WRT 205 (32497): Critical Research

Meetings: M | W | F 11:40-12:35 in Bowne 110

Instructor: Jana Rosinski | jrosinsk@syr.edu
Office Hours: Monday 12:50-1:50 in HBC 005 or by appointment

After all these implements and text designed by intellects So vexed to find evidently there's just so
much that hides. -Saint Simon, The Shins

Course Materials
We will create material by brushing information from our key concepts and readings with our
own connections, questions, and experiences on the course site. We will work together to
foster this material and the habits/ways of working that will create it.
Readings will be shared as PDFs or web links on Blackboard. It is your responsibility to have
printed copies or bring a digital copy with you in class.
An organization system and workflow, TBA. I will ask you to create several accounts for free
web tools to use in the research process.

Course Description
Welcome to WRT 205, a writing course focusing on methods of analysis, argumentation, and
research as critical inquiry. In order to succeed as writers and thinkers and engaged citizens in todays
environment, it becomes important for us to grow accustomed to locating, evaluating and processing
reliable information. Part of this task involves asking good questions questions that trigger an
active engagement with issues and concepts. This semester well learn to ask and pursue such
questions. Reading, understanding the composing process, and of course writing itself are all
inseparable components of this course. This means you will need to unpack texts, react to these

texts in writing, and develop your own writing around topics and subjects that are meaningful to you
(and intersect with our shared topic of inquiry).

Our Topic of Inquiry

The alien isnt in the Roswell military morgue, or in the galactic far reaches, or in the undiscovered
ecosystems of the deepest sea and most remote tundra. Its everywhere. Ian Bogost, Alien

Phenomenology or What Its Like to Be a Thing

We are surrounded by alien things. From the things we own and use to the spaces we occupy, often
little attention is paid to these objects that construct our worlds. But these things have tremendous
impact allowing and even thwarting our daily activities. Together we will wonder and will explore the
alien everyday through accounting for places/environments, technologies, and objects, uncovering
the agency of the familiar strangeness that we are surrounded and influenced by.

Course Goals
WRT 205 focuses on the rhetorical strategies, practices, and conventions of critical academic
research writing.
Students will investigate a shared topic of inquiry and develop research questions that
engage the complexities (social, political, ideological, economic, historical) of and current
debates about that topic.
Students will learn multiple research strategies, including primary research, and develop more
extensive knowledge of library databases in order to identify sources appropriate to their
research questions.
Students will read sources rhetorically, which involves considering authors positions in
relation to audiences, recognizing points of congruence and difference among texts, and
establishing a genuine dialogue with others ideas.
Students will understand the role of genres, sources, styles and media in communicating with
particular audiences and for specific purposes.
Students will understand the ways in which digital media shape all stages of the research and
writing processinvention, composing, revision, deliveryand will understand how the
effects of digital media vary according to audience, genre, context, and purpose.
Students will produce texts that demonstrate a nuanced understanding of and an ethical
relationship with sources and research participants.

 Students will demonstrate how their dialogue with sources has broadened and enhanced
their own thinking about the issue.
Students will practice and produce analysis, argument, synthesis and summary as central
components of researched writing.
Students will write a series of informal assignments as part of their composing process, and at
least three sustained, finished texts that respond to specific rhetorical situations.
Students will practice the strategies of incorporating the research of others into their own
texts in a variety of ways (including summary, paraphrase, quotation) and will provide textual
evidence of where, how, and why sources are being used.
Students will develop revision and editing strategies for organization, prose style, and
technical control.

Grading and Work Overview

Reading Annotation and Collection 10%
This note-taking method is in no way meant to interfere with or distract from your existing processes
for writing while reading. Rather, it is designed to prime in-class discussions and cast new light on
your habits of interacting with the reading you do in this course. This will serve as material in
developing your research projects as you work through concepts, make connections to prior
knowledge and interests, and formulate objects of inquiry. For each reading, create a document that
attends to the following:
A 1-2 sentence summary
A list of keywords and phrases words or phrases the piqued your interest, that stood out as
important, or that you want to hold onto for further deliberation and their page referent
At least two questions one of clarification and one for discussion
Clarification: These questions should be about terms or concepts you didnt
understand or about moments in the argument you found unclear. These questions
are, for the most part, focused on understanding the reading, and we will address
these first during class discussion.
Discussion: These questions are more geared toward opening up class discussion,
and they can be focused on connections you see to other readings, the implications
of the argument weve read, or ways that you think the argument might be applied to
research questions.
We will collaboratively use your notes to create a glossary of important terms and concepts.

Methods Modules 10%

We will explore researching methods through small applications of word work, source work, object
work, site (location) work, and person (interview and autoethnography) work. Each method module
will include an in class reading and time to construct a model of the method of focus. We will explore
the following questions to frame our inquiry in this course:

What is research?
What are research methods?
Why might researchers need to gain experience with different methods?
What are resources available to develop research writing?
How do collection and annotations habits support research writing?
How do rhetorical concepts, such as audience, purpose, context, and timing (or kairos) impact
research writing?

