The following assignments have multiple components, including written reflections. I will provide detailed assignment sheets well in advance of due dates, and we will discuss all assignments in class. Please note that our schedule may change as the semester progresses. I will inform you of such changes in class and via email/Canvas.
Assignment 1: Sonic Memoir
For this assignment, you will narrate a memory of a sound that is personally significant to you. In 2-3 pages (double-spaced), paint a picture of how this sound memory—a noise, a voice, etc.*—made you feel. Essentially: sound will become a protagonist. By articulating a special memory of sound, you will not only think critically about the active roles of sound in your life, but also learn to grapple with communication as an embodied sensory experience. Through exercising this translation, you gain practice in using language in ways you might not have thought reasonable or possible, as well as how to use personal history to make meaning and speak to specific audiences.
*Note: cannot be a song! Part of this assignment exercises how we listen beyond what is understood to be music.
Assignment 2: Sonic Research
For this assignment, you will examine and research a specific piece of music or sound object in a text we have studied in the course. In 4-5 pages (double-spaced), you will expand on an in-class debate and argue your position based on a specific sonic element of the piece. You may wish to think through how specific instruments, vocal techniques, gaps in noise, dialogue, or words are used in your chosen text and thereby relate it to genre, popular culture, or a historical period. Through this project, you will gain research, summarization, synthetization, analyzation, and evaluation skills as well as learn how to use evidence effectively. You will be able to locate important contextual information, counter arguments, and supplementary resources to help you form cohesive, strong support of your own ideas.
Assignment 3: Sonic Narrative
This project asks you to produce your work in a new genre. Choose either your sonic memoir or sonic research paper, and present the information in a new form, like a podcast or video essay. What new knowledge has been produced upon repurposing your work in a new medium? What editorial decisions did you make when translating your previous writing to verbal and/or visual language? Our world is growing continually multimodal, so reckoning with multiple senses and reflecting on how we are being influenced by them is a useful tool for us to be aware of how our surroundings are impacting us and how we affect others as well. In short, this exercise expands the ways we conceive of texts and language by re-thinking how we communicate.
Final Portfolio and Cover Letter
Throughout the semester, you will assemble a portfolio of your work. The portfolio will include short writing assignments, drafts, reflections about writing in progress, and final drafts. Toward the end of the semester, you will use this collection as evidence to argue in a reflective cover letter that you have achieved the learning outcomes for the course. You will present on what you view have been your “greatest hits” throughout the course as a way to begin reflecting. An important part of this reflection process is learning how to think, talk, and write about writing in ways that will enable you to apply (or transfer) your learning from this course to other contexts. To facilitate this metacognition, you will learn and use a set of rhetorical key terms as you meditate on the assignments you complete in this course. This course won’t include a final exam; the last day of class (4/24) we will be hosting a final gathering/celebration for the completion of the semester. The final assignment will be the portfolio and you will have until May 3rd to hand it in via Canvas. If for any reason you are not able to meet the deadline, please write to me in advance.
In order to receive a passing grade for this course, you must submit all assignments listed above.
You will have the chance to make up one of the first three assignments above before the end of the semester. The grade you receive for this re-write will be averaged with your first for your final grade on the assignment.
Participation and Minor Assignments
Each of the above major projects will incorporate scaffolded assignments intended to help you strengthen your final submission (see full handouts for details). These include in-class workshops, peer review sessions, and other group activities as well as the occasional out-of-class writing assignment, which will all be due at the beginning of the class period, depending on the course calendar. Most of these components are graded based on completion; meaning, if you finish your prompts, drafts, and so on by their due date, you will receive full credit (100%). If you do not, you will receive an incomplete or 0. (See late work policy for exceptions.) Completion-based writing prompts that are made up after the due date/time will count for half credit. I count homework as a part of your participation grade, which subsequently requires that you attend class and show up ready to participate meaningfully.
Here is how I view meaningful participation:
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- Preparation: Reading/viewing any assigned material before class.
- Presence: Being verbally and nonverbally engaged during class.
- Focus: Avoiding distractions during class (both in person and online).
- Asking questions in class and in office hours, as well as via email when appropriate.
- Specificity: Referring to specific ideas from readings and prior class discussions when
contributing to class conversations and/or in meetings during office hours.
Essentially: Come to class with at least one idea, quote, or question you’d like to discuss based on the text for that day. If verbal presence is not how you show participation, let’s work together to make your presence and ideas felt in the classroom, such as emailing me a short comment about the day’s readings (before the class period or after having missed a class period) or attending office hours. Please let me know if you need help to make your participation known.
If we have to move online, whether due to a campus-wide change in policy, I have to go into quarantine, or another extreme circumstance, being present and attentive on zoom will still factor into your attendance and participation grade.
Please note: If you do not read over your work before handing it in, neither will I! It is very clear who has not proofread their work. Read your writing aloud, make appointments at the writing center, or have a digital reader (like Mac Reader) read your work to you before submission.
If you complete all assigned work, meet the course requirements for attendance and participation, and earn an “acceptable” on all major assignments, you can expect to earn a B+ in the class. To get an A/A-, you will need to do everything required for a B+ as well as earn an “exceptional” on major assignments and interact meaningfully with your work, the course texts, and your classmates. Simply, do more than just getting the assignment done; how might you stretch yourself to critically engage with your work and your fellow students’ ideas? Further, how might this exchange of ideas and constant reflection transform how you think about writing?
Grades and feedback reflect the state of the writing as it is at the time of submission! They are not a reflection of you, your capacity to write well, or a judgment ascribed to the opinions presented. My job is to help you grow as thoughtful, persuasive, intentional thinkers and writers, so improvement is not only hoped for—but expected!