Iggy's Syllabus: A Space for Students and Educators Using Second Life® and Other Virtual Worlds

Fall 2009 T Th 3:45-5:00, Jepson G22

Dr. Joe Essid, Writing Center Director, Weinstein Hall 408, jessid@richmond.edu
SL Avatar: Ignatius Onomatopoeia. Office Hours in-world & in-person: M 10-11am, Th 1-2pm & by appointment
Writing Consultants: Your partners in my RHCS 383 class

In 2006 I swore that I'd never assign conventional "papers" again. They are too tied to 20th-century notions of literacy; instead, writing now flourishes as part of multimedia and "multimodal" composition.  That's a high-falutin' way of saying that writers now work in teams, or at least share their work widely and combine images, sounds, and text: personal, source-based, and creative writing. These projects look little like the stapled essays we associate with academic work. 

Student Showcase: A gallery of wiki projects from Eng. 103 and other courses

Our course goals are: 

• Write more clearly and more analytically for an academic audience, especially reasoning TO a claim or claim or thesis, not FROM one
• Learn and practice how the Internet and other technologies change communication
• Learn how to evaluate textual, visual, and multimedia material
• Experience crafting persuasive arguments and supporting them with evidence for real audiences other than the teacher and classmates
• Practice multiple-draft assignments to improve reading and editing skills, with the help of peers, a Writing Consultant, and me
• Do close work to improve grammatical and stylistic skills
• Increase fluency with print and Web-based resources for academic writing
• Practice and improve skills needed for every major, including the sciences and business.

The virtual worlds we'll explore only give us a touchstone to explore how language, image, and identity function in a radically new medium.  Students, colleagues, and visitors: begin your journey with the sidebar links to the right, and enjoy!  Press notes about the course...students write for a REAL audience in this section of Eng. 103.

Note: Second Life® and Linden Lab® are trademarks or registered trademarks of Linden Research, Inc. All rights reserved. No infringement is intended.