English 556 Syllabus

7/31/2019 English 556 Syllabus

1/6

English 556, Authorship and Intellectual Property in Rhetoric and Writing:

Exploring Notions of Copyright, Plagiarism, and Creative Appropriation

Dr. Clancy Ratliff

337-482-5501 (office) [email protected] (best way to reach me)Office hours: TBA

Course DescriptionThe field of rhetoric and composition studies has produced a considerable body of work about notions ofauthorship: the study of the rhetoric surrounding debates about copyright and file sharing/piracy; the

intellectual history of authorship as a concept; and pedagogical theory about student authorship,

collaborative writing, and plagiarism. This seminar will engage these scholarly works as well as currentpractices in popular culture such as remix, mashups, and machinima.

For those interested in literature and creative writing, we will spend some time discussing

authorship of creative work, including found poetry, allusion, using copyrighted material in video

compositions and performances, and other practices of creative appropriation of others work. Thoseinterested in writing pedagogy or who may be interested in a survey-type course in composition theory

will have the opportunity to form that foundation of knowledge through reading pedagogical theory

about collaboration, authorship in the classroom context, plagiarism, and more. For students interested inrhetoric and technology, we will be examining cultural shifts in ideas about copyright and intellectual

property as propelled by advances in technology, as well as alternative models of copyright, like copyleft

and Creative Commons licenses.

Required TextsThe Making and Unmaking of Intellectual Property

Composition and Copyright

Assignments

500-word weekly reading responses, 20-25 page seminar paper, presentation

Grade DistributionClass Participation 30%

Moodle Posts 30%

Seminar Paper 40%

Attendance

English department policy allows students to miss up to 10% of the total number of class

meetings. In a two-day-per-week class, you may miss three class meetings without any grade

consequence, but I will expect you to write a post for the Moodle site to fulfill the class

participation requirement. Speak to me early if you foresee a compelling reason to miss more

than three class meetings.


2/6

Academic IntegrityIn this course, we'll be talking a LOT about plagiarism. As Rebecca Moore Howard has

written, flagrant plagiarism, on the order of turning in whole papers written by someone

other than you, should be treated as fraud, like falsifying a transcript. And it will, in this class.

I don't expect to see that or smaller-scale plagiarism, and I certainly won't be having you run

your papers through Turnitin (unless you want to, as an experimental or performative

exercise). If I question your claim to authorship in some way, I'll talk to you about it.

Services for Students with Disabilities

In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the University of Louisiana at

Lafayette makes accommodations for students with disabilities. If you have a documented

disability, please contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS) office at 337-482-5252 or

[email protected] during the first week of classes. ODS will assist you with anaccommodation plan. The university also has a Supported Education Program (SEP,

http://disability.louisiana.edu/SEP.html), which provides free confidential help on campus

for students with psychological disabilities (Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Anxiety, etc.).

Please contact Kim A. Warren, MSW, PhD, LCSW, Supported Education Advisor, at 482-5252

or at [email protected]. She is located in the Conference Center, Room 126.

Writing Center

The Writing Center is a free service located on the first floor of Griffin Hall, in room 107. The

Writing Center consultants are experienced writers and students who pride themselves oncreating a comfortable environment for every phase of your writing project. From thesis

statements, to research planning, document design, to just getting started, the Writing Center

staff works to help you become more focused, organized, and confident with your work. In

addition to providing the latest style manuals and handbooks, the Writing Center also

operates a computer lab, located next door in Griffin Hall, room 108. Both of these services are

free, student-operated, and devoted to helping you be a more successful and productive

student. Walk-ins are accepted, but scheduling an appointment in advance (482-5224) is

recommended. Appointments that are more than ten minutes late will have to be

rescheduled.

Safety Information

University Police are the first responders for all emergencies on campus. Dial 911 or 482-

6447 to report any emergency.

The Emergency Information Floor Plan is posted in the hallways for every building. This

document includes evacuation routes and other important information. Please


3/6

familiarize yourself with this document.

In the event that the building fire alarm is sounded, please exit the building immediately

and notify University Police. Do not use the building elevator - look for the illuminated

Exit Signs to direct you to safety.

During times of emergency, information may be available on the University's Emergency

Hotline - 482-2222. This number is printed on the back of your ID card.The University utilizes a text message service to notify its students and employees of

campus wide emergencies. To subscribe to this service, log on to

www.ul.mobilecampus.com.

If you have a special medical condition that might render you incapacitated during class,

please make this known to your instructor as soon as possible, including any

emergency contact information for your next of kin or similar.

Daily Schedule (Subject to Change):

Week 1: Overview

August 21: Introduction to Course.

August 23: Lunsford and West, "Intellectual Property and Composition Studies";

Woodmansee, "The Genius and the Copyright"

Week 2: Overview, continued.

