Unit Guide

General Information

Unit convenor and teaching staff	Unit convenor and teaching staff Margaret Wood margaret.wood@mq.edu.au Convener Deanna Wong deanna.wong@mq.edu.au Contact via Email C5A503 Tuesday 2:30pm to 3:30pm; Friday, 10am - 11am
Credit points	Credit points 3
Prerequisites	Prerequisites 12cp
Corequisites	Corequisites
Co-badged status	Co-badged status
Unit description	Unit description In this leading-edge unit we examine and use social media and explore how language and social practices are changing in the contemporary computer-driven world. Issues surrounding online identity will be explored as well as the challenges of linguistic change for education and business practices. Some issues that we discuss are how women and men communicate online, and how online language may vary according to age, ethnicity or context. The unit explores the collaborative processes involved in contemporary education and media. Some issues that we will consider are: Do we know who we are 'talking to' these days? What are the ethical issues involved in using new media: what can you say or do in a text message? Are young people losing the ability to talk face-to-face? You can apply your knowledge of other units in linguistics in this unit, but no previous knowledge of linguistics is necessary or expected. The unit will connect with other areas of your University study and your life experience. You will find that the unit is relevant to business and marketing, to media and communications, to education and psychology, as well as to linguistics.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

Communicate theories of and practice in online community engagement to appropriate audiences, in both academic writing and social network modes i.e. via Text, Tweet, Blog, and Meme.
Show an understanding of, and a critical approach to, the sociolinguistic theories used to explain and investigate online communication.
Demonstate an insight into the historical patterns of linguistic innovation and change and how these patterns are evidenced in online communication.
Analyse and apply effective strategies relevant to online community engagement.
Critically analyse academic material and deliver written and oral presentations of their findings.

General Assessment Information

To gain a Pass grade in LING248 Students must:

• Attend 80% of tutorials, and

• Gain an overall mark of 50%.

Assessment submission

Assessments are submitted to Turnitin. Instructions for submitting assessments via Turnitin are available here: http://www.mq.edu.au/iLearn/student_info/assignments.htm

All assessments must be submitted before the cut-off times. Assessments submitted after these times are likely to incur a late submission penalty of 5% per day they are late. Please keep a copy of your assessments in case of misadventure.

Access to Marked Assignments

Marked assessments will, in general, be available to students within 2 to 3 weeks of submission. All marked assessments can be accessed via iLearn.

Please note that assessments submitted after the return of marked materials will not be marked.

Extensions Policy

Extensions are granted only on grounds of serious and unavoidable disruption, and appropriate supporting documentation must be submitted. Assessments submitted after the deadline, regardless of the reason, will be marked and returned at a date determined by the unit convener.

Extensions cannot continue beyond the start of the following semester, and students should be aware that long extensions may impact graduation dates.

Requests for an extension can be made by submitting a notification of Disruption to Studies via AskMQ http://ask.mq.edu.au/

Note that your notification should be submitted within five (5) working days of the disruption beginning.

For the university Disruption to Studies Policy, please see: http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html

To ensure you provide appropriate documentation, please see the Disruption to Studies Supporting Evidence Schedule: http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/schedule_evidence.html

Please note that submitting a notification of Disruption to Studies does not guarantee an extension, and you should consider carefully before making a notification. As a university student, you are expected to plan your time so that all assessments can be submitted in a timely manner. A Notification of Disruption to Studies is for serious and unavoidable disruption, not for poor time management.

Requests for an extension made within one week of the due date, or after the due date will only be granted if warranted by the circumstances and supported by appropriate documentation (see the Disruption to Studies Supporting Evidence Schedule link above).

Late Submissions Policy

Late submissions will attract a penalty of 5% per day for each day it is late after the due date. This includes Saturdays and Sundays. Assessments submitted after the return of marked materials will not be marked.

