Instructor: Geoffrey Sauer (gsauer@iastate.edu)
Office: 433 Ross Hall
Office Hours: 1:00 - 3:30 pm, W, and by appointment
Cell: (515) 441-1461
Classroom: Ross 420

For Thursday, April 28th:
Bring to class for Thursday, April 28th, the final draft of your final paper. Look at this MLA exemplar , if that will help.

Goals

This course offers students in various disciplines a critical view of the technologies now shaping workplace communication and our society as a whole. Using rhetorical theories of technology, we will examine the historical roots of communication technology and explore a number of economic and ethical issues spawned by the computer revolution. Students will gain a deep understanding of how technology impacts the decisions of technical communicators in an increasingly electronic workplace.

Readings

Baron, Naomi S. Alphabet to Email: How Written English Evolved and Where It's Heading. New York: Routledge, 2000.
Brown, John Seely, and Paul Duguid. The Social Life of Information. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2000.
Lane, Frederick S. The Naked Employee: How Technology is Compromising Workplace Privacy. New York: Amacom, 2003.
Lessig, Lawrence. The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World. New York: Vintage, 2002.
Marvin, Carolyn. When Old Technologies Were New. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture. New York: Penguin, 2004.

Additionally, we will be reading a few shorter book chapters, available in Portable Document Format (PDF), as well as various Web resources, including three clips from the web site film gallery.

Attendance

Because this class is a discussion-based course, it is important that you attend class on a regular basis in order to keep up with what's going on. I understand that things come up during the semester, and therefore I allow three (3) unexcused absence -- that's all. Each absence beyond that will reduce your final grade 5 points. More than six (6) absences during the semester will result in automatic failure.

Participation

During class, you must show evidence that you have read the textbook assignments by being able to discuss them intelligently in class. You will also be expected to lead several of our class discussions during the semester based on a rotation system I will explain later.

Grading

All of the assignments below are described in further detail on this site's assignment page. Grades in this class are assigned on a 100-point system, which is broken down as follows:

Class Participation (10 Points) - This includes participation in class discussions of the readings, as well as in online discussions conducted via the class email list.
Rhetorical Analysis (25 Points) - you will analyze the visual and textual rhetoric of five separate advertisements for the computer and electronic industries. The main purpose is to look behind the scenes to examine and critique how these companies are pitching their products.
Reading Logs (30 Points) - In response to course readings, you will submit during the course of the semester 20 separate reading logs, each about 300 words or one page in length. To prepare you for class discussions, these logs are due the day we discuss a particular reading and will not be accepted after that class. Because I will not accept more than two logs in any week, you must write these logs on a regular basis throughout the semester.
Research Paper (35 Points) - This 15-page paper will provide you the opportunity to conduct more in-depth examination of a topic of your choosing.

Meetings

You are always welcome to make an appointment during the office hours listed on the front of the syllabus. Rather than just dropping by, it usually works better if you schedule an appointment ahead of time so we can both prepare for our discussion. However, you are still welcome to just drop by if you have an urgent need to talk.

Late Papers

Try to avoid them. However, you can receive an extension for good cause if you (1) contact me via email before the assignment is due, and (2) submit a formal written memo in which you explain the reason for the delay and propose a reasonable deadline (less than one week), which you will then be expected to meet. This memo, which needs to be placed in my department mailbox, will serve as a contract between the two of us. Failure to meet the new deadline violates terms of the contract and results in a failing grade for that assignment. You can submit late papers no more than twice during the semester. Oral presentations are excluded from this option and are due on the assigned date.

Academic Honesty

Unless you are working with others on a collaborative assignment, the work you turn in for this class must be your own. If you use others' work without crediting them, you will receive a failing grade for the assignment, and most likely for the course. While you certainly can ask for feedback from others, you should not allow anyone to write any part of your assignment for you. For further information, see the ISU Student Handbook's discussion of academic dishonesty.