Word and Image

Sunday, August 25

First pre-semester meeting, 1:00

We will introduce ourselves, go over some information for registration, and discuss course planning.

• "Entering" chapter from How College Works, by Daniel F. Chambliss and Christopher G. Takacs (handout)
• Grinnell College pamphlet, "Your Education in the Liberal Arts" or, if you can't find your copy of the pamphlet, the Grinnell College catalog, Education in the Liberal Arts (the first four sections, ending with the one called "The First Year")
• What Questions Do You Have? (handout)

First assignment!

I know your schedules are tight between our first meeting on Sunday and our advising meetings on Monday. Make some time for these readings; they are important building blocks for our advising conversations leading to registration.

After you do the readings, create the following and bring them to our meeting:

1. Your driving questions. This is the list of three questions that you compose in response to "What Questions Do You Have?"
2. A visualization of your preliminary course selections. On one sheet of paper, create some combination of words and visual elements that shows me the three main courses you're thinking of taking, some backup courses, and something about the reasons for your choices. I am not asking you to create gallery-quality art but rather any useful way of helping yourself think about your course choices in light of the readings. At least one of the readings should appear directly on your sheet, in whatever way you find useful.
3. A draft of your registration card IN PENCIL. AFTER you have created your visualization, use it as a starting point for creating your draft of a preregistration card for our advising meeting.

Bring your questions, visualization, and card with you to your first advising meeting in my office on Monday.

Advising meetings! Your time is on the schedule I handed out Sunday. My office is Mears 313. After our scheduled appointments on Monday, I will have open office hours for follow-up appointments from 9:00-1:00 on Tuesday.

PREREGISTRATION CARDS DUE TO THE REGISTRAR BY 3:45 ON TUESDAY

• Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics, Chapter 1
• Writing Analytically, seventh edition, beginning of Chapter 2: Overview, "Becoming Conversant Instead of Reading for the Gist" (3-page section) and the first two subsections of "Focus on Individual Sentences" ("Pointing" and "Using Quotation") [Or, from the sixth edition, "How to Read" section through the "Pointing" bit, pages 106-109)

This is the first regular meeting of the course. We will go over course assignments and policies, acquaint you with the Baggie of Destiny, and do our first "pointing" exercise.

Before today's class, write a paragraph introducing yourself to the class. (This will not only create a record of your introductions but also show that everyone is OK using the Pioneer Web discussion boards.) First, write your paragraph in a word processor, so you don't lose it if something goes wrong with Pioneer Web. To share your paragraph, go to Pioneer Web, select our course, select "Discussion Boards," click on the "Introductory Paragraphs" forum, click "Create Thread," enter a subject line, and paste your paragraph.

• Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics, Chapters 2-4
• Sam Nakahira (Grinnell '19), Japanese American Food Pioneers of California Cuisine

By 9:00 on the night before class, post a paragraph applying one of McCloud's points to Nakahira's comic.

Come to class ready to discuss the readings from McCloud. We will also do a "drawing jam" based on Lynda Barry's Syllabus but extended to work with McCloud's concepts.

• Writing Analytically, seventh edition, Chapter 1: "The Analytical Frame of Mind" (whole chapter) [or for the sixth edition, all of Chapter 1, the second section of Chapter 2 on "The Method" (pages 26-32), and the first part of chapter 3 on "Five Analytical Moves" (pages 53-66)]

This part of Writing Analytically will be central to our experience of reading and writing for the rest of the semester. Read it carefully and come to class ready to apply The Method in a group exercise.

We will also do an introductory exercise on academic honesty in class today.

• McCloud, Understanding Comics, Chapters 5-9
• Allison Bechdel, Fun Home, Chapter 1

First, we will do a Good Sentences exercise.

Then, we will build on Tuesday's conversation by using McCloud's work as a frame for looking at the beginning of Fun Home.

• Bechdel, Fun Home, Chapters 2-4

Group 1: By 9:00 the night before class, post to our Pioneer Web discussion board a paragraph describing how you are thinking about a connection between Understanding Comics and this section of Fun Home.

• Bechdel, Fun Home, Chapters 5-7

Paper prospectus due in class: bring to class (in printed, hard copy) a prospectus for your first paper, regarding Fun Home or any of the other readings we have done so far. We will have short conferences about these prospectuses tomorrow.

Group 2: By 9:00 the night before class, post to our Pioneer Web discussion board a paragraph describing how you are thinking about a connection between Understanding Comics and this section of Fun Home.

