I was hired as Lecturer in Writing at Caltech by the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences after receiving my Ph.D. in Literature at the City University of New York Graduate Center. Due to the nature of my work at Caltech and the aims of the Institute, all of the writing courses taught were highly aware of the role of the digital in any of the academic work we produced.
“Caltech's Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) is dedicated to exploring the human experience—from the evolution of culture and institutions to social, political, and economic behavior, from the products of the imagination to the conceptual underpinnings of science. Committed to excellent teaching and rigorous analysis, HSS scholars apply cutting-edge methodologies to deepen knowledge and understanding of our world.”
To demonstrate my potential for scholarship and pedagogy in the Digital Humanities, I’ll share two assignments I created for Wr2: Introduction to Academic Writing below. The students taking this course had completed a writing assessment upon enrolling at Caltech, and it had been determined that they needed more writing instruction before continuing their work in the humanities. The Wr2 course offered instruction and practice in academic writing, with a focus on textual interpretation, audience awareness, argument development, synthesis, and research skills.
The first assignment below tackles the role of ChatGPT as its use grew more ever more popular.
Pedagogy: Coming to Terms with ChatGPT
For our first assignment, you will “come to terms” with one of the short essays from "Philosophers on GPT-3" (excluding the essays by Chalmers and Askell, which are more introductory texts). The purpose of this assignment is to learn how to engage with another text beyond argument and critique—to summarize but also to analyze, to paraphrase but also to converse, to quote but also to use the text wisely to develop your own project.
As Joseph Harris suggests in the “Coming to Terms” chapter of Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts, your engagement with the text and its author should be generous and assertive: “And so, in dealing with other writers, your aim should be less to prove them right or wrong, correct or mistaken, than to assess both the uses and limits of their work. That is to say, academic writing rarely involves a simple taking of sides, an attack or defense of set positions, but rather centers on a weighing of options, a sorting through of possibilities” (25).
Consider the above description when you compose your essay (~1000 words). Develop a project inspired by the essay you've chosen and then come to terms with the essay's project in relation to your own. Make the three moves suggested by Harris: 1) Define the project of the philosopher in your own terms. 2) Note keywords or passages in the text. 3). Assess the uses and limits of this approach. Ask yourself what you want to bring to the conversation the philosopher has started.
Use summary, paraphrase, and quote in support of your own analysis to investigate and interrogate the philosopher’s project and language in relation to your own. Make sure you are driving the car. Harris explains, “You don’t want the writers you quote [or paraphrase] to do your work for you. You want the focus of your readers instead to be on your ideas, to draw their attention not to the texts you’re quoting but to the work you’re doing with those texts” (20).
Assume that 40% of your audience is familiar with the text, 40% read the text a long time ago and has forgotten much of it, and 20% has never read it. Cite page numbers through in-text parenthetical citations. A Works Cited page is not necessary for this assignment.