English 738: Remix, Remediation, and Recomposition

My thoughts on two possible project:

• Bringing remix into a consideration of the classroom or FYC.  Maybe this could be along the lines of my failed 4cs proposal, looking at the benefits of recast in the classroom? (Proposal c/p below.)
• The current CFP at Harlot is for a special issue on Family Rhetorics.  One suggested topic under this CFP was looking at how family is rhetorically constructed in the media.  I could do something more playful with this topic, and write about how normative family roles are remediated in the TV sitcom Modern Family?I think this would be a fun paper to write (though obviously not a lit-heavy topic: I’d have to rely largely on my own observations and theoretical models).  Our normative ideas of what a gay couple looks like are challenged by Mitch, a career-driven lawyer who is content to let his partner Cam be the stay-at-home dad for their adopted daughter Lily.  Claire and Phil represent the traditional heteronormative family but challenge these roles through their (often failed) attempts to manipulate their children (or instead of challenging these roles, do they embrace them to exaggerated, comical end and betray the ineffectiveness of these behaviors?).I would argue that this show is about seeing that the family functions in much the same way, no matter how non-traditionally it is composed.

Here’s my original 4cs proposal for looking at recast and argument:

First-year composition students often perceive our assignments as meaningless.  While a multitude of factors can explain student apathy toward, or apprehension of, academic writing, these perceptions are certainly influenced by rhetorical aims that seem pointless, contrived, or unclear to our students. Indeed, such difficulties in grasping the genre of the academic essay can help to explain the struggles with audience awareness and sense of purpose commonly seen in first-year writing.

One way we might combat these problems is by designing assignments that ask students to make their own “meaningless” work relevant to a more familiar and clearly identifiable audience. To that end, this paper will examine the rhetorical awareness facilitated by a recast essay assignment in a first-year composition course.  Students in the course are asked to recast a 6–8 page argumentative research paper into a short, op-ed style piece of public writing for the online peer-reviewed publication Commonplace, thereby rewriting an academic essay for their fellow first-year composition students who are reading, writing for, and editing this publication.

The recast not only asks students to write for a new, public audience but also helps them to develop a stronger self-awareness of the rhetorical moves that come from rewriting an essay into a new genre.  In addition to stylistic and structural considerations, the shorter length encourages students to reconsider what evidence will be most compelling and to re-imagine focus.  Students must consider what will speak most effectively to the values and perspectives of their audience, and use this awareness to reframe purpose, develop a compelling ethos, and otherwise convince their peer reviewers to choose their essays for the publication.

Drawing heavily from student reflections and instructor observations, this paper will examine the transformation in student thought encouraged by rewriting into this new genre, and I will argue that students show a clearer awareness of their audience and a stronger sense of purpose through writing these recasts. In addition, I will discuss how the recast assignment helps students to gain metacognitive distance from their academic research essays, helping them to make smart revision decisions on the original assignment.

Business Remix Culture

            Government employees represent a unified body of ideas.  As a body, the government self-creates its authority through representation of the people of the United States.  The government employs individual citizens with different backgrounds, ideologies, education levels, and localities.  Using the pyramid model, a few people determine the goals and purpose of each government agency.  The government hires people to fill jobs that can fulfill the united goals of the government.  Breaking the model down into individual people who work daily to assist and respond to citizens with questions or concerns about the law, questions about remix culture, plagiarism, copyright law, and intellectual property materialize. When responding to the public, an individual uses written ‘approved’ language. The language is written by a few individuals, modified by the government employee for a specific purpose, revised and reworded by three levels of management, and then signed by a single representative of the government (i.e. the Governor of Ohio, the President of the U.S., the Regional Director of E.B.S.A.)  Many of the reasons the written word is so carefully analyzed throughout the government is because it is easily revealed to the all powerful courts.

            What happens to the voice of the individual? What are the rights of the individual? What are the rights of the employer to ‘own’ the language of its employees?  Who started the ‘collective voice’?  What does the individual citizen gain or lose because of these practices?

Please read the syllabus and schedule for next class. Welcome to the course!