Ontography: Object Analysis 35%

Animal, Plant, and Man-made Material
Space and/or Place
Technologies
For your ontography, you will pick an object to investigate. Each investigation should involve
documenting the object (images, video, audio, description), analyzing the object in terms of course
readings, and making a case for that object as a rhetorical agent or agency. Research will be
conducted through a combination of primary (interaction with the object of analysis) and secondary
(source based) methods. Each ontography will be framed through a design plan and rhetorical
choices will be accounted for through an inventory of effect/affect. What will be created as the
ontography will differ depending on the individual and the object of analysis, but each will attend to a
method and a methodology from the core of our research work.

Furthermore, you will make the object of your analysis.

Carpentry: Making the Alien Experience - 35%

Carpentry is the creation of a machine that attempts to simulate the experience of an object. Ian
Bogosts notion of carpentry describes how making things is a way of doing philosophy. Such work
involves making things that explain how things make their world, and it means that we create a

machine that tries to replicate the unit operation of anothers experience. This approach insists that
engaging objects in various ways (beyond writing about or observing them) is a crucial part of
understanding how objects relate and interact.

Maker Fair: Research Presentations and Demonstrations 10%

At the end of the course, we will hold demonstrations and interactions with our ontography and
carpentry projects.

Attendance & Participation

Attendance and active engagement in the course is critical. Your absences will affect your
classmates work as well as your own. All the work is designed to develop your research skills and will
feed directly into your writing.

Each unit calendar will outline the following weeks assignments, but we may shift assignments
around or change direction occasionally as it seems appropriate, necessary, or interesting. If you must
miss a class, you are responsible for making up the work and getting yourself back on track. Please
realize that you cannot make up class time.

If you miss the equivalent of three weeks of classes or more without any official documented excuse
you will not be able to pass the course. I dont anticipate any of you will be in that position, however,
so lets all agree to do the work, learn a lot, and make the course a meaningful experience.

Communication with Peers; Communication with the Instructor

While you can expect a fair amount of leadership and direction to come from me, you should also
make arrangements early in the semester to communicate with your peers. In other words, you are
strongly encouraged to identify one or two (perhaps more) peers in the class with whom you can
discuss readings and assignments, work through questions brought up in the class, and approach
when you find something unclear. In short, my hope is that we all will prefer a climate in which

conversation flows both between the instructor and students and also between and among students
when questions come up. Finally, you should always be proactive about asking questions when you
have them, either by raising questions in the discussion area or contacting me or one of your peers
privately.

Student Writing
All texts written in this course are generally public. You will be asked to share them with peers, the
class, and with me. It is understood that registration for and continued enrollment in this course
constitutes permission by the student for the instructor to use any work resulting from the course.

The Writing Center

Experienced consultants at the Writing Center (101 HB Crouse Hall, on the Quad) are available to
work one-on-one with you at any stage of your writing process and with any kind of writing youre
creating. Whether you need help understanding an assignment, brainstorming ideas, revising
subsequent drafts, or developing editing strategies, face-to-face and online chat appointments are
available for 25- or 50-minute sessions throughout the semester. Appointments can be reserved up
to seven days in advance via their online scheduling program, WCOnline. In addition, drop-in
appointments are welcome Monday through Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and brief
concerns or questions can be emailed to consultants via their eWC service. For more information on
hours, location and services, please visit http://wc.syr.edu. This is a free resource to all students and
highly recommended for every assignment you work on in this class.

Special Needs and Situations

If you believe that you need accommodations for a disability, please contact the Office of Disability
Services (ODS), http://disabilityservices.syr.edu, located in Room 309 of 804 University Avenue, or
call (315) 443-4498 for an appointment to discuss your needs and the process for requesting
accommodations. ODS is responsible for coordinating disability-related accommodations and will
issue students with documented disabilities Accommodation Authorization Letters, as appropriate.

Since accommodations may require early planning and generally are not provided retroactively,
please contact ODS as soon as possible.

Syracuse University and I are committed to your success and to supporting Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973. This means that in general no individual who is otherwise qualified shall be
excluded from participation in, be denied benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any
program or activity, solely by reason of having a disability.
You are also welcome to contact me privately to discuss your academic needs although I cannot
arrange for disability-related accommodations.

Religious Observance
SUs religious observances policy, found at
http://supolicies.syr.edu/emp_ben/religious_observance.htm, recognizes the diversity of faiths
represented among the campus community and protects the rights of students, faculty, and staff to
observe religious holy days according to their tradition. Under the policy, students are provided an
opportunity to make up any examination, study, or work requirements that may be missed due to a
religious observance provided they notify their instructors before the end of the second week of
classes. For fall and spring semesters, an online notification process is available through
MySlice/Student Services/Enrollment/My Religious Observances from the first day of class until the
end of the second week of class.

Academic Honesty
The academic community requires ethical behavior from all of its participants. For writers, this means
that the work we claim as ours must truly be ours. At the same time, we are not always expected to
come up with new ideas; we often build our thinking on the ideas of others. We are expected,
however, to credit others with their contributions and to clearly indicate the boundaries of our own
thinking. In cases where academic dishonesty is detected (the fraudulent submission of anothers
work, in whole or part, as your own), you may be subject to a failing grade for the project or the

course, and in the worst case, to academic probation or expulsion. For a more detailed description of
the guidelines for adhering to academic honesty in the College of Arts and Sciences, go to
http://academicintegrity.syr.edu