Welcome to the information page for 3801: Writing for New Media. This page will also serve as a gateway to the course website when that comes on line. For the time being, a few tidbits about the course are below:
- Promotional flyer (765K, PDF)
- About the course
- About the instructor
- About collaborative work
- Philosophy
- Catalog description
About the course:
This course explores the emerging logic of the digital age. Join us as we venture forth into the electronic wilderness to document what we see and read.
Throughout the semester, we will examine digital texts (web sites, DVDs, video games) as well as more traditional objects that influence digital thinking (films, comics, digital music, photographs). We will then develop our own strategies to harness this electronic logic by creating and publishing aesthetic, inventive projects on the web.
52-3801: Writing for New Media meets Tuesdays, from 1:00-4:50pm
About the instructor (Brendan Riley):
I teach full time in the English Department at Columbia. I specialize in Composition, Media Studies, and the Rhetoric of New Media. I teach using a student-centered model that focuses on process and production rather than on tests and lectures. To learn more about me, feel free to peruse this website. You may want to look at my old syllabi to get an idea of the kinds of projects I assign.
Collaborative project:
The major endeavor for this course will be a collaborative web project building on the lessons learned in class. The project will be devised, designed, and constructed by students under loose guidelines from the me and interaction with a "client" from outside the class. At the end of the term, this collaborative project will be posted on the web.
Course philosophy:
This course pursues a two-prong inquiry into the "rhetoric" of new media. I will lead discussion and exploration of new media texts and theory. This exploration will help students develop the analytical and rhetorical techniques necessary to create thoughtful, critical new media texts.
Simultaneously, students will learn about new media texts by working with them. The early assignments build individual skills and techniques while the later assignments explore collaboration and other aspects of new media authorship. I firmly believe that the logic of the screen cannot be learned in the abstract—it's key that we learn to write with images.
Official Catalog description:
Hands-on, writing intensive course explores unique writing requirements for electronic media. Internet, multimedia, and CD-ROM content are examined as examples of new ways of exploiting written communications. Students study Internet documents, hypertext, multimedia presentations, and software programs ranging from corporate web sites to interactive CD-ROM entertainment. Course work includes composing interactive stories, hypertext documents, and multimedia composition. PREREQUISITE: 52-1152 ENGLISH COMPOSITION II OR 52-1112 ENGLISH COMPOSITION II: ENHANCED OR 52-1122 ESL ENGLISH COMPOSITION II OR 52-1162 COMMUNITY SERVICE ENGLISH COMPOSITION II