This course prepares students to develop an effective academic essay. We will break down the writing process into steps, from analysis and invention to arguing a thesis and organizing it logically. We will discuss evaluating sources, incorporating evidence and marshalling sources using the ExACT model.

In this course, we examine viral media, data surveillance, digital apps, and networked habit technologies such as Alexa and FitBit. We ask how they imply assumptions and arguments about cultural values, issues, or anxieties.

What causes a video or meme to go viral? How might viral media events reveal, assert, or question current cultural values, issues, or anxieties? If you wear a device that collects data about your behaviors, how is that data used to justify cultural assumptions or organizational policies? How are technologies that affect a person’s behavior or attitudes persuasive? How do networked devices and other forms of data surveillance construct arguments about what can be measured or who is “normal”? These are the sorts of questions we will explore this semester as we develop our skills as academic writers.

Please see the menu links above to find out more about the class.