• Handouts: "Getting from Topic to Thesis" and "Five Ways of Looking at a Thesis"
• Grinnell College booklet, "Academic Honesty"
• An article on recent plagiarism scandals

Note: here and throughout this syllabus, when there are two kinds of readings for a given day, the first (less indented) list of readings is required, while the second (more indented) list of readings is supplemental and optional. Here, for example, the first three items are required readings, but the article on recent events is optional.

We will spend the first half of today's class working on citation and academic honesty. During the second half, we will do an exercise about thesis construction and evaluation. Bring to class an idea for a thesis for your paper. This is a low-pressure assignment; you will talk about your draft thesis with your classmates as a way to continue thinking about the first paper.

FIRST PAPER DUE BY 4:00 IN THE AFTERNOON.
Place a hard copy (printout) under my office door.

Library day! We will have an introductory session at Burling Library and then remain there for a TREASURE HUNT OF THE MIND.

• Thi Bui, The Best We Could Do, Chapters 1-5

Group 3: By 9:00 the night before class, post to our Pioneer Web discussion board a paragraph describing how you are thinking about a connection between Understanding Comics and this section of The Best We Could Do.

• Thi Bui, The Best We Could Do, Chapters 6-10

Come to class with one idea, written as a paragraph, about how a page of today's readings builds on something we talked about in our previous discussions of The Best We Could Do.

Thursday, October 3

• Sara Milstein, "How To Manage Your Fear of Public Speaking"
• Bryan Alexander, "Giving a great presentation: notes on using PowerPoint"
• Daniel H. Pink, article AND video, "Pecha Kucha: Get to the PowerPoint in 20 Slides Then Sit the Hell Down"

Paper prospectus due in class: bring to class (in printed, hard copy) a prospectus for your second paper, regarding The Best We Could Do. We will have short conferences about these prospectuses tomorrow.

In class today, we will do an introductory exercise on creating presentation slides in multiple styles, drawing on insights from the readings.

The guidelines for the presentation assignment are on this page of the Assignments section of Connections.

• The Colbert Report, "The Word: Sink or Swim"
• Writing Analytically, seventh edition, Chapter 4, "Reasoning from Evidence to Claims," first few sections stopping at "The Rules of Argument" (about six pages in) [or for the sixth edition, Chapter 8, "Reasoning from Evidence to Claims," through "Kinds of Evidence" (pages 165-172)]

In class, we will do an exercise on academic honesty and the use of evidence. Then we will have a making session for presentation slides.

SECOND PAPER DUE BY 4:00 IN THE AFTERNOON.
Place a hard copy (printout) under my office door.

We will have an in-class workshop building your presentation slides today.

Short presentations! Come to class ready to give your presentation. Professor Simpson will be the Keeper of Time.

Come to class ready to share a bad meme that you have created. You are welcome to use any meme generator (such as this one) or to create your own meme out of image and text in Photoshop, PowerPoint, or other software. In class, we will talk about how we learn about a subject through negation and parody.

(Thanks for the inspiration of this assignment to Mark Sample of Davidson College.)

In class, we will have a visit from Dani Perkins of the CLS.

REVISION OF EITHER OF THE FIRST TWO PAPERS DUE BY 2:00 IN THE AFTERNOON.

Place a hard copy (printout) under my office door. Revisions should include the original version of the paper with my comments and the revised version with the changes clearly marked, either by hand or electronically with a "track changes" function.

Fall break optional (but highly recommended) assignment: create a representation of your assignment schedule for the rest of the semester. Go to each of your course schedules, see when the regular and major assignments are due, and create some way of understanding how they fit together. You can use a planner or online calendar if those work well for you, or you can create a drawing or other visualization of the semester.

• Mike Rhode, The Sketchnote Handboook, chapters 1-5

In class today, you will apply Rhode's methods of graphical note-taking to two podcasts about emoji that we will listen to in class. You will need to do the reading well so that we are ready to use it in class.

• Patrick Davison, "The Language of Memes" from The Social Media Reader
• Bradley Wiggins and G. Bret Bowers, "Memes as Genre: A Structurational Analysis of the Memescape" from New Media & Society (May 2014), in the Documents section of our Pioneer Web site
• Optional: if you're getting excited about graphical note-taking, read the rest of The Sketchnote Handbook to put more tools in your toolbox.

In class today, we will talk about the two readings, and you will try to take real-time graphical notes on them. Prepare for the session by creating a draft structure for your graphical notes based on the reading you do; when you take notes in class, you will add to the graphical notes you created in advance.

