William I. Wolff

Rowan University
(Spring 2008)

In this course we will be considering the relationship among writing, electronic environments, and communities, as well as their multiple interpretations, particularly in terms of new media technologies. It is significant to note that though we will be looking at technology, not all technologies—past and present—exist among electronic environments. Rather, the electronic environments we will consider will be on and off line, and will cover range of spaces: books, web sites, movies, advertising, to name a few. We will explore how writing has impacted and has been impacted by these electronic environments, and how communities have emerged from and within them as a result.

Rowan University
(Fall 2006, Spring 2007, 2008)

In this course we will look at what Jay David Bolter calls writing spaces—those online and in-print areas where texts are written, read, and manipulated. We will consider how the latest technologies are blurring the distinction between writer and reader, author and subject, and text and image. Indeed, much of our time will be spent thinking about the language of images and how one reads images on the page and on the screen. Ultimately our discussions will ask us to question what, in our technologized and visual world, writing is, and how images have been and are being used as evidence to both support and supplant it.

Rowan University
(Fall 2007), Spring 2008

Technologies and the Future of Writing is one of three, four-week modules that make up the course, Introduction to Writing Arts. Introduction to Writing Arts introduces students to important concepts in writing and to the Writing Arts major at Rowan University. The course provides a framework for understanding and connecting material throughout students’ coursework. It is divided into three modules: History and Materiality of Writing (taughtby Sandy Tweedie); Issues in Writing (taught by Jennifer Courtney); and Technologies and the Future of Writing. In this module we consider the relationships among technology, writing, and the construction of electronic spaces through four 1-week units: Origins, Writing Spaces, Ownership & Identity, and The Future of Writing. Website designed with Pbwiki.com.

Rowan University
(Fall 2006, Fall 2007)

This course, a continuation of the Engineering Clinic series, provides expanded treatment of the practice of engineering through applications drawn from various engineering disciplines and industry. Project work includes a variety of technical communication topics, analytic and computer-based tools, including the design process, engineering ethics, safety and teamwork. The composition component presents critical thinking, reading, writing, research and argumentation. The course is taught collaboratively by 8 faculty–3 from Writing Arts, 5 from Engineering. Website designed with Pbwiki.com.

University of Texas at Austin
(Fall 2002, 2004, 2005; Spring 2004, 2005, 2006)

In this course students learn how to design Web pages, starting with HTML coding and building to more complex layouts, using cascading style sheets and intricate graphic designs. But it is not just a course in coding and graphic design. Students think critically about the important issue of the day: designing aesthetically intricate, usable, accessible pages according to Web Standards.

Students design Web pages with the user, not the designer, in mind, which will force us to ask difficult questions: Who is our intended user? Our accidental user? How will they be coming to the page in similar ways? In different ways? Is there ever a way to create a Web page that can be usable for all people, regardless of physical or mental disability? What if the user is blind? What is the importance of Web page usability? What are the characteristics of a usable, accessible Web page? How can we be sure people using versions of Netscape, for example, that are four years old can still view the Web page? How does the fact that Web technology is constantly evolving inform the way we think about Web design?

Rowan Universty
(College Composition 2: Spring 2007)
The University of Texas at Austin
(Rhetoric 309K: Fall 2001, Spring 2002)

In this course students analyze the rhetoric of war by looking at how people employ language to make arguments about why they fight, what they gain by it, and how they interpret past conflicts. By using a variety of sources - historical texts, government documents, news reports, web sites - students look critically at not only depictions of atrocities, but at how war is presented, reported, interpreted, and dramatized. Class discussions lead us to ask important questions about the rhetoric of war: Is declaring war ever justified? What exactly is ethnic cleansing? Who sets the line between a war crime and a "legitimate" act of war? How do the media and the Internet manipulate the way the general public perceives war? Is the United States really as altruistic as it imagines?