S I X T H C O L L E G E, U N I V E R S I T Y O F C A L I F O R N I A , S A N D I E G O

SUMMER I

2011

Culture, Art, and Technology 125

Articulating Expertise through Blog Entries, the Informal Essay, and the Long Pitch
Mark L. Hineline It is one thing to know many things, like the fox, or even to know one big thing, like the hedgehog.* It is quite another to say what you know that is, to articulate your expertise. Too bad, then, that the world doesnt do all of its business through examinations, for an exam is a fine way to demonstrate what you know. The world is not so arranged. Often times, in order to accomplish something whether that something be getting into grad school or med school, getting a job, getting art out to the public, or dealing with major contemporary issues such as climate change you need to make your expertise known to other people. Some people will share your expertise, but most will not. CAT 125 is designed to equip you with rhetorical tools so that you can say what you know to a variety of audiences. Sometimes you will want to get to the point. If you are an artist, you will speak to other artists using a shared language. If you are a chemist, youll talk like a chemist. On other occasions, getting to the point is a dead end. Woe be the musician who tries to talk to an engineer using words like legato or minor key without defining them. In cases like this, it sometimes helps to do more than define terms. Careful, effective descriptions and personal narratives go a long way toward making ideas clear to people who speak a different language. Lectures, section discussion, and assignments in CAT 125 provide instruction and practice in discursive modes such as narrative and description, about which other general writing courses say little. In addition, students learn to organize their ideas and rhetorical tools using short form blog entries, the informal essay, and the long pitch, an oral presentation.
*

The fox and the hedgehog is an allusion to an essay by Isaiah Berlin, and Berlin quotes from Archilochus: The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

Lecture topics, readings, and assignment dates

Week

Tuesday, June 28, First hour: Rumors, lies, and the plain facts about CAT 125
Youve heard things about CAT 125. What youve heard is lies, all lies, and rumors. Dont let your roommate psych you out. Todays lecture is about how CAT 125 works, what you wont have to do, what you will have to do, and why what you will do is important to do. To you. There will also be a short discussion of hyperbole. Required reading: Read the syllabus. There will be a quiz. Really. In section. A quiz.

Tuesday, June 28, Second hour: Public rhetoric and modes of discourse
When you get done writing, what do you do with what youve written? Most written work in higher education is turned in and read by one person. In CAT 125, as in the world outside academia, written work is posted on blogs, passed around, printed, or spoken. Some of it gets thrown away, without ever being read by anyone. Welcome to the sphere of public rhetoric, where what you write may change your

life and could change the world. Today I will talk about public rhetoric; and I will introduce some categories of writing, known as modes of discourse, that we will use to shape our public rhetoric. Required reading: William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways, Chapter 5.

Thursday, June 30, First hour: Expertise

What have you learned at UCSD (and at other institutions of higher learning)? What does this knowledge help you to do? The answers to these questions define the scope and depth of your expertise. Do not be afraid of the word! You are well on the way to becoming expert in some area of knowledge and some set of skills and proficiencies. Today we will start work to determine what these are, so that you can talk and write about them. Required reading: Mark Hineline, Never Had a Job Blog assignment 1: Cataloguing and defining your expertise

Thursday, June 30, Second hour: Creating a tension

In a formal essay, your thesis along with the promises you make in the introduction about how you will defend your thesis constitute a tension that keeps a reader reading, just so long as the reader is interested in the thesis. In an informal essay, you must provide the tension that keeps the reader reading. Whats a tension? Come to lecture. Ill tell you.

Week 2
Tuesday, July 5, First hour: Inigo Montoya day
Three sentences: My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die. Required viewing: Not exactly required, but if youve never seen The Princess Bride, get it from Netflix and watch it with at least one friend. Blog assignment 1 is due

Tuesday, July 5, Second hour: Description

The cat is on the mat. What color is the cat? Black and white. Long-haired or short? Short. Male or female? Female. What kind of mat is it? Its a yoga mat. The purple kind? Yes. Where is the mat? Its on my patio. Whats the weather like? Its sunny. Is the cat awake or asleep? Shes sleeping. Curled up or stretched out? Totally stretched out. Why didnt you tell me all of this in the first place? Today we work on describing. Required reading: Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel, Chapter One, On Anticipation Blog assignment 2: Describe two places that have been important to you in the past two years: one place where youve been intellectually stimulated, and another place where you go to for serenity.

