
  
• Copyright: WSU requires all users of campus Internet services to comply with all state and federal laws including copyright laws. The students, faculty and staff at WSU have access to the fundamentals of copyright law and WSU's guidelines for educational use of copyright materials at WSU's Copyright Home Page and the U.S. Copyright Office's Home Page. There are also helpful resources explaining copyright on the Resources page of this website.
  
  
• University Evacuation Policy: Washington State University Tri-Cities is committed to maintaining the safety of the students, faculty, staff, and visitors to the campus. As part of this commitment this Campus Safety Plan contains a comprehensive listing of policies, procedures, statistics and information relating to campus safety, emergency management and the health and welfare of the campus community. Evacuation procedures are located on most doors and can be found here: Campus Emergency Evacuation Plan. It is recommended that you sign-up for WSU Tri-Cities alerts using your WSU portal. Alerts can be found here: WSU Tri-Cities Campus Alerts.
  
  
• Grades: Grading criteria will come in the form of a variety of rubrics for evaluating your work.
  
  Grade breakdown
  A    93-100%
  A-   90-92%
  B+  88-89%
  B    83-87%
  B-   80-82%
  C+  78-79%
  C    73-77%
  C-   70-72%
  D+ 68-69%
  D   60-67%
  F     0-59%