In Humanities Core this year, you will engage in various forms of writing and creativity. As you might expect, you will be writing a number of academic essays. While these will be directed toward an academic audience, they will differ in their disciplinary methods, formal conventions, and treatment of evidence. In addition to these academic essays, you will create work for a broader audience, for whom you have different contexts to consider: Who composes this audience? What contexts should you give them for your argument? What is your purpose in writing to this audience--to inform, prompt reflection, incite change? How will your writing identity take shape as your writing progresses?
Your first assignment is to design a website that will represent your experiences this year in HC, your life on campus, and your thoughts on public events. A website is a good place to start thinking about writing because it asks you to situate yourself as a writer by considering purpose, audience, voice, medium, etc. As you develop your website, gain new experiences, read new texts, write new blogs, and converse with your readers, that purpose and voice will likely change. This transformation over time defines the writing situation, one in which you begin with an idea that becomes complicated in the very process of writing.
Design a website that connects your intellectual experiences in Humanities Core with your private intellectual life and public events. Your website can include as many sub-pages as you wish, but it must include a blogging page designed around your work in Humanities Core.
In Fall Quarter, you will be assigned six required blog entries that must pose and engage with humanistic research questions. Combined, these entries will equal 25% of your writing grade. While blogs are self-directed, you may receive some prompting by your section leader.
Your blog posts can be posted at any time before the due date. Your instructor will give you details about how you will receive credit for each post. Keep in mind that you will have to cite your sources accurately. Your instructor will inform you about what citation style to use. Despite its seemingly informal appearance, the blog genre does not exempt you from citing your sources, something you should do in all public forms of writing.
The final blog and your website as a whole will be due at the end of the quarter, on a date determined by your section leader. To receive credit, please paste all entries into a single document and upload them to turnitin.com. The blog entries, combined, will equal 25% of your writing grade; the website as a whole will equal 5% of your writing grade.
In Spring Quarter, the blog entries will be worth 15% of your grade.
The Writing and Design Process
Video tutorial: UCI Google Sites