Thursday, July 7, First hour: A musical metaphor for essay structure: guest lecturer Clinton McCallum
Because neither the informal essay nor the long pitch are arguments, per se, the logical structure of an argument is a poor model for compelling your audience to go from the beginning to the end of your essay or pitch. For an alternative, we turn to

music, where structure is a vital part of musical form. Guest lecturer Clinton McCallum will demonstrate two musical forms, the sonata-allegro form and the song form, that we can use when writing informal essays and long pitches. Required reading: Mark Hineline, The Sound of Wukoki

Thursday, July 7, Second hour: Working with the musical metaphor; Narrative
Today we will translate the musical metaphors from Clints lecture into structural forms that we can use. Its possible to explain the most abstruse details of the most arcane topic you can think of, and hold the attention of your audience, if you simply wrap it in a story. Required viewing: If you have never seen an episode, or you havent seen it recently, watch one or more episodes of How I Met Your Mother Required reading: E. B. White: The Death of a Pig

Week 3
Tuesday, July 12, First hour: The Long Pitch Examples
Some examples of informal speaking in formal settings. Blog assignment 2 is due

Tuesday, July 12, Second hour: Making a pitch: Group one

Group one will begin work toward doing their long pitches

Thursday, July 14, First hour: The Long Pitch Mechanics

I cannot say the plural of text. Texts. Cant say it. I avoid saying it at all costs. And this is important. Spoken English differs from written English. The rules of grammar are the same, but who cares about spelling when you are speaking? When speaking,

it is pronunciation that matters. Sometimes its valuable to say important things three times. Sometimes its valuable to say important things three times. Also, you need simpler syntax when you speak. And sometimes its valuable to say important things three times. Today well look at borrowing from your written work to find things to say. Borrow, but revise.

Thursday, July 14, Second hour: Making a pitch: Group Two

Group two will begin work toward doing their long pitches A draft of your final essay is due.

Week 4

Tuesday, July 19, First hour: Audience

The public in public rhetoric is neither nobody nor everybody. Nor is it everyman or everywoman. It is an important step, if you are to be compelling, to write for an audience that you can imagine in detail. My audience, when I write about environmental topics, is an undergraduate environmental studies major at Oberlin College whom I met on top of Dorr Mountain in Acadia National Park. I dont know her name, but I think of her as Sarah. She took a picture of me with my camera, and we talked for five minutes. I know who her instructors were, and what books she read, not because she told me, but because I know the program at Oberlin. Who is your audience? What sorts of beliefs and prejudices do they hold? Will they like what you have to say, or will they resist? And what if you must speak or write to more than one audience, either in turns, or at the same time? We will attempt to answer these questions.

Tuesday, July 19, Second hour: Compelling

Sometimes, writing is performative. What this means is that the text itself, when read, makes a change in the world. For the first days lecture I wrote that what youve heard about CAT 125 is all lies. My claim was hyperbolic. But it was also performative: simply by writing that, I intervened or attempted to intervene in the way that you perceive CAT 125. This is part of a broader aspect of writing. Your job, when you write, is to compel your audience to do something. Maybe you want them to laugh, to cry, or both. Maybe you want some faceless reader to let you into medical school. Maybe you want money to study gene expression. Your task is to compel the reader, first, to pay attention to what you have to say, and second, to do what you want them to do. Blog assignment 3: Choose a narrative passage from your essay and retell it for distinct audiences

Thursday, July 21, First hour: Group one

Group one will begin work toward doing their long pitches Blog assignment 3 is due

Thursday, July 21, Second hour: Group two

Group two will begin work toward doing their long pitches Blog assignment 3 is due

Week
Tuesday, July 26, First hour: Authority

An important aspect of public rhetoric is how your audience perceives you relative to your topic. How do authors and speakers establish authority? Authority isnt merely external to what you say. It requires constant grooming.

