next big thing writing exercise

For your writing exercise today, you are invited to reflect on the next big thing in electronic communications technology and how it will generally affect reading and writing, and specifically affect literature.

You might consider the following areas:

Wireless and mobile computing: in the future, will we do all our reading on smart phones? Will we be reading only short texts, or will there still be possibilities for longer texts? Will we be doing more watching than reading?

Cybernetics and robotics: in the future, will we be technologically enhanced by things such as wireless access ports implanted in our brains? Will machines (such as aggregators) be doing most of our reading for us? What will happen to writing?

3-D and immersion: in the future, will we be able to step into stories and experience them in three dimensions? How would we read and write in such environments? Why would we want to?

Social networking: in the future, will anything have just one author? Can there be such a thing as literature without authors? Will social networking replace publishing as we know it?

Marge Piercy, in He, She, and It anticipated quite a few of these questions. But she also got some of her predictions wrong. There were some developments in technology she could not possibly have forecasted. The same is true for you.

However, this should not discourage you. Be as educated as possible in your guess work, but don’t be afraid of being creative. Many of the great inventions began as fanciful speculations. What you envision may one day be real.

rgn writing exercise

For our in-class writing assignment today you will be composing a RGN, or a “randomly generated narrative.” That is, you will create a simple story based on the results of a Google search. You will also be taking notes that will help you do this.

1. Think of a string of search terms (e.g. “running down the street”). Record the search term string in your notes.

2. Enter the string of search terms into a Google search box.

3. Click on one of the links and see what’s there. Jot down some notes about what you’ve seen and IMPORTANT cut and paste the URL into the document you’re using to write your notes.

4. From there, you may follow a link and see what’s there. In your notes, you might want to note the possible connection (or lack of connection) between the page where you are now and Google search results page (from which you followed the link). Once again, be sure to record the URL of the latest page you have visited.

5. Or you might stay on the Google search results page and follow another link. If so, do what you did in #3 above.

6. When you have looked at five or more pages, start thinking about composing a narrative that explains and connects the pages you have seen. It’s possible that you began with a narrative in mind (with your string of search terms); that’s fine. Or a narrative emerged as you looked at different pages. But it’s also possible that you can’t see the narrative until you start looking at your notes and do some preliminary writing.

Note that multimedia elements (video, images, sound files) are fair game for inclusion in your narrative. But your narrative itself will be made up of words. That is, you are embedding multimedia elements in a textual narrative, rather than just linking together multimedia elements.

This is what you are turning in today:

• the search term string you used
• your notes
• URLs of all the pages you’ve visited
• a narrative of five or more sentences that attempts to connect and make sense of your Google search

You don’t have to write out a story per se. What you turn in could be a sketch or an outline. It would be helpful to embed (not necessarily making a link) your URLs in your narrative.

FINAL NOTE: I would prefer that you send me your assignment in the form of text pasted into an email rather than a MS Word attachment. That way, all the URLs will be active.

wiki writing exercise

The in-class writing exercise today, on fiction wikis, is in three parts.

Part I: Find a fiction wiki at Storymash (you may want to sort by DATE PUBLISHED, AUTHOR, or STORYLINE DEPTH)

http://storymash.com

Part II: The Story

Please answer the following questions.

1. How would you summarize the story?

2. Does the story have more than one entry/chapter? If so, how many?

3. Does the story have more than one author? If so, who are some of them?

4. What do you know about the author or authors? (summarize or cut and paste one of the author’s comments) What are some of the other works the author has worked on at Storymash?

Part III: The Reading

Please answer the following questions.

1. Are you bothered by the ads? Does this take away from the reading experience for you?

2. Are there any comments/reviews? If so, what is the general drift of the comments? Write your own comment review.

3. Is the story rated? What is its rating? How would you rate it?

4. Is the story worth continuing? Briefly, how would you continue it?

flog writing exercise

For your in-class writing exercise this week, you will be analyzing a flog, or fiction blog. The flog you will analyze is the one assigned for today: Horton’s Folly.

http://hortonsfolly.blogspot.com/

1. In 2-3 sentences, consider the flog as fiction. Describe the main characters and the basic story. Is the story easy to follow or difficult? Does the work encourage browsing or a more immersive, in-depth reading?

2. In 2-3 sentences, consider the flog as blog. (Things to consider: images, navigational options, the “about me” section, comments). How do the various elements of the blog add to, or detract from, the story? Do all the links to other blogs and flogs distract you as you read the blog?

3. In 2-3 sentences, consider the flog as compared to other digital literary genres we have studied. In what ways is the flog a hypertext? In what ways multimedia? In what ways interactive?

4. In 2-3 sentences, compare the flog to other Web 2.0 applications, particularly Facebook and Twitter. Would it be difficult to remediate the flog into a faux Facebook page or a Phweet (phony Twitter feed)? Why or why not?

cyborg writing exercise

For the in-class writing exercise today:

1. Go to the following site and browse one or more pages

http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/cyborg/cyborgov.html

2. Think about what you’ve read in the context of class readings and lecture.

3. Think about what you’ve read as it pertains to the cyborg (Yod) in Marge Piercy’s He, She, and It.

4. Write a paragraph of 3-5 sentences discussing your conclusions. Begin with a thesis statement that summarizes and suggests your main point or argument.

interactive fiction writing exercise

Stuart Moulthrop’s Pax is a fairly sophisticated, and yet simple, interactive fiction. For this writing assignment, you will need to spend a few moments playing/reading Pax, then consider the questions below. Your replies to questions 1-4 require only a sentence. Your reply to question 5 requires something more like a paragraph, beginning with a thesis and followed by development, drawing from Pax, or from Moulthrop’s “Pax, Writing, and Change.” (Note: many of the “answers” to questions 1-4 can be found in “Pax, Writing, and Change.”)

