Graduate Student Guidelines: Digital Culture and Communication

You will not have to take exams, but you will have to turn in TWO, completely different, 5-7 page (single space, Times New Roman 12 font) papers which will hopefully relate in some way to your MA research. This page length does not include references.

Paper #1 (due March 10) should in some way touch upon the themes we're dealing with throughout the first half of the semester: the public networked sphere, copyright, public domain, and re-write culture. You should focus on one topic area that interests you specifically (e.g., Networking, public domain, creative commons as an education tool).

Paper #2 (due last day of class) should draw upon themes we're dealing with over the 2nd part of the course.

Both papers should be properly referenced and use at least 15 sources from academic books and journals (not newspapers, although the New York Times, The Guardian and the Washington Post are acceptable if there is adequate academic triangulation). There should be no grammatical or spelling errors and you should not consider these papers "drafts." I also urge you to constantly think of ways in which this research will help you towards your other MA work or is publishable in some way.

Teaching component: You will be expected to teach a full 1:15 unit on a topic that relates to the class but is also meaningful for you and your research. This means leading discussion; offering powerpoint or Google slide presentations; providing handouts, and bringing higher critical thinking to a specific topic related to our class.