Required reading: Paul Krugmans blog

Tuesday, July 26, Second hour: Revision and Consistency

Required reading: Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class: Why Cities without Gays and Rock Bands are Losing the Economic Development Race.

Thursday, July 28: Best of the Long Pitches Final essay is due today in lecture

People, Policies, and Requirements

Course instructor Mark L. Hineline Office: 219 Pepper Canyon Hall Email: mhineline@ucsd.edu Office hours: Tuesday, 2:00-3:00, Wednesday 1:00-2:00, Thursday 10:00-11:00 There is a biographical sketch of the instructor on the CAT website Teaching assistants: You will meet the TA for your section during the first week of classes. It is vital that you know your TAs full name and email address. All initial inquiries about course policies, absences, grades, and assignments should be addressed to your TA. Grades will be based on performance in the following categories: Participation: Attendance at lectures and sections, contributions to section discussions, making use of scheduled office hours. Participation counts for 20% of the course grade. Blog assignments: There are three blog assignments. Each is worth 10% of the course grade for a total of 30%. Long pitch: Your long pitch is worth 20% of the course grade. Final essay: The final essay is 30% of the course grade. Extra credit: There is an additional assignment that you can undertake for extra credit. Your TA will provide details about this. Attendance. Attendance at all lectures and sections is mandatory. You may be absent once during the quarter without explanation. (Absence in lecture and absence in section on a single day constitutes one absence.) In addition, you may be absent on one additional occasion for illness or with the permission of your TA. Additional absences may be excused for good cause, with advance notice or a note from a medical professional. The primary justification for mandatory attendance is fairness. Readings. All required readings will be available on WebCT. In addition, your TA may suggest readings to support points made in section.

Oral presentations. You are required to prepare and to present some portion of your final essay in spoken form. The other students in your section, plus your teaching assistant, will be your audience. These oral presentations are to be four minutes in length, and may be followed by questions. Best presentations. Sixth College takes CAT 125 seriously as a culmination and fulfillment of each students undergraduate education. With this in mind, some of the presentations in section will be of such quality that they deserve to be heard by the entire class. Accordingly, students in sections will determine, by a vote, the best presentations, and these will be presented at somewhat greater length before the full class during the final week. Students who are chosen and who deliver best presentations are invited to an informal congratulatory reception where the provost will present them with certificates of merit. Assignment Submissions Policy All assignments must be submitted in writing by the day and time specified in the syllabus, above. Additionally, all assignments must also be submitted digitally via turnitin.com by midnight of the day in which they are due. All graded writing must be submitted to Turnitin.com to receive credit. Late submissions will be penalized. If an assignment is not time stamped in Turnitin.com by midnight on the date it is due, it will be reduced by one full grade (i.e.: An A would be lowered to a B). Papers not submitted to turnitin.com by the time of the final exam will be lowered two full grades (i.e.: An A would be lowered to a C). If you have an emergency and you discuss it with your TA before the deadline, it may be possible to make arrangements but this is not guaranteed. By university policy, the final exam will not be accepted late. You must submit all assigned work to pass the course. Students With Special Needs Students with physical or learning disabilities must work with UCSDs Office for Students with Disabilities to obtain current documentation, then contact instructor and TAs to arrange appropriate academic accommodations. For pre-existing needs this should be accomplished in the first two weeks of the quarter; for emerging needs do it as soon in the quarter as possible. To be fair to all students, no individual accommodations will be made unless the student first presents the proper documentation.

