History of the Book / Print Culture

September

Monday	Tuesday						Wednesday						Thursday						Friday
5	6						7 Introduction to IDST 1103; to Dr. Cunningham [Homework] Reading: Familiarize yourself with the Chronology of Book History. Composition: Write a brief paragraph explaining why consulting the Chronology site is not enough to give you a complete understanding of the pre-history of the book. What questions did you have beforehand that remain unanswered? What questions did reading it raise and leave unanswered?						8						9
12 The Prehistory of Books [Homework] Reading: Read all of Bruce Jones's site on the History of the Book from the c13th to the c16th. Composition: Write a brief paragraph assessing the value of Jones's site. Feel free to compare it to the Chronology you read prior to today's class.	13						14 From Manuscript to Codex [Homework] Reading: Browse through the Gutenberg site at the British Library. Read this page about William Caxton, and the Encyclopedia Britannica entry on Caxton. Composition: Compare and contrast the two Caxton sites, attending particularly to which one you felt most comfortable with. From which one do you feel you learned the most? Why?						15						16
19 Gutenberg, Caxton, and the Incunable Period [Homework] Reading: Read all of the Online Writing Lab's advice on Writing a Research Paper. Composition: Compose a proposal for your hypermedia project. I encourage you to conduct some research into something that interests you, rather than simply asking me to assign a topic based on Book History, Rhetoric, or Hypermedia.	20						21 The Library and the Research Paper [Homework] Reading: Read the excerpts from Commenius's Orbis Sensualium Pictus and the two documents on regulating printing. Have enough of a look at the excerpt from Moxon's Mechanick Exercises to give yourself a sense of what it's about. Composition: What sort of material was most seen to be in need of censorship in either document, why, and what is the "fit remedy" proposed in either document?						22						23
26 The c16th & c17th [Homework] Reading: Spend some time on Deidre Johnson's Nineteenth Century Girls' Series site. Composition: What works and what doesn't work so well on this site? Start thinking in terms of your own final project site. Does Johnson do anything you might want to copy, or might want to avoid doing?	27						28 To the Present [Homework] Reading: Read the definitions provided at the following address, and use them to formulate your own definition of "rhetoric": Definitions Composition: Compose a succinct definition of rhetoric. Be sure to cite your sources.						29						30

Rhetoric

October

Monday	Tuesday						Wednesday						Thursday						Friday
3 Introduction to Rhetoric [Homework] Reading: Read the excerpt on Isocrates from Richard C. Jebb's Attic Orators and all of Plato's Phaedrus. Composition: What is Socrates' objection to writing in the Phaedrus?	4						5 Introduction to Rhetoric cont'd, and Introduction to HTML & e-composition [Homework] Reading: First, read the excerpt on Isocrates from Richard C. Jebb's Attic Orators and all of Plato's Phaedrus. Then read Chapter 3 of Robert Persig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. If you feel you need more context, by all means read chapters 1 and 2 as well. Composition (x 2 for today): First, what is Socrates' objection to writing in the Phaedrus? Second, in after reading the Persig chapter, write a persuasive argument in support of the idea that gravity did or did not exist prior to Sir Isaac Newton.						6						7
10	11						12 The Sophists and "Truth or Quality?" [Homework] Reading: Read Parts 1, 2, and 3 of Book I of Aristotle's Rhetoric Composition: Aristotle writes that persuasion is effected three ways. Explain.						13						14
17 Aristotle on rhetoric [Homework] Reading: Read Richard Lanham's essay Copyright 101 on the Academic Commons website. Composition: Briefly state and defend your own position on copyright.	18						19 Copyright [Homework] Reading: Read the excerpt from Francis Bacon's Advancement of Learning, then read his essay, "Of Studies". Composition: In a paragraph or two, draw some reasonable and non-trivial connections between these two pieces of writing.						20						21
24 Renaissance Rhetoric [Homework] Reading: Read the entire entry on Marshall McLuhan in the Canadian Encyclopedia; watch the Historica Minute on McLuhan; Composition: Discuss McLuhan's proposition that "the medium is the message." What are the implications for hypermedia? You might want to consult the Hypermedia Project assignment description as you think about this.	25						26 McLuhan, and Visual Rhetoric [Homework] Reading: Read A Brief History of the Internet on the Internet Society website, then skim through The Wolrd Wide Web History Project site. Composition: Compose a paragraph explaining the difference between the Internet and the WWW. Use and cite material from the readings to demonstrate that you've done the reading, to demonstrate that you know how to cite sources, and to give your paragraph some scholarly authority.						27						28
31 The Computer, the Internet, and the World Wide Web [Homework] Reading: Read Vannevar Bush's As We May Think and Thomas Streeter's article "The Moment of Wired" in Critical Inquiry, 31.4, accessible electronically through the Vaughan Memorial Library. Composition: In a paragraph or two draw some meaningful connections between Bush's essay and Streeter's.

Hypermedia

November

Monday	Tuesday						Wednesday						Thursday						Friday
[Homework] Reading: Composition:	1						2 What is hypermedia, and where did it come from? - From beginner to advanced Powerpoint in just over an hour. Guest instructor: Craig Place [Homework] Reading: Read Geoffrey Rockwell & Andrew Mactavish's chapter on Multimedia. Composition: Summarise your reading in no more than two pages.						3						4
7 Multimedia, hypermedia, . . . [Homework] Reading: Read David Silver's essay Introducing Cyberculture. Composition: Use Silver's essay and at least two of the Cyberculture course descriptions accessible from the Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies site to construct your own understanding of cyberculture.	8						9 . . . cyberspace and cyberculture. [Homework] Reading: Browse through The Arte of Navigation, paying particular attention to the images listed in the table of contents. Composition: In point form, keep a record of your attempts to teach yourself how to assemble Navigational Instrument 2. Be prepared to offer a demonstration in class of how to correctly assemble this image.						10						11 Remembrance Day
14 The Electronic Book [Homework] Reading: Read Willard McCarty's essay What is Humanities Computing? Composition: Answer the question as best you can in not more than one page.	15						16 Digital Humanities / Humanities Computing [Homework] Reading: Read Willard McCarty's essay Humanities Computing as Interdiscipline. Composition: In a page or less, tell me why you are attracted to or repelled by humanities computing. Be specific.						17						18
21 Project Presentations Presenters Bryan Copeland Jenn Davis Bruce MacInnis Neil Kinner Kevin Landry	22						23 Project Presentations Presenters Geoff Berger & Josh Garagan Priyo Ganguli & Amanda Sookhai Robert Hilton James Parnell Joel Turnbull						24						25
28 Project Presentations Presenters Shae Chapman Alex Ferrett & Matt Tafeit Bill Logan Matt Rees John Scott Ben Wishart	29						30 Exam Preview and Course Evaluation [Homework] Take Home Exam

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This page authored by
Dr. R. Cunningham.
August, 2005.