Manifestos
The best ideas for scholarly projects come from diverse places. A gathering of teachers engaged in rethinking their work in the classroom. A heated debate that erupts out of nowhere. That moment, sitting down for the first time after a long day and coming to terms with the realization that there is so much to say and so little time. Exhaustion and dinner and wine on the patio on a warm, summer’s evening. Sometimes, all of the above. (Dewitt & Ball, “The Manifesto Issue“)
Wrought with connotation, politically and emotionally charged, manifestos call us to action and demand change—in the streets, in the workplace, in our classrooms, in our minds, and in the virtual spaces we inhabit….The form of a manifesto seeks sizeable response and has the ability to move an argument quickly to the forefront of a conversation (and keep it there). The manifesto’s typical dense state and its sometimes confrontational approach make it easily susceptible to critique yet can quickly facilitate invention for new scholarly conversations and directions. (DeWitt & Ball, “Manifestos as Scholarship“)
Group Manifestos
- to be created in class on Sept. 24 (Joyce) and Sept. 28 (Cheryl).
The group manifesto is an in-class assignment to be composed by the entire class during the class period mentioned above. The manifesto can be in any medium necessary to convey the class’s point (text, video, re-enactment, powerpoint, song, whatever) using whatever you have time to do during the class period. The purpose of the group manifesto is to come to a tentative consensus, as a class, on what issues regarding writing and the teaching of writing you are passionate about and/or want to change, based on our class experiences so far. There are some additional questions/pointers below.
Individual Manifestos
- to be created by each student outside of class
- due Oct. 8 (Joyce) and Oct. 12 (Cheryl)
- our “length” expectations: a single-spaced page, 30 seconds of audio or video, a single-screened webpage, a three-panel comic, half a pecha kucha, a flyer, a 3-foot-high 6-word graffiti, an airplane banner…
The individual manifesto is a chance for you to take up whatever particular passion about writing and the teaching of writing that you want others to know about and to present that passion in a short, provocative piece. This assignment ISN’T about pointing to all the quotes in the readings that support your point, although your audience (us) will need to know that your idea isn’t coming from left field with no support from what we’ve learned so far.
As this is a genre that Cheryl has dealt with a lot in recent years, here’s some of the criteria she’s offered to other manifesto authors, generalized for this particular class:
- Is the manifesto timely and relevant to our discussion of genre studies and writing studies?
- Has the manifesto allowed the author to address an issue in the moment that might otherwise get lost if it were published as traditional scholarship? (iow, what does a manifesto afford you the brevity to say that would be lost if you wrote a whole scholarly article about the same idea and that article took two years to publish…?)
- If the manifesto doesn’t some passion or change needed in ISU’s Writing Program in particular (and it needn’t!), does it encourage cross- and inter-disciplinary thinking about its subject matter?
- Does the author understand “manifesto” as a text form? Is the manifesto concise and focused? Does the author recognize the text form as something other than traditional scholarship by avoiding lengthy, fully contextualized arguments and in-depth reviews of literature? Is the argument clear and pointed? Does it call to action?
- Is the medium in which the manifesto is produced appropriate for its argument? If the medium, on first reading, does not seem appropriate, does the author justify its use?
- Is the manifesto provocative? Could it elicit quick, fruitful, engaging, and perhaps heated conversations among members of these classes and/or the department or university and discipline? Could you imagine that these conversations might lead to important research questions for future scholarship? Does the manifesto explicitly call for or pose questions for future scholarship?
Keep in mind that the individual manifestos are, in essence, the first step to coming up with an idea for your final proposals for change in the writing program. We imagine you expanding on your individual manifestos for change as you craft your idea with more scholarly and other-audience weight into a full-blown proposal. Let us know if you have questions!