76-101
Hello World: Texts & Tech
Interpretation and Argument
- Institution
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Taught
- Fall 2024
- Syllabus
- [Link to syllabus PDF]
Description
In today’s world, tools like Grammarly and ChatGPT assist with writing tasks, prompting us to question the role of traditional writing skills. This course explores why learning to write is crucial, even as technology evolves. You will examine how writing and technology intertwine in modern academic writing, and how digital tools have become integral to the writing process. Echoing Marshall McLuhan’s famous phrase, “The medium is the message,” this course investigates how digital tools and mediums reshape how we write and produce knowledge, raising questions about the changing landscape of communication and writing.
To ground our discussions, we will start with the iconic “Hello World” program, exploring its significance and societal impacts. What can we say about the writing experience of coding on an inflexible machine that permits only specific inputs? Who is included or excluded in this digital conversation? We will also discuss the use of digital platforms and software like GitHub and LaTeX, which require coding literacy and have become essential in some academic fields. How might these tools contribute to a technology gap and widen the information gap? Conversely, in what ways do they offer open, transparent, and collaborative experiences for writers and researchers?
Through readings and practical exercises, we will examine the use of metadata, digital tools, and collaborative platforms in academic writing. Readings from digital humanities scholars such as Anne Burdick, Marshall McLuhan, Kathleen Fitzpatrick, and Johanna Drucker will guide our discussions. We will engage in practical exercises with digital writing tools like Zotero, Google Docs, and Miro, and be introduced to Tableau for data visualization. These tools will enable a collaborative writing experience and allow you to reflect on the writing process as an interactive and dynamic intellectual practice. As a foundational writing course, you will practice essential writing skills and develop critical reading abilities. You will apply these skills to analyze arguments, synthesize various perspectives on central problems, and contribute your argument to discussions on how digital tools are transforming various fields of study.