Trinity Overmyer, 1

Place, Rhetoric & Design: Advanced Composition Course Rationale =======================================

Currently, society is dealing with issues of globalization, climate change, and overpopulation, issues that will only become more pressing in the near future. A course on space and place will help students investigate each of these, as well as how experiences of place and publics shape understandings of identity. Because writing is integral to public/civic engagement and identity, the course would be a laboratory for grappling with contentious subjects through argumentation, research, and class discussion and debate. The purpose of this class is to teach students how to think and write rhetorically about spaces, objects and design, and to employ that knowledge in their respective disciplines. The topic has implications for a variety of majors, including engineering, computer science, agriculture, and of course professional writing. The course would serve as an advanced composition course for all majors, but also as a special topics rhetoric class for writing majors. Speaking as a former PW student at Purdue, it would be advantageous for students to opt into a lower-level elective rhetoric class outside the core. Since the projects in this class rely heavily on multi-modal composition and the topics cover some methodologies of digital spaces, I propose the class be held in the Heavilon Mac lab on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The longer class periods would allow for short field trips to places around campus and the community, expanding our laboratory beyond the classroom.

Course Description =====================================

This course will offer students the opportunity to engage in original research and argumentation, and study archival and ethnographic methods, as we investigate various forms of place-making to unearth the rhetorical stakes and actors at work. Because this course includes an emphasis on the value of public engagement, the writing-intensive component will include debate, oral presentations, and the development of a stylistic, persuasive rhetorical voice. I have structured the course as a survey of spatial thought, covering various topics such as globalism, environmental issues, gender, the economy, architecture, philosophy, digital communities, and urbanism. In each unit, we will look at the issues, discourses and contexts of urban, activist, digital and archival spaces, as well as their constraints and the ways they influence our writing, research, and social/civic engagement. This class will help cultivate an understanding of the rich relations among rhetoric, society, activism, knowledge making, and the natural and built environments that we inhabit and in which we construct society. Students will focus on spaces as sites of rhetorical action and as rhetorical tools, backed up with current readings from magazines and journals as well as historic and theoretical texts that span disciplines. Inhabitancy, the environment, territory, intellectual property, ownership, and population concerns all loom large over the coming century and have both theoretical and practical implications for how we coexist and operate globally. This course will emphasize the dynamic relationship between built environments, technology, and various publics. Students will examine spatial artifacts and interrogate how they are steeped in cultural, political, and social significance. They will learn to read these objects/spaces for their arguments and find out what they reveal about the ideologies, needs, interactions, and activities of the people that create and use them.

Trinity Overmyer, 2

Place, Rhetoric & Design: Advanced Composition

In this course, we will analyze and research the places and spaces that shape everyday experience. Our laboratory will be a complex mix of campus and the local community as well as digital and archival spaces. This course will emphasize the dynamic relationship between built environments, technology, and various publics. We will examine spatial artifacts and interrogate how they are steeped in cultural, political, and social significance. We will learn to read these objects/spaces for their arguments and find out what they reveal about the ideologies, needs, interactions, and activities of the people that create and use them. All places are created by both 1) physical materials & constraints, but also by 2) the way they are represented: how each is mapped, advertised, sold, inhabited and used by people. Therefore, we will study visual rhetoric as well as digital and spatial issues to explore how different spaces are composed through shifting cultural landscapes. This course will focus on spaces as sites of rhetorical action and a rhetorical tool (spaces employed as symbols and strategies for a variety of arguments). Inhabitancy, space, the environment, territory, globalization, intellectual property, ownership, population and urbanism all loom large over the coming century and have both theoretical and practical implications for how we coexist and operate globally. In each unit, we will look at the issues, discourses and contexts of these spaces, as well as their constraints and the ways they influence our writing, research, and social/civic engagement. This class will help cultivate an understanding of the rich relations among rhetoric, society, activism, knowledge making, and the natural and built environments that we inhabit and in which we construct our society. The semester is divided into 4 units based on different kinds spaces: Unit 1: Civic Spaces, Urban Issues & the Commons Unit 2: Place & Activism, Places of Memory Unit 3: Digital Spaces Unit 4: Archives Project 1 (P1): Individual: Argumentative profile of spatial controversy Project 2 (P2): Group: Thinking Dwelling Building Public Art Project 3 (P3): Individual: Digital Ethnography Project 4 (P4): Group: A Digital Archive Is Born

