[post]

iterative The end is nigh.

writing The end is now.
assignment The end was already.

The iterative writing assignment (IWA) is the largest course component. In brief, the IWA is an essay
(re)written along the course of the semester. It works from the multiple denotations of the term
(contemporary, rare and obsolete):

iterate, v.
etymology:  < Latin  iterāt-, participial stem of  iterāre  to do again, repeat, rehearse,
< iterum again. 
1. transitive. To do (something) over again; to perform (an action) a second time, or
reproduce (an e ect); to repeat; to renew. Now rare.
2. To say, mention, or assert again or repeatedly; to repeat.
3. To make double or twofold; to duplicate. Obsolete. rare
4. intransitive.  Mathematics. To employ iteration; to make repeated use of a
formula by substituting in it each time the result of the previous application.

Crucially, to iterate is to do, to perform, and for the second time. In particular, and more commonly, is to
assert or, more modestly, to mention—multiply. With these emphases on assertion, performance, and
e ects, iterate resonates within rhetorical theory: there is persuasion moving along these iterative iterations.
And iteration, equally useful for our purposes here, has quantitative dimensions: it is to double, to add, to
accumulate. And, nally, there are formal aspects of iteration that sound out its inventional capacities. To
iterate is to use the same, repeated procedure not to simply arrive at more of the same, but to generate
di erence. Each iteration iterates a thing now di erent, and di erent still again.

Project Parameters
Each week, starting in week four, students add roughly 600-750 words a
week to their essay and also revise that which they have already
composed. The IWA grows (or shrinks) in length while also growing in
complexity and nuance as students make their way through the course
readings and in response to class discussions and presentations. Feedback
(from both the instructor and peers) is likewise iterative. The nal form of
the IWA is open: it can be a public-facing document like an op-ed or an
academy facing text like an article or a grant proposal. The purpose and
audience of the IWA likewise emerges iteratively and in conversation with
classmates and the instructor—and in response to engagements with
readings. One of the virtues of the IWA is that the readings become not
what the student re ects upon but rather takes part in the emergence of
“this repetition is precisely a part
not only what the student writes and thinks, but how they write and think. It
of what has always interested
is important, particularly early on in the process, to ground a given iteration me, that is, how does a formal
in the readings at hand and in recent memory: build from and with and repetition allow us to capture
through and along the readings of the course. As the IWA grows and the beings that are otherwise
student’s project discloses itself, they should begin gathering and inaccessible?”
incorporating additional, outside sources.
Bruno Latour, “Writing the
Sensitive, An Ecology”
Peer/Instructor Review
At key points during the semester (see calendar), class time will be set
aside for peer review. The instructor will likewise review IWAs during this time. To facilitate this and to be
able to productively trace iterations, all students will compose their IWA in a GoogleDoc. Students are also
invited and encouraged to meet individually with the instructor throughout their compositions of the essay.

engl 6040 | spring 2020 | nathaniel a. rivers

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