MCWP 125 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS - WINTER 2010

• All students with more than 90 cumulative units need to obtain departmental authorization from the Muir Writing office before enrolling in MCWP courses.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Students on the waitlist who do not attend the first class meeting of Muir Writing will be considered NOT ELIGIBLE TO ENROLL in the course. Enrolled students who miss the first two class sessions will be asked to drop the course. Responsibility for dropping the class from the Registrar’s records belongs solely to the student.
  
  The reading and writing requirements are the same for all sections. Books for each section will be available at Groundwork Books (858-452-9625) in the Old Student Center. Course readers will be sold at the UCSD Bookstore, located in the Price Center.
  
  CHANGES TO TIMES OR SECTION ID INFORMATION WITH BE NOTED IN BOLD AND WITH AN ASTERISK*.

-WINTER 2010-

Marketing America Then and Now:
Advertising Changes in the Age of High Technology, Economic Downturns and Consumer Snark

Many scholars have chronicled the development of branding, the creation of consumer identity, and the resulting changes in twentieth-century United States culture. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, however, much of what was considered standard marketing practice has been fundamentally changed: consumers consider themselves much more savvy, technology trends allow those consumers to bypass much advertising, and most recently, the recession means that the advertising that is getting through is reaching people with less cash and/or motivation with which to consume. In this course we will read about marketing history and contemporary trends with an emphasis on cultural impact. The course will culminate in student research in this expansive subject area.

Texts:
The Craft of Research, Third Edition by Booth, et al; and a photocopied reader

Between Technology and the Arts

Advancements in technology have given rise to new forms of creativity such as computer music and computer-generated art, expanding the boundaries and definitions of artistic expression.   While some embrace the possibilities offered by these new art forms, others believe that they rob us of our humanity by subsuming the uniquely “human” activity of artistic expression into forms which are precisely inhuman.   Still others argue that we should not be quick to make so rigid a distinction between “humanity” and “technology,” especially in this modern age where much of everyday life is intimately connected with technology, from cell phones to the Internet.   In this course we will examine articles and essays that support, critique, and engage with these various standpoints in order to better understand the rhetorical techniques used to shape this discussion, leading to a 13-15-page final research paper focusing on an original argument about the status and value of human aesthetics in the face of technology.

Text:
A photocopied reader and The Craft of Research, Third Edition by Booth, Colomb, and Williams