Writing: This is a writing-intensive course that will allow you to compose in different genres and media, with different voice and style choices, and for a variety of audiences. We will focus on how to write clear and concise prose, how to find your particular writerly style, and how to use your work to speak convincingly and innovatively to different publics. We will center on written arguments, research, group writing, peer reviews, and get some practice presenting our work to each other. During this course, you will cultivate a rhetorical understanding of your own and others work which will ground your writing processes and (hopefully) transfer to the writing that you will do outside of this class in the future. Focus on

Trinity Overmyer, 3 workshopping drafts In addition to assignments and projects, each student is required to write one weekly blog post that covers 2 articles from The Atlantic Cities Section: theatlanticcities.com . Each post (300-500 words) should put the articles in conversation with each other, with other readings from class, or complicate the topics in some way. Readings: In lieu of a textbook, readings for this class will be accessible on the course Blackboard site or online. You must bring digital or print copies of the texts to class each day. Some of these readings will be fairly dense, challenging, and occasionally controversial texts; I expect you to engage seriously with material and dedicate a significant amount of time outside of class to the assigned texts. We will explore lines of theory from various fields and viewpoints, including Anthropology, Critical Geography, Architecture, History, as well as Material, Post Colonial, Feminist, and Eco Critical theories. This will help us gain a well-rounded perspective on contemporary issue and analyze a variety of interdisciplinary methods and ideologies. Participation & Preparation: Your personal insights and discoveries as a group are essential to the success of this class, so it is essential that you come on time, prepared to discuss readings and the issues we are grappling with. The kinds of rhetorical analyses we will do demand interaction, debate, and detailed readings of the texts. Each student is expected to engage with and invite different perspectives, and challenge their own assumptions as well as others interpretations of texts and events. Spatial Labs: In addition to our global surroundings, the classroom will act as part laboratory. Spatial Labs, scheduled throughout the semester, will focus on collaboration, innovation, and practical application of the information weve discussed in class. I will often ask you to work in small groups or as an entire class to construct an object, connect individual projects in innovative ways, affect a space on campus, or do some fieldwork. Spatial Lab days are scheduled just before or after major projects are due as a way to break out of the comfortable rut of our individual thinking and take some risks with our new knowledge. Lab days tend to be students favorite part of this class, so dont fret. Field Trips: Because we are cultivating an awareness of places, the class will involve several field trips in and outside of class. Most of these will be to spaces on and around campus during class time, but you will also be required to examine public spaces in Downtown Lafayette and one trip to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Admission is free. Transportation will be provided on the Sunday between weeks 5 & 6, so mark your calendars. If you cannot participate during the scheduled class time, you will be required to make the trip on your own time before week 7. Absences: You will be allowed 3 free absences throughout the course of the semester. At the 4th absence, your final grade will drop 10%. 8 absences will result in failure of the course.

Trinity Overmyer, 4 Late Work: I will count off a letter grade for each day your work is late unless you make arrangements with me 48 hours prior to the due date in writing (via email). Problems can arise, but the key to their successful resolution is communication. Keep me informed; avoid simply not showing up or not turning assignments in. Plagiarism: This means the copying, deliberate or not, of another persons work and/or ideas without the proper citation. This is a very serious issue and can result in failure of the project, the course, and other disciplinary action. When in doubt, check with me. Disability Resources: If you require alternate accommodations for this class, please email me or come to my office hours within the first week of class to make arrangements for the semester. You may also contact the Disability Resource Center at Purdue: http://www.purdue.edu/odos/drc/ for further resources. Campus Emergencies: In the event of a major campus emergency, course requirements, calendar, deadlines, and grading percentages are subject to changes as necessary. Information about possible changes will be communicated by me through email. For more information, see ITAP's Campus Emergency website: http://www.itap.purdue.edu/tlt/faculty/ . Conduct: I have a no tolerance policy for disrespect, bullying, or aggression toward fellow students or myself. Basically, we will all conduct ourselves professionally during any and all class-related events and projects. Questionable behavior and consequences are at my discretion. For detailed information on the official Purdue Student Code of Conduct: http://www.purdue.edu/studentregulations/student_conduct/index.html . Assignments and Grades: The grades break down like this: Project 1: 10%, 100 points Project 2: 15%, 150 points Project 3: 25%, 250 points Project 4: 25%, 250 points Other Assignments, Blogs & Participation: 25%, 250 points Final Grades are based on a 10 pt. scale: 90-100%=A 80-89.9%=B 70-79.9%=C 60-69.9%=D Below 60%=F