Linguistics 375; Language and the Mass Media: Exploring linguistie variation within the public sphere MIW. 10:00-11:30 1068 East Hall Instructor: Professor Robin Queen Office: 406 Lorch Hall Office hours: Tues. 1:30-3:00 and by appt. Phone: 734-8030 e-mail: rqueen@umich.edu GSI: Erica Beck Office: 455 D Lorch Hall Office hours: Thursday 11:30-1 63-9218 (only during office hours) eckel@umich.edu Course information Web site: http://etools.umich.edu Class Twitter address: http://ling375.bwitter.com Class Blogs http:/linguistics-375. blogspot.com Course description: “This course examines language and language variation as it is found in popular culture, with two primary foci: 1) the use of language within popular culture outlets, such as that associated with the news, with specific activities (e.g. sports), with specific kinds of communities (e.g. science fiction), and with specific modes of popular communication (e.g. computer-mediated communication) and 2) the representation of linguistic variation in venues such as film, news. nedia, television, cartoons, music, sports, advertising, and popular magazines, One of our primary goals is to contrast the representation of language found in popular culture with the more scientific conception of language that is found in disciplines such as linguisties, anthropology and psychology. Another important goal is to understand how people can use language as a means of signaling the social groups to which they wish to belong. Along the way we will also consider the degree to which media create, perpetuate and/or reflect ideas about people, society and language. Course objectiv. Upon completion of this course, you will have: ~ used linguistic tools for analyzing language in the mass media; ~ improved your academic writing and reading skills; - learned to synthesize, reflect upon, and analyze theories about linguistic representation of social groups in the media;= improved a range of skills (analytical, communication, presentation, team work, academic research, ete.) via class activities and final project; ~ acquired a critical sociolinguistic perspective as a consumer of and participant in mass medi ~ connected knowledge and perspectives you learned in class with your society. Course readings: Required readings for the course are available electronically on the CTools website, A printed course pack is available for purchase from Dollar Bill Copy. Course requirements and gra Blog Participation: 15% Course Participation: 25% Research paper (10-12 pages) 45% 2 3-4 page pre-essays (5% each): 10% Full paper draft 10% Peer review 10% Final draft 15% Reflections and Reflection Papers and Journal: 15% Policy for late assignments: Late assignments will not be accepted without prior consent. If you have to miss class on the day an assignment is due, you still need to turn it in by the time ‘lass begins. Exceptions can be made for illness or other emergencies; however, you need to contact one of us before class or as soon as possible to make arrangements. We are more than happy to work with you; however, we won't guarantee an automatic extension. Writing Across the Disciplines This course fulfills the requirement for Writing Across the Disciplines. ‘This means that you will have several opportunities to revise a piece of written work, You will receive specific instruction at various points throughout the term devoted to writing and the written expression of your ideas. You will also have the opportunity to participate in a peer-review conference devoted to revising one of your two longer essays. ‘Work commitments for this course: Participation Participation is an important component of your success in this class. There ate a variety of ways ‘that you can participate: talking in class; coming to talk to me or Erica during office hours; \ bringing issues or data to class for discussion, etc. There is no formal attendance policy in this, course; however, attendance in class is in every way expected. We believe that you are taking this course because you are interested in engaging with us and with the material. We also assume that you take your decision to be in this class seriously and that you ate committed to fulfilling the requirements of the course to the best of your abilityParticipation will be evaluated based on evidence of your engagement in class and on frequent in-class assignments and occasional out-of class assignments such as opinion polls or data gathering. T plan to present an in-class assignment of some kind in nearly every class period. ‘These will largely be tied to the readings assigned on the syllabus. In-class assignments will be graded on a pass/fail basis. We understand that illness or emergencies may come up unexpectedly or that you may need to prioritize something else going on in your life; thus, I will drop some in-class assignments. Twill decide on how many at the end of the term based on a variety of factors, but you can assume it will be no more than 5, Blog We will also keep a class blog to practice applying principles discussed in class, to analyze small bits of data and to discuss general issues of language in the mass media that arise. During the term, you should post a minimum of three (3) original entries. The entries should focus on an observation about current language use, spoken or written, and provide informed speculation about or an explanation of the phenomenon. You should also post a minimum of four (4) substantive comments on your classmates’ entries. Fulfilling the minimum requirement will result in a grade no higher than a B+ for blog participation, We will look most favorably on those posters who space their posts rather than eluster them all in a few days, ‘The blog address is http://linguistics-375.blogspot.com and you will need a gmail account to participate. If you don’t have one, I can invite you using your regular e-mail address and Blogger will walk you through the process of setting up a gmail account. Reflection/Response papers and final journal ‘Throughout the term, you will be writing brief papers (1-1 / pages either single spaced or space and a half) in response to the readings and/or questions that I pose in class. ‘These papers will initially be graded for content and ideas only. Grades will be based on a 5 point seale in the following way: $=Outstanding; 4=Very good; 3-Good; 2=Fair; 1=Weak; 0=Incomplete. If you work hard on these assignments and write them well, you should expect to receive a 4; 5 will be reserved for written reflections that are in some way outstanding. I will announce the topic of the reflection papers one week prior to their due date and then post them to the CTools web site, At the end of the term, you will choose the 3 reflections that you believe best illustrate your thinking and insight over the course of the term, ‘You will revise these for both form and content and combine them with a two-page introduction explaining how they fit together and how they illustrate what you have learned over the course of the term. ‘This portfolio will be due Dec. 8. Reflections will be due to CTools as indicated on the schedule and are due 30 minutes prior to the start of class,Research paper Pre-essay #1: Short literature review (due Sept. 24 uploaded to CTools 30 minutes prior to the start of class): You will write a 3-4 page essay (| '4 spaced) summarizing and synthesizing three scholarly journal articles dealing with an issue related to language in the media. More specific information will be provided on the CTools website, Pre-essay #2: Data collection and analysis (due Oct. 15 uploaded to CTools 30 minutes prior to the start of class): You will conduct an investigative project involving the collection, analysis and discussion of linguistic data gathered from the media. The paper will be 3-4 pages (I/-spaced). More specific information will be available on the CTools website. First draft of research paper (due Nov. 5 uploaded to CTools 30 minutes prior to the start of class): ‘Taking your two pre-essays as your basis, you will write e firs draft of your final research paper. ‘This paper should be 10-12 pages long (I % spaced) and is a true draft in the sense thet it need not be fully polished. The main point of this draft will be to establish the basic organization, central claims and general argument of the paper. More specific information will be available on the CTools site. eer review and revision: Your paper will undergo peer review and revision, We will have a peer review conference on Dec.3, Detailed instructions for revision and peer review will be available on the CTools site. Final draft (due by Dec. 16 uploaded to Ctools by Spm ): You may tum in your final draft anytime up to 5 pm on Dec. 16. Detailed information about the final draft will be available on the CTools website. Letter grade conversion [round up to 1 decimal point (e.g. 89.50% rounds to 90; 89.45% doesn’t) Letter grades are assigned follows: 98-100% = At T119% CF 94-97% A 16% C 90-93% AW NB% CC 87-89% = Bt 67-69% D+ 3486% B 64-66% D 80-83% | Be 60-63% = De Below 60 pts E Other matters of business: 1. Ifyou have any specific needs that must be met in order for you to participate fully in the course, please let me or Erica know right away, If you have'a documented need for extra me or other accommodations on course requirements, please be sure to discuss your needs with me or Erica. If you find that something is getting in the way of your full participation in3. the course, please come and talk to one of us about what is going on so that we ean do our best to help find a solution, Flu outbreak provisions, If you come down with the flu, please stay home (or go to your family home if you live close enough). Please contact me as soon as you can and Pll work with you on due dates and things like that. You will not be penalized for missing class due to illness (though if you are frequently sick, J will ask you to come and talk to me about what is going on). assume that you will spend an average of 4-6 hours a week outside of elass doing the readings, assignments and other activities associated with the elass (so roughly an hour @ day). If you find that you are consistently spending more (or less) than that each week, please let me know. My office hours are Tuesdays 1:30-3:00 in 403 Lorch. Erica’s hours are Thursday 11:30-1. If these hours aren’t convenient for you, don’t hesitate to make an appointment for another time, Out of respect for all the participants in the class and especially your own learning, please don’t engage in electronic social networking or other forms of electronic play (unless we all do it as part of a class activity) during class, This means texting, facebooking, playing on-line or off-line games, reading and commenting on the news and other similar activities. I'm reasonably sensitive to this Kind of class disruption and if [find it distracting, I will ask you to cither stop or leave the class. Please don’t take it personally if I do. Before you come to class, please tum off anything that might beep, ring, play a song or make any other unsolicited noise at an inopportune moment. All of our time is valuable and, as we all know, none of us ever has enough. We expect you to come to class on time—to be here by 4:10 ready to begin class, In return, you can expect me to end class at 5:30, We are happy to correspond with you over e-mail if you have a quick question or comment or need to make an appointment. If you have a longer or more complicated issue to discuss, please come fo one of our office hours or make an appointment to see us. (If you think that answering your e-mail will take longer than about 2 minutes, you can assume that i's a “longer or more complicated issue”). In general, you can expect us to answer a short e-mail within 24 hours, except between 5 pm on Friday and 9 am on Monday o as otherwise noted. ‘When e-mailing, please provide a subject Line that makes it as clear as possible what you are e-mailing about. Formal written assignments will be turned in via CTools and are due 30 minutes before the start of class on the date they are due. Formatting guidelines are included with each assignment; however, in general, you should plan to double-space your papers and wse @ Lor 1.25 inch margin, Papers should be tumed in one of the following formats: .doc (not docx) or pdf. Any paper that is not in one of these formats will be retuned ungraded, You will10. i need to make arrangements to turn in a new copy and the paper will be considered late and penalized accordingly. Please be sure and include your name, a title and the title of the assignment on your papers. Unless there is an extenuating circumstance and you have received permission from me or Erica beforehand, assignments will not be accepted in hard copy. Unless there is an outstanding reason to do so, we won't accept late assignments, 1 will often (though not always) post either lecture notes or a lecture outline for fecture periods. Although Iwill occasionally post them earlier, in general, you can expect them to be available shortly before class. Please be fully aware of the University's policies on scholastic dishonesty. When scholastic dishonesty is documented on any work for this course, you will receive a zero. Further, the matter may be turned over to the Dean of Student Academic Affairs for inquiry, with a recommendation of 'E'for the course. You should be particularly aware of plagiarism. Plagiarism is a form of cheating in which you use someone else's ideas and/or words (including those of your roommate, classmate, parent, significant other etc.) without proper citation of the source. Itis plagiarism regardless of whether the material comes from a printed source, from the Internet or from a lecture or a friend: if you got the idea from someone else, you must cite the source properly—and this is true even if you aren't using the source's exact wording. You should familiarize yourself with issues of plagiarism and academic integrity (http://www. lib.umich.edu/academic-integrity).