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English 556, Authorship and Intellectual Property in Rhetoric and Writing:
Exploring Notions of Copyright, Plagiarism, and Creative Appropriation
Dr. Clancy Ratliff
337-482-5501 (office) [email protected] (best way to reach me)Office hours: TBA
Course DescriptionThe field of rhetoric and composition studies has produced a considerable body of work about notions ofauthorship: the study of the rhetoric surrounding debates about copyright and file sharing/piracy; the
intellectual history of authorship as a concept; and pedagogical theory about student authorship,
collaborative writing, and plagiarism. This seminar will engage these scholarly works as well as currentpractices in popular culture such as remix, mashups, and machinima.
For those interested in literature and creative writing, we will spend some time discussing
authorship of creative work, including found poetry, allusion, using copyrighted material in video
compositions and performances, and other practices of creative appropriation of others work. Thoseinterested in writing pedagogy or who may be interested in a survey-type course in composition theory
will have the opportunity to form that foundation of knowledge through reading pedagogical theory
about collaboration, authorship in the classroom context, plagiarism, and more. For students interested inrhetoric and technology, we will be examining cultural shifts in ideas about copyright and intellectual
property as propelled by advances in technology, as well as alternative models of copyright, like copyleft
and Creative Commons licenses.
Required TextsThe Making and Unmaking of Intellectual Property
Composition and Copyright
Assignments
500-word weekly reading responses, 20-25 page seminar paper, presentation
Grade DistributionClass Participation 30%
Moodle Posts 30%
Seminar Paper 40%
Attendance
English department policy allows students to miss up to 10% of the total number of class
meetings. In a two-day-per-week class, you may miss three class meetings without any grade
consequence, but I will expect you to write a post for the Moodle site to fulfill the class
participation requirement. Speak to me early if you foresee a compelling reason to miss more
than three class meetings.
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Academic IntegrityIn this course, we'll be talking a LOT about plagiarism. As Rebecca Moore Howard has
written, flagrant plagiarism, on the order of turning in whole papers written by someone
other than you, should be treated as fraud, like falsifying a transcript. And it will, in this class.
I don't expect to see that or smaller-scale plagiarism, and I certainly won't be having you run
your papers through Turnitin (unless you want to, as an experimental or performative
exercise). If I question your claim to authorship in some way, I'll talk to you about it.
Services for Students with Disabilities
In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the University of Louisiana at
Lafayette makes accommodations for students with disabilities. If you have a documented
disability, please contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS) office at 337-482-5252 or
[email protected] during the first week of classes. ODS will assist you with anaccommodation plan. The university also has a Supported Education Program (SEP,
http://disability.louisiana.edu/SEP.html), which provides free confidential help on campus
for students with psychological disabilities (Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Anxiety, etc.).
Please contact Kim A. Warren, MSW, PhD, LCSW, Supported Education Advisor, at 482-5252
or at [email protected]. She is located in the Conference Center, Room 126.
Writing Center
The Writing Center is a free service located on the first floor of Griffin Hall, in room 107. The
Writing Center consultants are experienced writers and students who pride themselves oncreating a comfortable environment for every phase of your writing project. From thesis
statements, to research planning, document design, to just getting started, the Writing Center
staff works to help you become more focused, organized, and confident with your work. In
addition to providing the latest style manuals and handbooks, the Writing Center also
operates a computer lab, located next door in Griffin Hall, room 108. Both of these services are
free, student-operated, and devoted to helping you be a more successful and productive
student. Walk-ins are accepted, but scheduling an appointment in advance (482-5224) is
recommended. Appointments that are more than ten minutes late will have to be
rescheduled.
Safety Information
University Police are the first responders for all emergencies on campus. Dial 911 or 482-
6447 to report any emergency.
The Emergency Information Floor Plan is posted in the hallways for every building. This
document includes evacuation routes and other important information. Please
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familiarize yourself with this document.
In the event that the building fire alarm is sounded, please exit the building immediately
and notify University Police. Do not use the building elevator - look for the illuminated
Exit Signs to direct you to safety.
During times of emergency, information may be available on the University's Emergency
Hotline - 482-2222. This number is printed on the back of your ID card.The University utilizes a text message service to notify its students and employees of
campus wide emergencies. To subscribe to this service, log on to
www.ul.mobilecampus.com.
If you have a special medical condition that might render you incapacitated during class,
please make this known to your instructor as soon as possible, including any
emergency contact information for your next of kin or similar.
Daily Schedule (Subject to Change):
Week 1: Overview
August 21: Introduction to Course.
August 23: Lunsford and West, "Intellectual Property and Composition Studies";
Woodmansee, "The Genius and the Copyright"
Week 2: Overview, continued.
