Computers and Writing

“The effect becomes disorienting and yet persuasive in the way it constructs new arguments about contemporary issues” (Rice 117-18).

For Cool Project 3, we’re going to take the lessons learned from chapter 11 and put them into practice in order to write both linearly and non-linearly. We will practice a writing that operates according to the logics of traditional print media using the genre of the newspaper editorial and then return to and disrupt that expression through either a single method or a combination of methods discussed in the chapter.

We will begin with a current issue in the news. I have chosen for you the recent debate concerning Proposition 2, a proposed amendment to the Texas state constitution that states

the constitutional amendment providing that marriage in this state consists only of the union of one man and one woman and prohibiting this state or a political subdivision of this state from creating or recognizing any legal status identical or similar to marriage.

There are two steps to the project.

• First, go to the opposing editorials written by Adam Scharn and Tommy Ivey at Texas A&M’s college newspaper, The Battalion. (The Link is below.) Pick one of the editorials to which you will respond. (Do some research on the issue, using the links I gave you in class to gather pertinent information.) Using the genre of the Op-ed, write your own editorial expressing your views and persuading your audience to accept those views. Imagine your audience to be college students and that you are going to send this editorial to the Shorthorn for publication (which you may, in fact, do). Feel free to address both Scharn and Ivey in your editorial, one for support and the other to counter against. Your purpose should be clear, your supports concise, and your views firm. At the time you write this, the election will have been over and the constitutional amendment will have been passed or defeated. Your editorial should consider things like voter turnout, the percentage with which it was passed/defeated, and how the result relates to your views (among other factors). The length of your editorial should be approximately the same length as the pieces by Scharn and Ivey.
• Next, choose one or more methods used by the Beat writers discussed in Writing About Cool on the editorial that has been written by your group. You may use spontaneous writing, nostalgia, collage, the cut-up and/or juxtaposition. Using one or more of these methods, your group’s goal will be to disrupt the logic of the editorial (stay away from doing this to the original sources) by making it say something quite other from the original intention. For instance, one way to change the original is through the cut-up by rearranging the editorial, adding your own new thoughts and ideas, and making a fresh version that argues for the opposite point of view. (This, by the way, has an origin 2,500 years before the cut-up ever came into existence. The ancients called it dissoi logoi. Ask me about this in class!) Juxtaposition can be used by taking chunks of the original text, re-arranging them and placing them in boxes juxtaposed with other boxes of text. Spontaneous writing can work dialogically among the members of your group where you use the formula of “Image + Related Image + Related Image to the Previous Image + Related Image to the Previous Image. . . .” (Substitute “image” with “idea” and now your writing works conceptually.) We have discussed these methods in class. Your particular stragegy may not be reflected here, but make sure that you clear your strategy with me before proceeding.
• Important Point 1: Although this second part of the assignment functions according to a different way a thinking and writing, it is quite imperative to realize that you should still have a goal, purpose, and desire for the effect of this second portion. Just like “spontaneous writing” is actually very carefully crafted prose to give the effect of spontaneity, your non-linear examples should also be labored over and carefully crafted. When asked, you should be able to explain why you made the choices you did, what your message is, and how your message is achieved. You are not required to use images for this assignment beyond illustration.
• Important Point 2: Although some of you will choose to divide your tasks (one writes the editorial, the other disrupts it) make sure to retain some amount of collaboration even as you divide your tasks.
• Design and Format Requirments: These projects will be published as webpages. As before, you should have an introductory page that includes a design and a project statement. See CP2 for those requirements.
• Due: Monday, November 14 by 5 p.m.

Links:

“Going Too Far” by Adam Scharn and Tommy Ivey