Hypertext: Reading and Writing Online

 

 Week 3 (Rough draft due Thursday, Jan. 23) - First paper.

Write a proto-hypertext—the written material that will be the first stage in constructing an online hypertext.

Topic: Your paper will focus on copyright issues involving music.

• Read the articles from newspapers filed on Prometheus concerning the 7-2 Supreme Court decision handed down on January 15, 2003 against invalidating the Congressional extension of the copyright.
• Choose a short piece of music that you admire and save it in digital form, either by downloading it or copying it from a DC. Load the piece onto your VU-space and bring it on disk to class next Thursday, Jan. 23.
• Use the piece of music you have saved as your principal example during the course of the paper.
  
  

Structure: The paper should consist of nine 1/2-page lexias (total of 1500 words). We will construct a simple hypertext out of them, using a tree structure. The first two lexias will name the work and issue you are discussing and then present your thesis--both pro and con. That is, one will present a positive position on the issue you choose, and the other will present a negative position on the same issue. From each thesis lexia, there will then be three linked lexias, amplifying and supporting the position being argued. These supporting lexias should be full of detailed examples. One of the lexias on each side may be narrative or autobiographical, featuring your experience with the song you have chosen. The paper will end with a ninth lexia, which presents a conclusion. Of course, your conclusion may well be paradoxical or suggestive, for it will need to sum up two totally opposed arguments.

Presentation: You will be asked to present your paper for peer review by a fellow class member on Thursday. You should write your paper in Microsoft Word, inserting a page break between each of your nine lexias (to add a page break in a Word document, hold down the Ctrl key and hit Enter).

• Name your file as follows: "Lastname - paper 1 - draft."
• Post your file both to Prometheus (Files module, Jay Clayton's Inbox) and to your VU-Space.
• Post your music file to your VU-Space.

 

Paper 2

Write a hypertext critique of Blade Runner or Frankenstein. Organize your paper as a cycle
of 8 lexias, which will begin and end at the same point.

For the rough draft, post your first two lexias to Prometheus (Files module, Collaborative Files) and to your VU-Space. Name your file as follows: "Lastname - paper 2 - draft."

Structure for lexias:

1. Begin with a provocative scene, motif, or even line from the movie. Simply capture the scene dramatically. Do not try to say anything critical about it.
2. Interpret the scene, saying what you think makes it interesting, disturbing, etc. You should try to do a close reading of this moment in the movie.
3. Jump to another scene that you think is connected to the first one, either as a development of some idea or dramatic element in the first or as its opposite. Say a bit about how it is related to the first scene but spend most of the lexia simply describing it.
4. Analyze this second scene.
5. Jump to a third scene, which should work to conclude the line of argument you are implicitly developing in three stages. Again, indicate how it is related to the first three but spend most of the lexia capturing the scene for your readers.
6. Analyze your third scene. Keep your interpretation close to the details of the scene. Resist the temptation to reveal your hand about what you think the entire series of three means.
7. Reflections on what this series of scenes from the movie has made you think about some larger issue, such as movies in society, violence, gender roles, drugs, music--in short, whatever ideas or concerns that the series has served to illustrate.
8. End with a link back to your first lexia.
   

For the final draft, post your file to Prometheus (Files module, Jay Clayton's Inbox). Name your file as follows: "Lastname - paper 2."

Paper 3

Choose one of the following topics:

I. Write a hypertext essay on the representation of women in The Net, Disclosure, and/or a third movie of your own choice. Please begin with a thesis lexia, then devote a lexia each to five different female characters in the two/three movies. Focus each lexia on a specific scene, event, or trait in the character being discussed. Do not try to generalize about the character's role in the entire movie; it is hard to say persuasive things about the whole range of a character's actions in a single passage.

Select characters and features for discussion based on how well they support your thesis, but do not draw conclusions about the character in each lexia. Let your analysis of the character stand on its own rather than pointing out the moral of your discussion. Try not to refer backward or forward to your discussion of other characters. This technique should help you learn more about how to use examples in essays. Some beginning writers have a tendency to underline the obvious in an example. Let your example speak for itself; let it stand on its own in a vivid and dramatic way.

Your final lexia should be comparative. Here is where you draw the conclusions based on your earlier discussions and where you compare and contrast all five women.

• Post your file both to Prometheus (Files module, Jay Clayton's Inbox) and to your VU-Space.
• Please name your file both in your Word Processor and in Prometheus "Lastname, Firstname - paper 3."
  
  

II. Write a hypertext extending Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl. You should write new material, totalling 1200 words, divided into as many lexias as you want, which carry the story into the 21st Century. Your writing should contain both analytic commentary and fictional passages. The patchwork girl can be shown visiting Vanderbilt, Nashville, your home town, or any other locales that you find interesting. Feel free to incorporate large portions of Shelley Jackson's text into your own critical fiction, just as she incorporated passages by Mary Shelley and others in her work. The only requirement in terms of length is that your own new additions to the story should total 1200 words.

• Post your file both to Prometheus (Files module, Jay Clayton's Inbox) and to your VU-Space.
• Please name your file both in your Word Processor and in Prometheus "Lastname, Firstname - paper 3."

 

 

 

Paper 4

Construct a hypertext website using images, text, and any other multimedia you want (flash movies, powerpoint, sound, etc.) on any work we have read this semester. You may also choose a text from outside this class if you check with me before hand. Be creative. You may use material from previous papers, but there must be substantial new writing (1200 words of new text is a rough guideline). For next week, post a draft of your website to your folder in the classes area of VUspace.

 

Jay Clayton

Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt English