Policies & Expectations
Required Texts- Digital collection of assorted readings in Canvas Course Library (CL) and (web link)
- Bizzell and Herzberg, The Rhetorical Tradition, 2nd Edition (Bedford St. Martin’s, 2001) (B/H)
Feel free to share texts and economize. Course packets have become unnecessarily expensive and they do not always permit reproduction of every article we need to read, so I have opted to make a password-secure digital collection of our readings and to store it in our Course Library. It is imperative that you find a failsafe way to access our digital collection, even if that means printing some of them. Because this is a graduate seminar that involves active reading and exploration, I expect you to bring readings to class in some material form on dates they are assigned. Readings marked CL and web link should be brought to class in either digital (laptop, e-Reader, iPad) or print format. Readings brought to class on your smart phone won’t do me, you, or your classmates very much good, given our needs with the text.
_______________________________________________________
Distribution of Assignments
55% Weeklies (7)
· 3 Performance Papers (Individual)
· 4 Exploratories (Collaborative + Individual Blog Posts)
15% Mid-term Exam (Written, Take-Home)
30% Critical Project (Proposal, Critical Research Paper + Genre Presentation)
_______________________________________________________
Course Policies
Intellectual Participation: Read Actively and Participate Actively
Active intellectual participation is required and expected; in fact, it will underlie my evaluation of most other work that you do. Please be prepared to read with rigor (~75 pages most weeks), allowing plenty of time to grapple with varied and complicated perspectives, making reading the active process that it is. Find a note-taking strategy that works for you, in and out of class. Form a reading group if you don’t want to traverse the materials alone. While you are in class, please do what you must and whatever is in your power to make our discussion accessible, productive and useful to everyone. I do understand this takes a great deal of energy. Some of the texts we read will seem very difficult at first, but please do not despair in those moments of (perceived) non-comprehension. Observe them, speak out about them, look up definitions, and lean into them. Grappling is encouraged in this course, as I am not promoting a single ideology or approach. Where possible, I will gloss our readings, provide supplemental schema to help ground us, or ask us to explore case studies to improve our understanding. However, I will also expect you to spend time with the material and work through it, using the resources I provide and the materials you create in order to situate yourself and the reading. While such critical work can be difficult (and frustratingly abstract at times), it is also rewarding. Our approach to work and life is inevitably entangled with theoretical frameworks. In reading theoretical work, we come to see our own frameworks more clearly, just as we are exposed to new ones.
Attendance and Due Dates: Arrive to Class On Time and Submit Work on Time
Much of your work will consist of building intellectual community through discussion, presentations, and collective knowledge-making, and this will absolutely factor into my evaluation of your work. Thus, although you don’t need me to tell you that regular attendance is absolutely necessary, it bears repeating so that you know this is my expectation. You should not miss any class, excepting the rare occasion of a conference presentation, illness, dependent illness, military or jury duty, religious holy day, or family emergency. On that occasion—should it arise—I expect you to contact me ahead of time with appropriate written documentation of the reason you may be away so that I can determine what action to take, if action is warranted. Relatedly, all assignments must be submitted by their due date, and this is especially important given the collaborative and performative nature of several of our assignments. I will do what I can to accommodate a warranted absence and help you make up missed work where possible, but please keep in mind that, due to our tight meeting schedule this semester, a presentation or group assignment cannot always be made up. The broader university policy on attendance can be found in the Registrar’s “Academic Regulations and Procedures”.
Academic Honor Policy: Exercise Academic Integrity in Everything You Do
It may seem redundant for me to include a statement on academic integrity for savvy scholars and teachers of information and text, but you should know that I expect you to maintain this, without fail. You are responsible for reading and abiding by the FSU Academic Honor Policy, and for living up to your pledge to “… be honest and truthful and … [to] strive for personal and institutional integrity” in all things. All of your work for this class should be authentic and specific to the tasks I have assigned, rather than recycled from another class. Cheating and all forms of misrepresentation (including plagiarism, which I understand to be more a violation of trust than a particular set of textual behaviors) can result in automatic failure of the course. Basically, you want to not do anything that will violate trust. If ever you have a question about whether you are using source material fairly, or whether your work or project ideas are authentic, please speak out and ask—either in class or in my office hours. It is always a topic worth discussing.
Academic Accommodations: Seek Accommodations If You Need Them
I can provide individualized, reasonable accommodations to students with documented disabilities, and/or make the syllabus and other course materials available in alternative formats. As well, the Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC) can arrange for assistance, auxiliary aids, or related services if you think a temporary or permanent disability will prevent you from fully participating in class. Contact them at (850) 644-9566 (voice) or (850) 644-8504 (TDD) with your individual concerns. You must be registered with the SDRC before any classroom accommodations can be provided, and you should bring a letter to me requesting accommodations in the first week of class.