IMPORTANT: You only need to answer 2 of the 4 first questions. But everyone needs to do #5.

The URLs for both the game and Moulthrop’s reflection on the game, are at the bottom of this page.

1. How is Pax like hypertext? How is it like a game? How do these two functions interact and intersect? Is Pax more hypertext than game, or vice versa?

2. How are time and space constructed in Pax?

3. Programming is writing, according to John Cayley (cited by Moulthrop), but is it literature?

4. Can writing by self-organizing, “feral” machines (games that basically play themselves) be considered literature? (Examples: Jason Nelson’s “poems”)

5. In “Pax, Writing, and Change,” Stuart Moulthrop claims that, one the one hand, writing and gameplay need to remain distinct, but on the other hand this poses the danger of exclusively identifying writing with reflection and argument, and exclusively identifying graphical interaction with play. Should writing and gaming remain distinct, or can they be mixed and still be considered literature?

* * *

Stuart Moulthrop, “Pax.”
http://iat.ubalt.edu/moulthrop/hypertexts/pax/

Stuart Moulthrop, “Pax, Writing and Change”:
http://engl278w.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/moulthrop_pax.pdf

Digital Poetry Writing Exercise

Go to Heliozoa.com, the digital poetry site of Jason Nelson.

Pick one poem from one category and read it. More than once if you can.

Then write a reflection on that one poem. Start with your general impressions. What is it? How does it work? What is the poet trying to accomplish? How does it compare to other digital literary works we have looked at in this class?

Then consider the same questions that you are dealing with in your paper:

1. Is this work literature? How so?

2. How does media function in this poem? What kind of media is used (words? images? sounds?)? How does it enable to reader to access it? How might it interfere with the reader’s attempt to access it?

In terms of literature and media, you might want to review the first paper prompt, where these terms are broken down into characteristics.

http://engl278w.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/first-paper-prompt-critical-reading-of-digital-literary-works/

Hypertext Writing Exercise

For our writing exercise today, I offer the following exercise:

1. Browse through all the hypertexts created in this class (links below)

2. Which is the most hypertext interesting to you, and why?

3. Which hypertext works best as a story, and why (that is, do the pieces mostly work together, or does the story seem mostly random)?

4. Choose one hypertext and write your own section of the story (3-5 sentences)

5. Choose one hypertext and determine its hyper-narrative (after consulting “Story Shapes for Digital Media” by Katherine Phelps; link below)

Here are the links for the class hypertexts:

http://engl278w.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/class-hypertexts/

http://engl278w.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/man-and-machine-in-jeopardy/

Here is the link for:

“Story Shapes for Digital Media” by Katherine Phelps
http://www.glasswings.com.au/modern/shapes/

Remediation Writing Exercise

For this writing exercise, you will attempt to commit remediation.

Specifically choose any print text and

A. Turn it into a movie
B. Turn it into a video game
C. Turn it into a hypertext

For each of those remediations, consider these three questions:

1. What parts of the print text are retained in the remediation?
2. What parts of the print text are left out of the remediation?
3. What aspects of print media are incorporated into the remediation?

In terms of structure, you might want to organize your response into three paragraphs, which are themselves divided into three sections. Something like:

A. My print text as a movie
1. Such-and-such is retained
2. Such-and-such is left out
3. Such-and-such aspects of print media are incorporated

Each of the numbered items should be described in a sentence or two.

If any of this confusing to you, you might want to review my lecture notes on media, mediation, and remediation:

http://engl278w.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/media-mediation-and-remediation/

When finished, email to:

byrnejo@umd.edu

Alien Anthropology Assessment Writing Exercise

For our writing exercise this week, I want you all to pretend that you’re space alien anthropologists come in the year 2059 to Norika (North America)—as described by Marge Piercy in He, She, and It—to investigate and write an assessment.

As anthropologists, your job is to explore and analyze culture. Since there are so many of you, you’ll each have to focus on one particular social institution in Norika circa 2059.

You’ll be writing a paragraph on ONE of the social institutions described in the novel (they are listed below).

Like any in-class writing exercise, your paragraph should begin with a thesis statement, suggesting the main point you wish to make. Use the rest of the paragraph to develop your main point, with examples from the book. Your paragraph should be 5-7 sentences in length.

Politics. How are the people of Norika governed? What people or parties are in control? Is there any resistance to this control? Is there a discernible class system?

Economics. How are things bought and sold in Norika? How do people get paid? What economic philosophy/system is dominant? What variants are there?

Religion. What religions are practiced in Norika? How does religious practice in 2059 differ from that of 2011 (according to the alien anthropologist reports from that time)?

Entertainment. How do the people of Norika amuse themselves? What technologies enable this entertainment? Is there any tension between entertainment and art?

Media. How do the people of Norika communicate? What technologies enable this communication? Is there any tension between privacy and public expression (or surveillance) in Norika?

Families/Relationships. How are families formed in Norika? What is the relationship between genders? What kind of sexual identities are allowed? Does family structure, gender relationship, and sexual identity differ depending on where you live in Norika?