We will also talk about good slides from the first presentations and why they worked well.

• Tracy K. Smith, "Declaration"
• The New Yorker Poetry Podcast: "Tracy K. Smith Reads Matthew Dickman" (and her own "Declaration," which is the part we'll concentrate on
• Tom Phillips, A Humument: A Treated Victorian Novel, description and at least the first 20 pages of this slideshow

Prepare for today's class session by writing down a brief note about a detail in each of the two readings for today that struck you as especially interesting.

We will be having conferences about course registration this week.

• Griffin Mareske (Grinnell '20), Erasamatizer 3000, including the "Help+Gallery" section

Experiment with the Erasamatizer, including attempting erasures of your own texts. Then bring to class five copies of a page of text that you would like to turn into an erased poetry project.

In today's class, we will work on transitions and organization with an exercise based on this handout. Then we will have a prototyping workshop about erasure.

• William Blake, "Introduction," "The Lamb," "The Chimney-Sweeper," and "The Little Black Boy" of Songs of Innocence from Songs of Innocence and of Experience
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, short biography of Blake

Group 1: Bring to class a one-page piece of graphical note-taking that illustrates some way you are thinking about the relationship of word and image in part of today's reading.

• Blake, "Introduction," "Earth's Answer," The Chimney Sweeper," and "The Tyger" of Songs of Experience from Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Group 2: Bring to class a one-page piece of graphical note-taking that illustrates some way you are thinking about the relationship of word and image in part of today's reading.

• Matthea Harvey, Table of Contents, mermaid poems (pages 1-20), "M Is for Martian" and tabloid poems (pages 22-44), and other works (pages 61-95) from If the Tabloids Are True What Are You?"

Paper prospectus due in class: bring to class (in printed, hard copy) a prospectus for your third paper, regarding anything we have read after The Best We Could Do. We will have short conferences about these prospectuses tomorrow.

Group 3: Bring to class a one-page piece of graphical note-taking that illustrates some way you are thinking about the relationship of word and image in part of today's reading.

We will visit the Grinnell College Museum today to see their current exhibition and do a session based on some of the remarkable pieces of word-and-image art they have on display.

THIRD PAPER DUE BY 4:00 IN THE AFTERNOON.
Place a hard copy (printout) under my office door.

• Writing Analytically, beginning of Chapter 5: Overview, "Making Interpretations" through "Making an Interpretation: The Example of a New Yorker Cover" (stop at "Making Interpretations Plausible Across the Curriculum"--about 18 pages overall) [or for the sixth edition, Chapter 6, "Marking Interpretations Plausible," through "Making an Interpretation: The Example of a New Yorker Cover" (pages 133-147)

Bring a copy of your third paper to class. (Or you may substitute an earlier paper that you might revise.) You will do some work marking up the paper and share some of your thinking in a workshop format.

We will also do our final bit of work on academic honesty for the semester today.

THANKSGIVING BREAK

Stretch run conferences! Rather than meeting as a class, we will have individual conferences early this week about your final paper revisions and presentations.

In class today, we will have a workshop session that begins to move us in the direction of the final presentation. Come to class with a few preliminary ideas to get you started.

PAPER REVISION DUE BY 2:00 IN THE AFTERNOON.

This will be a revision of either of the two papers you did not revise for the first revision deadline. Place a hard copy (printout) under my office door. Revisions should include the original version of the paper with my comments and the revised version with the changes clearly marked, either by hand or electronically with a "track changes" function.

• Bryan Alexander, "Giving a great presentation: some tips and advice"

Bring to class a plan for your final presentation. This plan should include two sections. The first will be a description of the content of your presentation that draws on The Method. In other words, what interesting pattern do you want to share with your audience, and what breaks in the pattern will give the presentation depth and complexity? The second section will be a description of your approach to the presentation itself. Drawing on Bryan Alexander's post and our previous discussions, articulate a strategy for creating a great experience for your audience.

Today will be a workshop session as you prepare slides and other materials for the final presentations.

Friday, December 13

FINAL PAPER SUBMISSIONS LAST REVISIONS DUE BY 2:00 IN THE AFTERNOON.

Hand in both of the revised papers that you would like to count for your grade; they should represent the two kinds of revision described in the papers assignment. You may do additional revisions at this point, but they are not required. As always, revisions should include the original version of the paper with my comments and the revised version with the changes clearly marked, either by hand or electronically with a "track changes" function.

FINAL PRESENTATIONS FROM 2:00 to 5:00 P.M.