Twitter Prompt

Tweets Due: Weekly on Fridays by 11:59 pm
Percentage: 15%

General Overview

Twitter is pretty popular in the Digital Humanities (DH) community and has been for awhile. It’s also a good way of practicing being concise and informative while talking to a public audience. You’ll be setting up an academic or professional Twitter, meaning you might need to create a new profile if you already have a personal account. If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter, check this out.

You should be posting on Twitter at least twice per week about the readings and/or projects we’re working on and then submitting Tweets to me via Scholar each Friday by 11:59 pm. To submit your Tweets via Scholar, you’ll need to take screen shots. I’ve listed some resources and instructions under “Resources.” I’ve also included instructions for sumbitting your tweets under “How to Submit.”

We’ll be using the hashtag #cnuengl350. Please use this hashtag so I can look at Tweets before class.

Assignment Breakdown

Day One

First thing first, you’ll set up your new Twitter (if necessary). If you don’t have a Twitter profile yet, go to Twitter.com and follow the instructions. If you need a second account, follow these instructions.
- Choose a professional username
- Try to keep your username under 15 characters
- Personalize your profile! If you don’t feel like adding a profile picture of yourself (see FERPA notice on the syllabus), that’s fine. Find some kind of profile picture though.
Add your first name with last initial and Twitter username to the appropriate Google Doc in our class Google Drive. Follow everyone else in the class (you may have to come back if you’re one of the first few people to post).
Post your first tweet introducing yourself! You might say your major and why you’re interested in DH! Again, only share as much personal information as you’re comfortable with and see the FERPA statement on the syllabus.

And then . . .

Post at least two substantial (see below) tweets a week and take screenshots as you go so that you don’t forget.
Submit your tweets via Scholar each Friday by 11:59 pm. (See “How to Submit” below.)

Week 11 on . . .

You’ll notice that we don’t have many readings after Week 10. You’ll still be responsible for posting two tweets a week, but they’ll be about your own project and the research you’ve been doing. This is how you’ll share your progress with the class (and with me!).
You are not responsible for posting the week of Thanksgiving . . .
. . . or the week of finals. Your last tweets should be submitted to me by 11:59 pm on Friday, December 11th.

Evaluation Criteria

You must submit screenshots of your tweets/retweets/replies each week to get credit. (See how in “How to Submit” below)
I will grade your tweets as pass/fail each week
- If you don’t submit at least two tweets, you get a 0 for the week.
- If you submit two tweets but they are UNsubstantial (see below), you will recieve a 0 for the week.
- Please tweet throughout the week as readings are assigned. If I only see you posting during/after class, I reserve the right to give you a 0.
I will count retweets as long as you add a substantial comment.
I will count substantial replies to other people’s posts.

Each week amounts to a fraction more than 1% of your final grade in the course. It doesn’t seem like much, but it adds up!

Examples

An UNsubstantial tweet: I really liked the reading, but I still have questions.

What reading? Why? What questions?

A better (but still UNsubstantial) tweet: Kirschenbaum attempts to answer “What is the Digital Humanities?” but I’m still not sure if he actually answered the question for me.

More specific but I still have questions about your questions. Add some more detail (understanding that you only have so many characters!)

A substantial tweet:

Kirschenbaum attempts to answer “What is the Digital Humanities?” but I’m wondering what makes the digital humanities different than the humanities now that most things are done digitally? He was also writing ten years ago, so what has changed in the field?

Note that you don’t always have to ask questions. You can make statements too! Or answer questions!

An UNsubstantial comment or reply I agree with your questions! Ten years is a long time!

A substantial comment or reply Ten years does seem like a substantial amount of time, but I think defining DH will always be hard. Technology is constantly evolving, so I’m not sure we can even really define DH in any lasting way.

A substantial comment or reply to THAT reply I disagree. I think technology is advancing, of course, but the principles are the same. As long as people are doing humanities scholarship digitally, isn’t that DH? I think the blurring really comes when we ask what is humanities work to begin with?

Note that it’s fine to disagree! Be collegial, but you don’t have to have the same thoughts as everyone else. It’s also okay to change your mind over the course of the semester – or even over the course of a day! You might even change your mind several times. I might change my mind too. That’s what humanities education is for in my opinion – it helps us to understand how we view a thing and also how to question those same views. That’s how we grow as students, academics, and people.

How to Submit

Go to the “Twitter Posts” link in Scholar, click on the appropriate week, and then hit “Create Post.” Once there, add a title and then upload your screenshot(s). Pretty simple! But let me know if you run into any problems . . .

Please post both tweets as a single journal entry.

Resources

(Mostly Free) Screen Capture Software

You might consider using your phone to use Twitter and then take a simple screenshot. If you’d rather use a computer, here are some resources:

How-to on Mac
How-to on Windows
Greenshot - free on Windows and $1.99 on Mac
TechSmith Capture - free for both Windows and Mac (but I haven’t tried it!)

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