In the event of an exceptional circumstance such as a major illness or misadventure, students should submit a notification of Disruption to Studies via AskMQ http://ask.mq.edu.au/ (please see the extensions policy above).

All information on assessment including the marking criteria will be available via iLearn.

Attendance

Students are expected to attend and participate in all classes. In particular, you are required to attend at least 80% of your tutorials. Tutors will keep a record of attendance at tutorials. Attendance at the Week 3 tutorial is compulsory (see the Assessment schedule for more information).

Tutorials begin in Week 2.

Requests for special consideration, and Notification of Disruption to Study should be directed to AskMQ http://ask.mq.edu.au/

Referencing for Assessments

Please note that all assessable submissions to LING248 require that version 6 of the APA referencing scheme is used. For more information on the APA v.6 Referencing Scheme, please see http://www.apastyle.org/manual/index.aspx

For answers to common questions about the APA v.6 Referencing Scheme, please see: http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/index.aspx

Assessment Tasks

Name	Weighting	Due
Tutorial Quiz	5%	Week 3 Tutorials
Tutorial Presentation	45%	Weeks 7 to 9
CMC Report	50%	5pm, 1 June

Tutorial Quiz

Due: Week 3 Tutorials
Weighting: 5%

The Tutorial Quiz will be delivered in-class in the Week 3 tutorials. Attendance at this class is compulsory, and students unable to attend this tutorial must submit a notification of Disruption to Studies via AskMQ. The quiz will be assessed on a pass/ fail basis, and 5 marks will be awarded for the successful completion of this assessment.

This task serves the dual purpose of assessing students’ understanding of the key concepts delivered in Weeks 1 and 2, and satisfying the Macquarie University Assessment Policy requirement that all students are provided with formative feedback on their academic progress early in the semester. For more information, see here: http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy.html.

On successful completion you will be able to:

Communicate theories of and practice in online community engagement to appropriate audiences, in both academic writing and social network modes i.e. via Text, Tweet, Blog, and Meme.
Demonstate an insight into the historical patterns of linguistic innovation and change and how these patterns are evidenced in online communication.
Analyse and apply effective strategies relevant to online community engagement.

Tutorial Presentation

Due: Weeks 7 to 9
Weighting: 45%

The Tutorial presentation will consist of two parts.

Part A: CMC Texts
Length: Various
Weight: 20%
Due Date: Online submission by 5pm, Monday 25 April, 2016

Task: Create a tweet, an email, a short blog post, and an image-macro meme based on a topic that interests you. Each of these CMC texts must be original, and must be about the same topic. These texts will form the foundation for the analysis you present in Part B, the oral presentation. As you create your CMC texts, you should decide which audience(s) you are targeting and what digital literacy skills they will need to rely on to interpret your CMC texts.

Word limits for each of the CMC texts are as follows:

Tweet: No more than 140 characters
Email: Between 20 and 75 words
Short Blog Post: between 50 and 150 words
Image-macro Meme: Between 1 and 20 words

Part B: Individual Presentation
Length: 10 minutes
Weight: 25%
Due Date: Online submission of PPT by 5pm, Monday 25 April, 2016; To be presented during Tutorials in Weeks 7 to 9.

Task: In your presentation, you will describe your topic, your target audience, and discuss how each of the CMC texts you have created relate to this topic and audience. You will need to analyse the features of each of the CMC texts you created for Part A, and justify your linguistic and visual choices in each context. What digital literacy skills do you expect your audience to use in order for them to correctly interpret your CMC texts? Justifications for these decisions will be based on relevant academic literature, as well as the readings, theory and research discussed in the week1 to week 6 lectures.

On successful completion you will be able to:

Communicate theories of and practice in online community engagement to appropriate audiences, in both academic writing and social network modes i.e. via Text, Tweet, Blog, and Meme.
Analyse and apply effective strategies relevant to online community engagement.
Critically analyse academic material and deliver written and oral presentations of their findings.