August 28: Logie, "The (Re)Birth of the Composer," C&(C); Introduction to C&(C) andM&U
August 30: DeVoss, "English Studies and Intellectual Property: Copyright, Creativity, and the
Commons"; Dush, C&(C); preface ofCopywrite; introduction to Free Culture
Week 3: Theories of Authorship
September 4: Foucault, "What Is an Author"; Barthes, "The Death of the Author"
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September 6: Eliot, "Tradition and the Individual Talent"; Peter Jaszi, "Postmodern Copyright,"
M&U
Week 4: Fair Use
September 11: Rife, Lee, C&(C); Herrington, "The Interdependency of Fair Use and the FirstAmendment"; Herrington, "Following the Framers," Copywrite
September 13: Young, "The Voices of Hurricane Katrina, Part I"; McDaniel, "The Voices of
Hurricane Katrina, Part II"; McDaniel, "Convention Centers of the New World"; Code of Best
Practices in Fair Use for Poetry
Week 5: Rhetoric in File Sharing/Piracy Debates
September 18: Woodmansee, "Publishers, Privateers, Pirates,"M&U; Liang, "Beyond
Representation,"M&U
September 20: Johns, "The Property Police,"M&U; Lessig, chapters 1-5, Free Culture
Week 6: Rhetoric in File Sharing/Piracy Debates, continued.
September 25: Logie, Peers, Pirates, and Persuasion
September 27: Reyman, "Property, Theft, Piracy" in C&(C); Gillespie, "Characterizing
Copyright,"M&U
Week 7: Alternative Models of Copyright
October 2: Lowe, "Considerations for Creative Commons Licensing of Open Educational
Resources: The Value of Copyleft"; Ratliff, "'Some Rights Reserved'," C&(C)
October 4: Kelty, "Inventing Copyleft,"M&U; TBA
Week 8: Feminist Theories of Authorship
October 9: Lunsford, "Rhetoric, Feminism, and the Politics of Textual Ownership"; Ede and
Lunsford, "Rhetoric in a New Key"
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Week 9: Collaborative Authorship
October 16: Ede and Lunsford, "Why Write...Together?" "Collaboration and Concepts of
Authorship"
October 18: Spigelman, "Habits of Mind"; TBA
Week 10: Plagiarism and Pedagogy
October 23: Howard, "Plagiarisms, Authorships, and the Academic Death Penalty"; Council of
Writing Program Administrators, "Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on
Best Practices"
October 25: Price, "Beyond 'Gotcha'"; Robillard, We Wont Get Fooled Again: On the Absenceof Angry Responses to Plagiarism in Composition Studies
Week 11: Plagiarism and Pedagogy, continued
October 30: Robillard and Fortune, "Toward a New Content for Writing Courses: Literary
Forgery, Plagiarism, and the Production of Belief"; draft due
November 1: CCCC-IP Caucus Position Statement on Plagiarism Detection Services; Landow,
"Ms. Austen's Submission"; Robillard, "Pass it On: Revising the Plagiarism is Theft Metaphor"
Week 12: Plagiarism and Pedagogy, continued
November 6: Ritter, "The Economics of Authorship: Online Paper Mills, Student Writers, and
First-Year Composition"; Ritter, "Buying In, Selling Short: A Pedagogy Against the Rhetoric of
Online Paper Mills" Johnson-Farris, "Moving Beyond Plagiarized / Not Plagiarized in a Point,
Click, and Copy World," Copywrite
November 8: Howard, Serviss, and Rodrigue, Writing from Sources, Writing from
Sentences"; Halasek, "Review: Theorizing Plagiarism in the University"
Week 13: Teachers' Intellectual Property
November 13: Reyman, "Copyright, Distance Education, and the TEACH Act: Implications for
Teaching Writing"; Galin, "Own Your Rights," C&(C)
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November 15: Amidon, "Authoring Academic Agency: Charting the Tensions between Work-
for-Hire University Copyright Policies," Copywrite; Mangan, "Faculty Cry Foul Over
Intellectual-Property Policy at U. of Louisiana System"; University of Louisiana System,
"Intellectual Property and Shared Royalties"
Week 14: Outtakes
November 20: Perlman; Oliar and Sprigman, M&U
Week 15: Colloquium
November 27: Presentations
November 29: Presentations
Supplemental Recommended Reading:
Two special issues (1998 and 2010) ofComputers and Composition
Jessica Litman, Digital CopyrightOpen Source special issue ofComputers and Composition Online
Jessica Reyman, The Rhetoric of Intellectual Property
Clancy Ratliff, review of Reyman
Siva Vaidhyanathan, Copyrights and Copywrongs; The Anarchist in the Library
TyAnna Herrington and Jay David Bolter, Controlling Voices: Intellectual Property, Humanistic
Studies, and the Internet
IP Annuals: http://www.ncte.org/cccc/committees/ip
John Logie, article in First Monday
Karen Burke-LeFevre, Invention as a Social ActRebecca Moore Howard and Amy Robillard, Pluralizing Plagiarism
Rebecca Moore Howard, Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
Janice Lauer, Invention in Rhetoric and Composition
Lisa Ede and Andrea Lunsford, Writing Together: Collaboration in Theory and Practice
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