Electronic Devices And Course Participation Electronic devices, including laptops and cell phones, may only be used in class to the extent and for the purposes permitted by the course instructor. Please be aware that even when their use in lecture or discussion section is permitted, using these devices in ways which are distracting to other people in the room, irrelevant to the class, or counterproductive to learning is not acceptable. Participation Grades Here is a description of the kind of participation in the course that would earn you an A, B, C, etc. Your TA may use pluses and minuses to reflect your participation more exactly, but on this sheet we will simply show a general description for each letter grade. A EXCELLENT. You are always well-prepared for discussion in lecture and for section, with almost no absences. You can explain each reading in your own words. In addition, you have already asked yourself questions about what it means, focusing on specific passages that are interesting to you and making connections between various readings and ideas. You express your thoughts clearly and politely, making and supporting specific claims. You respond to what other students are saying in order to have a dialogue with them. You find ways to connect the course material with issues that matter to you personally. You do all section activities with high energy and attention to detail, taking personal responsibility for achieving the assigned goal. B GOOD. You attend lecture and section with few absences. You have done most of the preparation. If you dont understand the reading the first time you read it, you wait to have it explained by the TA. You talk on a regular basis. Sometimes you offer well-thought-out ideas and connections, supported with evidence; sometimes your contributions are merely a statement of opinions or initial reactions. You do assigned activities willingly; but if you run into obstacles, you let the TA or someone else figure out how to overcome those obstacles. C SATISFACTORY. You are present in lecture and section, with few absences, and have done some reading some of the time. You occasionally contribute to the discussion; your contributions are more often opinions than thoughtful efforts to make connections. Youre not a real self-starter, and you have to be nudged to participate.

 You do activities when asked, because its required. D UNSATISFACTORY. You have multiple absences from section. When you come, youre often not very prepared, and you dont say much. You may have a habit of using your cell phone or computer in class to chat or do things not directly related to the course. Playing online poker or shopping for surfboards in either lecture or section, for instance, would be ways to earn a D (or lower) in participation. FFAILING. You have many absences, are habitually unprepared, or are uncooperative.

Academic Integrity You are expected to uphold the standards of academic integrity in all your work. All work that you submit for credit in CAT is expected to be your own original work, created specifically for this class. Where you are making appropriate use of the work of another person, which may include brief quotations, photographs or drawings, charts, special information, specific arguments, etc., you must credit the author of that work by using appropriate and complete citations. If you choose to include in your CAT assignments any data, information, argument or artwork that you have produced for another course, you should identify it as such with an appropriate self-citation, and it should in no way constitute the bulk of the assignment that you are submitting for credit in CAT. UCSD has a university-wide Policy on Integrity of Scholarship, which can be found online at http://www- senate.ucsd.edu/manual/appendices/app2.htm. All students must read and be familiar with this Policy. All suspected violations of academic integrity will be reported to UCSDs Academic Integrity Coordinator. Students found to have violated UCSDs standards for academic integrity may receive both administrative and academic sanctions. Administrative sanctions may extend up to and include suspension or dismissal, and academic sanctions may include failure of the assignment or failure of the course. Specific examples of prohibited violations of academic integrity include the following: (although this should in no way be considered an exhaustive list of examples): Academic stealing refers to the theft of exams or exam answers, of papers or take-home exams composed by others, and of research notes, computer files, or data collected by others. Academic cheating, collusion, and fraud refer to having others do your schoolwork or

helping or allowing them to present your work as their own; using unauthorized materials during exams; inventing data or bibliography to support a paper, project, or exam; purchasing tests, answers, or papers from any source whatsoever; submitting (nearly) identical papers to two classes. Helping other students to cheat or steal is also cheating. Misrepresenting personal or family emergencies or health problems in order to extend deadlines and alter due dates or requirements is another form of academic fraud. Claiming you have been ill when you were not, claiming that a family member has been ill or has died when that is untrue are some examples of unacceptable ways of trying to gain more time than your fellow students have been allowed in which to complete assigned work. Please do not ask or allow friends or family members to write or substantially edit your work. That is both a violation of academic integrity and a short-circuiting of the learning process. Plagiarism refers to the use of anothers work without full acknowledgment, whether by suppressing the reference, neglecting to identify direct quotations, paraphrasing closely or at length without citing sources, spuriously identifying quotations or data, or cutting and pasting the work of several (usually unidentified) authors into a single undifferentiated whole. Receipt of this syllabus constitutes an acknowledgment that you are responsible for understanding and acting in accordance with UCSD guidelines on academic integrity.