August 28: Logie, "The (Re)Birth of the Composer," C&(C); Introduction to C&(C) andM&U

August 30: DeVoss, "English Studies and Intellectual Property: Copyright, Creativity, and the

Commons"; Dush, C&(C); preface ofCopywrite; introduction to Free Culture

Week 3: Theories of Authorship

September 4: Foucault, "What Is an Author"; Barthes, "The Death of the Author"


4/6

September 6: Eliot, "Tradition and the Individual Talent"; Peter Jaszi, "Postmodern Copyright,"

M&U

Week 4: Fair Use

September 11: Rife, Lee, C&(C); Herrington, "The Interdependency of Fair Use and the FirstAmendment"; Herrington, "Following the Framers," Copywrite

September 13: Young, "The Voices of Hurricane Katrina, Part I"; McDaniel, "The Voices of

Hurricane Katrina, Part II"; McDaniel, "Convention Centers of the New World"; Code of Best

Practices in Fair Use for Poetry

Week 5: Rhetoric in File Sharing/Piracy Debates

September 18: Woodmansee, "Publishers, Privateers, Pirates,"M&U; Liang, "Beyond

Representation,"M&U

September 20: Johns, "The Property Police,"M&U; Lessig, chapters 1-5, Free Culture

Week 6: Rhetoric in File Sharing/Piracy Debates, continued.

September 25: Logie, Peers, Pirates, and Persuasion

September 27: Reyman, "Property, Theft, Piracy" in C&(C); Gillespie, "Characterizing

Copyright,"M&U

Week 7: Alternative Models of Copyright

October 2: Lowe, "Considerations for Creative Commons Licensing of Open Educational

Resources: The Value of Copyleft"; Ratliff, "'Some Rights Reserved'," C&(C)

October 4: Kelty, "Inventing Copyleft,"M&U; TBA

Week 8: Feminist Theories of Authorship

October 9: Lunsford, "Rhetoric, Feminism, and the Politics of Textual Ownership"; Ede and

Lunsford, "Rhetoric in a New Key"


5/6

Week 9: Collaborative Authorship

October 16: Ede and Lunsford, "Why Write...Together?" "Collaboration and Concepts of

Authorship"

October 18: Spigelman, "Habits of Mind"; TBA

Week 10: Plagiarism and Pedagogy

October 23: Howard, "Plagiarisms, Authorships, and the Academic Death Penalty"; Council of

Writing Program Administrators, "Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on

Best Practices"

October 25: Price, "Beyond 'Gotcha'"; Robillard, We Wont Get Fooled Again: On the Absenceof Angry Responses to Plagiarism in Composition Studies

Week 11: Plagiarism and Pedagogy, continued

October 30: Robillard and Fortune, "Toward a New Content for Writing Courses: Literary

Forgery, Plagiarism, and the Production of Belief"; draft due

November 1: CCCC-IP Caucus Position Statement on Plagiarism Detection Services; Landow,

"Ms. Austen's Submission"; Robillard, "Pass it On: Revising the Plagiarism is Theft Metaphor"

Week 12: Plagiarism and Pedagogy, continued

November 6: Ritter, "The Economics of Authorship: Online Paper Mills, Student Writers, and

First-Year Composition"; Ritter, "Buying In, Selling Short: A Pedagogy Against the Rhetoric of

Online Paper Mills" Johnson-Farris, "Moving Beyond Plagiarized / Not Plagiarized in a Point,

Click, and Copy World," Copywrite

November 8: Howard, Serviss, and Rodrigue, Writing from Sources, Writing from

Sentences"; Halasek, "Review: Theorizing Plagiarism in the University"

Week 13: Teachers' Intellectual Property

November 13: Reyman, "Copyright, Distance Education, and the TEACH Act: Implications for

Teaching Writing"; Galin, "Own Your Rights," C&(C)


6/6

November 15: Amidon, "Authoring Academic Agency: Charting the Tensions between Work-

for-Hire University Copyright Policies," Copywrite; Mangan, "Faculty Cry Foul Over

Intellectual-Property Policy at U. of Louisiana System"; University of Louisiana System,

"Intellectual Property and Shared Royalties"

Week 14: Outtakes

November 20: Perlman; Oliar and Sprigman, M&U

Week 15: Colloquium

November 27: Presentations

November 29: Presentations

Supplemental Recommended Reading:

Two special issues (1998 and 2010) ofComputers and Composition

Jessica Litman, Digital CopyrightOpen Source special issue ofComputers and Composition Online

Jessica Reyman, The Rhetoric of Intellectual Property

Clancy Ratliff, review of Reyman

Siva Vaidhyanathan, Copyrights and Copywrongs; The Anarchist in the Library

TyAnna Herrington and Jay David Bolter, Controlling Voices: Intellectual Property, Humanistic

Studies, and the Internet

IP Annuals: http://www.ncte.org/cccc/committees/ip

John Logie, article in First Monday

Karen Burke-LeFevre, Invention as a Social ActRebecca Moore Howard and Amy Robillard, Pluralizing Plagiarism

Rebecca Moore Howard, Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Janice Lauer, Invention in Rhetoric and Composition

Lisa Ede and Andrea Lunsford, Writing Together: Collaboration in Theory and Practice

English 556 Syllabus

Documents

Transcript of English 556 Syllabus