WHAT ELSE CAN POETRY DO?
WRIT 039-336 2012A
Spring 2012, Tues/Thurs: 4:30-6:00 p.m.
Michelle Taransky
We often think of poems as expressions of their author's
creativity, but writers have long been creating poems using appropriative
techniques including cutting, copying and pasting, Google searches, court
testimony and other mechanized methods. In this writing seminar, we will read
and discuss these poems alongside Kenneth Goldsmith's collection of critical
essays Uncreative Writing: Managing
Language in the Digital Age, which describes the history and practice of
conceptual art, from artists and writers including Andy Warhol, Marcel Duchamp,
Sol LeWitt, Ezra Pound, Walter Benjamin and James
Joyce, to current practitioners. Through exercises, workshops, peer review, and
revision, we will, like the writers and readers Goldsmith describes,
"define new roles for the writer [and] reconsider what writing is."
Our investigations will allow us to challenge concepts of identity, to consider
the position of originality in poetry, and examine the roles of writer and
reader in this "digital age."
Required
Texts:
Uncreative
Writing by Kenneth Goldsmith
The
Little, Brown Essential Handbook (Seventh Edition) by
Jane E. Aaron
*All other readings will be posted online.
Course
websites:
Schedule of readings and assignments: http://writing.upenn.edu/taransky/courseschedule2012.htm
Blackboard (to submit assignments): https://courseweb.library.upenn.edu/
Pearson MyCompLab
Course ID: Taransky805622C
Coursekit: http://coursekit.com/app#course/writ-039.taransky code: 6EDN3B
Office
hours: Friday @ CPCW, 3808 Walnut St, room 312, 12-2pm and by appointment
CPCW-wide
Course Goals:
How to manage the writing process
How to come up with your own propositions
How to develop and support propositions through
reasoning (reasons, evidence, counterarguments)
How to organize writing
How to synthesize readings and research
How to engage in keyword searches, trace
footnote an bibliographies.
How to participate in
an academic discourse.
How to evaluate and
revise a piece of writing in relation to audience, purpose and genre.
What Else Can Poetry Do? Goals:
To think more critically about our writing
practices in relation to our reading and research practices.
To draw relationships
between critical and creative texts.
To explore creative reading (and other alternative modes of
production and participation) as well as writing.
To think and writing
critically about poetry and art movements while employing literary theories.
To have a conversation among your classmates
that may both address the institutional boundaries (for example, at UPenn) and, perhaps, push beyond those boundaries.
Writing
Assignments Overview:
3 – 425 word exercises, rhetorical
outlines, and peer reviews
1 – 500 word exercise, rhetorical outline,
and peer review
3 – revisions of exercises and rhetorical
outlines
2 or more drafts of midterm justificatory
position paper (1000-1200 words), rhetorical outlines, and peer review
Abstracts and outlines of six articles or books
Abstract, outline, and keywords for assigned
research text
1-2 drafts Complex Synthesis: Author &
Sources (800-1000 words), rhetorical outlines, peer review
1 or more drafts Synthesis of Literature:
Keyword (800-1000 words), rhetorical outlines, peer review
2 or more drafts of a research-based
justificatory or explanatory essay (1500 words), rhetorical outlines, and peer
review
1-2 drafts of two cover letters
Daily blog: 3 lines, 3 times per week
Research blog: Sunday night by midnight
Grading
Policy:
Final grades are based on
---
Attendance (absences and late arrivals count against your final grade)
---
Printing out assignments to hand in in-class, and submitting assignments online
---
Outlines and Peer Reviews (quality and timeliness)
---
Quality of work—essays and outlines—based on portfolio assessment.
Coursework (including Midterm Portfolio): 45%
Final Portfolio: 50%
Participation: 5%
Classroom
Policies:
No unexcused absences.
Each absence = 0.5 point reduction in final
letter grade.
Two late arrivals count as an absence.
Attending class means: bringing topic readings
and CPCW readings AND printing out writing assignments to hand-in
Plagiarism will result in disciplinary action
and an F for the seminar.
Late essays, peer reviews, portfolio = 1 point
reduction per day.
Responsible
Behavior:
All students in writing seminars are expected to
maintain a standard of
responsible behavior, including:
---
Civility towards colleagues and instructor during class and in all
class-related activities.
---
Punctual arrival and adequate preparation.
---
No use of electronic devices unless allowed by the instructor.
---
Personal computer problems are not acceptable grounds for late assignments.
---
How you conduct yourself in the class will affect your participation grade.
What
to Bring:
Research text (Uncreative Writing)
A printed copy (preferred) or PDF of any
assigned readings.
A print-out of the
writing assignment due
Personal laptop, if
available.
Additional materials
as noted.