Computer Writing Course

Instructor Dr. Terrell Neuage

Computer Writing

at Albany Academy and Albany Academy for Girls

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At Albany Academy and Albany Academy for Girls

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Course Description

This is an introductory course on experimental computer writing using hypertext, digital storytelling, online WebPoetry, as well as student critiques of hypertextual literature already produced. We use the hypertext writing environment, Storyspace from Eastgate.

Computer Writing looks at electronic narrative. Firstly, we will work with hypertextual writing. Hypertext is non-linear and multi-linear narrative that is linked according to the witness of the story.

In essence, the reader becomes the writer-narrator, following self-chosen links. Hypertext writing shares some interesting features with folk storytelling traditions, for example, Native American, due to its digressive elements (stories within stories); what is called "a story" is really a web of stories, and like oral telling, in hypertext, no two explorations of a hypertext narrative are exactly the same for readers. In hypertext, the focus is on the reader and the appearance of choice and some determination of how to read, as every part of a hypertext narrative presents multiple choices for the direction and sequence of reading.

We will be reading and critiquing five stories from Eastgate publishers (www.eastgate.com):

Then, we will create our own hypertextual stories in the program Storyspace.

Later in the course, we will explore digital storytelling, which is the use of images and animations to tell a narrative. We will be using Macromedia Flash (examples of poems made in Flash) and Ulead’s GIF Animator to create electronic poetry and self-reflective diaries of alternative selves.

Grading

50% - Five Hypertextual Projects

You will have two class periods for each "project" (we may adjust this time once involved) to read and maneuver through the landscapes of the project, then one class period to write up your reflections on it. I will provide guidelines for this. These responses will be uploaded to our blog. There will be two entries for each project: one of your original reflections and one responding to what someone else in our course has written about a project. Each project is worth ten points: five for your critique and five for your response to another’s critique. See Critiquing Hypertext for details.

25% - Storyspace Project

You will do one project for a grade, which must be done in Storyspace. I will provide guidelines, but it will be about an alternative self.

25% - Other Projects

Our Sources

What is Hypertext?

Hypertext is text which is not constrained to be linear. Hypertext is text which contains links to other texts. The term was coined by Ted Nelson around 1965 (see History).

HyperMedia is a term used for hypertext which is not constrained to be text: it can include graphics, video, and sound, for example. Apparently, Ted Nelson was the first to use this term too.

Hypertext and HyperMedia are concepts, not products.

See also:

Videos

(Ties in isolation)

Previous YouTube channel (stories prior to 2013):

  1. I threw away my umbrella
  2. As far as the song we sing
  3. Tree - the story
  4. Pick a dream and stay awake in it