Requirements

Read this page carefully! By taking this course, you are agreeing to fulfill the contractual obligations outlined here.

Driving Questions

• What are words? What are images?
• What do words and images have in common? How do they differ? How do they work?
• Why do we pair words and images together?

Course Goals

• Read texts closely to understand how words & images make meanings.
• Develop a theoretical vocabulary for analyzing words & images.
• Analyze and appreciate differences between print artifacts & digital texts.
• Learn about word-image combinations by writing about & making them.
• Form a community of practice that fosters intellectual risk-taking and critical & creative inquiry.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the semester, you should be able to:

• Read word-image texts critically, which entails asking questions, identifying patterns, recognizing rhetorical strategies.
• Apply and test relevant theories to your analyses of word-image texts.
• Understand and practice the work of bibliography.
• Identify a core question or problem, locate authoritative resources that can help you address it, and design a project that enables you to gain new critical insight.

Design a digital domain that reflects your heightened awareness of how words & images generate identities and meanings

Required Texts

Lynda Barry, Syllabus
William Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience
Sean Hall, This Means That
Jacob Lawrence, The Great Migration
Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics
Claudia Rankine, Citizen: an American Lyric
Lauren Redniss, Radioactive: a Tale of Love and Fallout
Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis
Read full description of required reading

Required Work

• Reading: Readings should be completed for class on the day they are listed on the syllabus. Do the readings before you start assignments. Read actively, underlining passages and writing notes and questions in the margins.
• Participation (20%): Do the reading. Come to class with assigned texts in hand, ready to talk about them. Turn off cell phones and cut off social media. Join the conversation and risk admitting what you think and what you don’t understand. Honest self-expression, trust, respect, and collaboration are operating principles of this course. (Participation grade includes peer critiques and composition notebook.)
• Peer Critique: Comment on your classmates’ work, and use the peer critiques you receive to help you revise your own. In a critical/creative writing class as big as this one, a single professor cannot possibly give adequate feedback to all participants. You will learn more if you form a community of practice, working together to understand and create word-art.

• Composition Notebook: Throughout the semester, you will write and draw in your notebook, often doing exercises from Lynda Barry’s Syllabus.
• Secondary Source Reports (5%): Learn how to read & write literary criticism by analyzing how it’s written.
• Bibliographic Essay (10%): Get to know an illuminated book in the Rare Books Room by writing about it.
• Partner Project (20%): Collaborate with a classmate to produce a semiotics supplement or ekphrastic encounter.
• Hybrid Project (30%): Design a project combining words & images and critical & creative writing.
• Book Hack (5%): Find a creative way to annotate pages from Claudia Rankine’s Citizen.
• Domain Design (10%): Create a website to gather and showcase your work at Davidson to the public. Note: if you already have a domain, you will have an alternative assignment.

For more information on how you’ll be graded, read “How to take this course.”

Honor Code

All work must be completed by you and submitted for this class only. You may exchange work with classmates in this course. You may talk about your work to anyone who will listen, but you may NOT ask friends or relatives to edit or proof your work.

No matter how informal your writing, you must CITE YOUR SOURCES. All assignments for this course must include a WORKS CITED including citations for ALL materials used—including assigned readings—following MLA Style. See the Help page for style guides.

As we migrate into digital environments, citation practices change. The important thing is to acknowledge all sources in a clear and consistent way that allows your reader to locate the original source. Hyperlinks to electronic sources are a bonus, but are not an acceptable substitute for citations.

Attendance

Sometimes you have to miss class: you may be sick or have an interview or family emergency. I respect you as an adult who can make decisions about your own life. You may miss 3 classes without directly lowering your grade—no excuse necessary. Use those absences wisely, because except in the case of verifiable hardship, each absence after 3 lowers your participation grade by a 1/3 letter grade. If you miss class, it is your responsibility to get the notes and make up work. Failing to bring assigned texts to class 3x = 1 absence; 3 late arrivals = 1 absence.

Classroom Etiquette

You may bring laptops or tablets into the classroom, but must sign a pledge to turn off your phones, cut off access to email and social media, and use electronic devices for course-related purposes only (except in cases of emergencies).

Please do not get up and leave class during class time unless you have a personal emergency. Try to schedule restroom breaks between classes.

Late Work Policy

Due dates are listed in the syllabus. Work handed in after these deadlines will be considered late and marked down a letter grade for each day late. Extensions must be approved a week in advance.

Accommodations

If you have a documented disability (learning or physical), contact the Dean of Student’s Office (x2225) right away. If you need accommodations, please consult with me within the first two weeks of class, so we can design a solution that will help you be successful in this class.

Recommendation Letters

You are welcome to ask me to write a recommendation letter for you but please read my advice on how to get recommendations first.

Questions? Contact:

Dr. Suzanne Churchill
Office: Chambers 3288
Office Hours: MW 2:30-4 pm, Th 9:30-11 am & by appt
E-mail: suchurchill@davidson.edu
Questions about syllabus & tech issues: ENG3930_201502@davidson.edu
Phone: 704.894.2695
Website: http://suzannechurchill.com/