ENG 410: Judging a Book by Its Cover: Digital Book History

Wednesdays 6PM – 7:50PM Room AC-2A15 plus 1 hr asynchronous work

Description

ENG410 (Liberal Arts) Seminar in English: Special Topics 3 hrs. 3 crs. A special topic in English. Preq: WRIT 301, 302, 303 or 304; twenty-four credits in the English major; senior status; and departmental permission.

Judging a Book by Its Cover: Digital Book History In this senior seminar, we will learn to engage with books as material and digital objects, and investigate the impact of editors, publishers, and web content creators on the ways we read, analyze, and appreciate books. Students will be invited to explore the history of books in a variety of historical contexts and interrogate the ways texts have been remediated in digital spaces. The final assignment for this course will involve sustained research of a digital edition or rare book of students’ choice, culminating in a 10-15 page paper about their findings. This is a Writing Intensive Course.

Contact

The best way to reach me is through email. I try to answer emails within 24 hours (longer on nights and weekends). If you want to discuss anything like assignments, revisions to your writing, or personal issues impacting your work, the best place for these conversations are office hours. Please drop by any time during the above-mentioned window or make an appointment for alternate times. Please note I do not accept assignments via email.

Instruction Mode: Hybrid

We will have weekly in-person meetings (1h50) to discuss our analyses and go over analogue and digital projects together. Every week you will also have about 1 hour of asynchronous work to complete in the form of blogs, discussion, and digital reviews. During week 1, we will discuss as a class how to handle emergency situations and potential switches to a virtual environment. We’re a very small group this term, so attendance in these face to face meetings is required so that we can have productive discussions. Contact me if illness or emergencies make you have to miss a class meeting.

Learning Outcomes

Participants in this course will:

1. Learn the basic history and technologies of the book
2. Apply book history vocabulary to analyze print and digital books
3. Evaluate the impact of the codex as an interface that has shaped, and continues to shape, literary production
4. Analyze the future of print and the book in the digital age
5. Produce a digital project that demonstrates the above skills

Required Texts and Technology

• Amaranth Borsuk, The Book (MIT Press, 2018)
• Doug Dorst and J. J. Abrams, S (Little Brown & Company, 2013)
• Binding Kit from Colophon Book Arts
• Computer and internet access are required
• CUNY Academic Commons. 
  • Students must have a cuny.edu account to register 
  • You will receive an invitation and I will go over the course site during Week 1

Assignments

In order to earn a passing for the course, students must complete the following work:

• Formal blogs: students are required to post weekly reflections and explorations of specific topics of book history. 
• Discussion Leader/Participation: students are required to join class in person weekly and share ideas as we grapple with readings, potential assignment ideas, and methodologies. Each week, one student will be asked to prepare discussion questions to help us engage with our course readings. List of questions and page references required at least 24 hours before the student is due to lead class. 
• Materialities of the Book: the first paper (5 pages) will center around one paratextual, extratextual, or material aspect of the novel S. Due 3/15.
• Zine Project: for the second project students will produce a Zine on a topic of their choice and present it to the class. Due 4/16.
• Final Project: our final project will comprise a digital remediation of a digital text or physical book. Due 5/16.

Grading

We will use a form of labor-based grading that reflects your engagement and learning according to the following rubric. I encourage you to make a copy of this for your own records.

A-level grades	B-level grades	C-level grades
Formal blogs: 8/8	Formal blogs: 7/8 (B+) or 6/8 (B)	Formal blogs: at least 5/8
Participation: punctual, regular, and engaged. Up to 1 class missed.	Participation: punctual, regular, and engaged. Up to 2 classes missed or 2 late arrivals.	Participation: punctual, occasionally disengaged. Up to 2 classes missed, no more than 3 late arrivals.
Discussion Leader: well-prepared, complex questions; submitted on time	Discussion Leader: well-prepared, interesting questions; submitted on time	Discussion Leader: questions may struggle with depth and/or work was not submitted on time
Project drafts submitted on time: all	Project drafts submitted on time: 2/3	Project drafts submitted on time: 1/3
Final drafts submitted on time: all	Final drafts submitted within 24 hours of deadline: all	Final drafts submitted within 48 hours of deadline: all
Projects completed meeting expectations: all	Projects completed meeting expectations: all	Projects completed meeting expectations: at least 1/3
Projects completed exceeding expectations: 2/3	Projects completed exceeding expectations: 1/3	Projects completed exceeding expectations: n/a

Notes:

1. D and F grades may be assigned based on missing work, plagiarism issues, or severe lack of participation.
2. Rather than offer “grades,” numbers on Blackboard will assess the progress of your writing:
   • Grade of 1 = does not meet expectations and/or struggles with writing and style 
     • Grade of 2 = meets expectations and showcases good writing skills, may struggle with style
     • Grade of 3 = exceeds expectations in both writing and style  
3. Given the clip of our coursework, I will not accept late work beyond what’s outlined above unless we meet to discuss ahead of time and set a hard deadline for submission. This must happen no later than 2 working days prior to a deadline.
4. “Plus” and “minus” grades will be assessed in relation to strength of writing and overall work ethic (including supporting your peers). 
5. Your final exam will ask you to assess your own work with relation to these standards and assign yourself a grade.

York College Resources

• Dropping the class:  Make sure you pay careful attention to how dropping a course may affect your financial aid. Click here for more information.
• York College Library: http://york.cuny.edu/library   
• Collaborative Learning Center: call (718) 262-2494, or check their website for online tutoring.
• Counseling Center: offers free, confidential online support.
• English as Second Language (ESL) Tutoring Center: tutoring is available for ESL students. Call (718) 262-2831 for schedule.
• Students with Disabilities: Students with disabilities may contact the STAR Program to learn about and gain access to resources available to them at the college. See their website at for more details.

Plagiarism

The English Department abides by York’s policies on academic dishonesty, and considers all forms of cheating as unacceptable. York College describes cheating and plagiarism as:

1. “Cheating is the unauthorized use or attempted use of material, information, notes, study aids, devices or communication during an academic exercise.”

2. “Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person’s ideas, research, or writings as your own.”

Plagiarism is a serious academic offense:  the minimum penalty for plagiarism is an F for the assignment; the full penalty for plagiarism may result in an F for the course. Cases of plagiarism may be reported to the York College’s Academic Integrity Officer. This includes using or uploading materials to sites like Chegg, Course Hero, or Study Soup.  Information about plagiarism procedures is available here.

Fundamental standard & honor code

I expect you to treat one another in this class not only with respect, but with generosity. If you find a resource or an approach that has helped you, share it so others can benefit — and listen when others share. We will have multiple spaces to facilitate this. Please use them thoughtfully and respectfully. Playfulness, joy, and constructive criticism are welcome. Hatred, abuse, or discrimination are not.  

Respecting people’s names and pronouns is not optional. I will – gently – correct you each time you make a mistake and while I do not expect the same in return (it is my responsibility, as the instructor, to ensure I am using the names and pronouns you all request and not actively causing you harm), I do welcome it. Slurs and racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexist, and/or ableist language will not be welcome in this space.

Collaboration — with your classmates and others — is very much welcome in this course, but be sure to acknowledge your collaborators and the assistance they provided (e.g. including in your acknowledgements section a peer who proofread your work before you submitted it).