Syllabus

Spring 2007, Tuesday/Thursday afternoons, 2:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. in SSB 216. Section 001, #47594. Course home page: http://www.d.umn.edu/~cstroupe/sp07/3220/

Dr. Craig Stroupe, 726-6249, Humanities 425
cstroupe@d.umn.edu; Office hours Tuesday and Thursday mornings, 11:00-noon or by appointment

Purpose | Expectations | Resources Needed | Grades

Purpose

In addition to teaching you the mechanics of graphic production, "Visual Rhetoric and Culture" draws widely on the disciplines of digital design, statistics, narrative literature, engineering, and technical writing to offer you the interpretive and strategic skills to conceive, to think about, and to write about visual texts critically.

This course is designed to give you the skills, practice, and understanding to realize the following goals:

employing principles of rhetoric and design to create visual projects that convey information and analyical insight;
creating projects that effectively combine visual and verbal discourses;
discussing graphic work in critically and historically informed ways;
working with teammates and clients in productive relationships;
using a variety of software to create graphic projects for delivery via the Internet;
engaging potential audiences of visual texts on a variety of levels;

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Expectations

Exercises and Projects

This course is organized as a series of project and exercises. The projects are long-term, individual works. The exercises are done together in class, usually in 15 to 30 minutes.

The Projects. As described on the Works Page, the projects are larger pieces of work that you'll complete individually over a period of two or three weeks using the skills you learned from the exercises and insights from the readings and class activities. One of the projects is an essay about an image of your choice. You will also have an opportunity to do a "global revision" of one of the projects.

There is a three-point penalty per day for late projects, including the commentaries and printouts that are explained below.

Due dates for all requirements are included in the online schedule, which will be updated throughout the semester.

Exercises. We'll do the exercises together in class to learn particular skills or techniques, and you'll have 24 hours after the class meeting (if needed) to complete and post each exercise to the Web for credit.

Printouts and Commentaries

I will give you detailed directions for submitting particular, finished projects and exercises. The following, however, are some general guidelines:

All Web-based projects should be:

posted to the Web,
the URL sent to the Webx discussion board, and
all the pages printed out and handed in. Be sure to number the pages of your printout.

In a separate, printed document, you will write a commentary on your project:

The commentary should explain—in at least one substantive paragraph, and no more than two pages—how your project fulfills the criteria and goals of the assignment. More than just a list of mechanical features, your commentary is a chance to make big claims for your project as you look back at it—even if you weren't aware of everything you were accomplishing at the time you were working. In the commentary, explain why you did what you did.

Use terms from the readings and class discussions to put the project and the process of creating it in critical focus. These critical terms should be in bold.

This explanation should also reflect the depth of your understanding of the assignment and the meaning of your work fulfilling it: that is,

what it asks you to do rhetorically and creatively,
what issues of writing and design it raises,
what's interesting about it as an occasion for social, cultural, civic, or cultural work
what it led (or leads) you to realize about web design and/or digital culture

Other Writing and Design Work

In addition to the design, creation, and/or writing of the projects themselves, you will complete

writings on our online Webx discussion board
brainstorming sessions and preliminary writings or designs for your projects,
peer critiques for workshops
other writings.

Readings

On days when readings are assigned, please do the following:

have the readings done by the beginning of class;
expect brief quizzes or guided reading responses at the beginning or end of class. There are no make-ups on these responses if you are absent, late or leave early.

Attendance

Since this class will function as a community of writer-designers, your regular attendance is absolutely necessary.

Absences in excess of 3 will deduct 3 percent each from your overall grade.
These 3 possible absences can be spent however you wish and so there are no "excused" or "unexcused" absences. Save your "free" absences for a rainy (or snowy) day.
If you are absent, you are responsible for all material covered in class.
In the case of absences or lateness, some requirements like quizzes and guided in-class activities cannot be made up when timeliness or group interaction is critical.
In addition to your budget of allowed absences, you also have 3 instances of arriving late or leaving early to use (with or without an excuse) if necessary. Instances in excess of 3 will decrease your overall grade by 2 percentage points each. If you need to leave class early, even if it's one of your allowed instances, please arrange it with me in advance.

Participation

A larger goal of this course is to establish a community or network of writer-designers—with a wide variety of backgrounds, expertise, and interests—to enhance your learning and enjoyment during the next sixteen weeks. The class is designed to provide a number of avenues for this community building, including brainstorming sessions, peer workshopping and critiquing, in-class "studio sessions," support groups, and various Internet-based communications and collaborations. Your sincere and regular contributions to maintaining this collaborative environment will count in your grade, and of course will greatly benefit your final products in the course. Because your work is the subject matter for this course, turning in all projects and writings on time is critical; work turned in late will be assessed a 3% penalty per day.

Special Needs

If you have a disability, either permanent or temporary, which might affect your performance in this class, please notify me at the beginning of the semester. Methods, material, or testing will be adapted as required for equitable participation.

Incompletes

Incompletes for the semester will be given only in the following very limited circumstances:

you must contact me in advance of the semester's end to make a request for an incomplete;
no more than one or two weeks of class, or one or two assignments, can have been missed;
you must be in good standing in the class (not already behind, in other words);
you must have a documented family or medical emergency, as required by university policy;
you must arrange a time table with me for completing the missed work that is acceptable to both of us.

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Resources Needed

Molly Bang's, Picture This, Little Brown, 2000
Edward Tuft's Visual Explanations, Graphics Press, 1997
Weinmann and Lourenkas' Photoshop CS for Windows and Mac, Peachpit, 2004
a UMD e-mail account
a package of 4x6 index cards
Zip disk or pocket drive for saving and transporting your work (at least 100 Mg.)
occasional access to a digital camera, or several high-density, IBM-formatted floppy disks for use in a digital camera to be checked out from UMD
access to a printer, or funds for printing

Grades

Your work on the major projects and various exercises (weighed according to the size and complexity of the project): 90% total
Participation in class generally, including in-class activities and contributions, online discussions, attendance, conferences, quizzes, peer workshop responses, Webx discussions, class discussion, promptness: 10%

Purpose | Expectations | Resources Needed | Grades | Top

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