CMC Report

Due: 5pm, 1 June
Weighting: 50%

Length: 1800 words
Weight: 50%
Due Date: Online via Turnitin by 5pm, Wednesday 8 June, 2016.

In your report, you will analyse two sets of CMC presenting contrasting views of your chosen topic. You will need to select a total of four published and publicly available CMC texts, from at least two of the CMC genres discussed in the unit (tweet, email, blog, and image-macro meme). In your analysis, compare the linguistic and visual features incorporated into each of the texts, and analyse how these communicate the topic to their target audiences, using the sociolinguistic theories discussed in the unit as your starting point.

All of your CMC texts should be focused around the same topic, which should be selected from the list below:

Marriage equality
Mandatory immigration detention
Lowering the voting age to 16
Legalising currently illegal drugs
State-controlled internet surveillance and censorship
Feminism
Gender-reassignment and sexuality

On successful completion you will be able to:

Communicate theories of and practice in online community engagement to appropriate audiences, in both academic writing and social network modes i.e. via Text, Tweet, Blog, and Meme.
Show an understanding of, and a critical approach to, the sociolinguistic theories used to explain and investigate online communication.
Analyse and apply effective strategies relevant to online community engagement.
Critically analyse academic material and deliver written and oral presentations of their findings.

Delivery and Resources

There is one 2-hour lecture per week for this unit, for which you are required to read selected material in advance. You are encouraged to participate during the lectures, and to engage with the issues raised. Recordings of lectures on Echo 360 will be available on iLearn.
Students attend one 1-hour tutorial per week. Students are expected to participate in tutorial discussions and to share their thoughts and experiences of online communication and practices. There are no tutorials in the first week of classes.
Please note that 80% tutorial attendance is required.
You will need to access the internet during the unit.
Finally, there is no textbook for this unit. However, course content will be supplemented with course readings. Please see below.

The 2016 LING248 Readings List is as follows. Please note that all readings are available via the Macquarie University Library website (http://www.mq.edu.au/about/campus-services-and-facilities/library)

Week 2: Just because you can access it, doesn’t mean you can use it: Digital Literacy in the cyberage

Prensky, M. (2001a). Digital natives, digital immigrants part 1. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6. doi:10.1108/10748120110424816

Prensky, M. (2001b). Digital natives, digital immigrants part 2. On the Horizon, 9(6), 1-6. doi:10.1108/10748120110424843

Eshet-Alkali, Y., & Amichai-Hamburger, Y. (2004). Experiments in digital literacy. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 7(4), 421-429. doi:10.1089/1094931041774613

Week 3: CMC Types #1: Compressing language into tiny spaces: texts and tweets

Crystal, D. (2008). Texting. ELT Journal: English Language Teachers Journal, 62(1), 77-83. doi:10.1093/elt/ccm080

Rodman, R., Hyams, N., Cox, F., Thornton, R., Amberber, M., & Fromkin, V. (Eds.). (2015). Chapter 12. Writing: The ABCs of Language. In An introduction to language / Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman, Nina Hyams, Mengistu Amberber, Felicity Cox, Rosalind Thornton. (Australia, pp. 508–528). South Melbourne, Vic. Cengage Learning.

Week 4: CMC Types #2: Email: familiar formats but new rules?

Gimenez, J. C. (2000). Business e-mail communication: Some emerging tendencies in register. English for Specific Purposes, 19(3), 237-251. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0889-4906(98)00030-1

Ford, S. (2003). “Dear Mr. Shawn”: A Lesson in E-mail Pragmatics (Netiquette). TESOL Journal, 12(1), 39–40. http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1949-3533.2003.tb00119.x

Week 5: CMC Types #3: Multimodality and remix: Image-macro Memes

Shifman, L. (2013). Memes in a Digital World: Reconciling with a Conceptual Troublemaker. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 18(3), 362–377. Retrieved from 10.1111/jcc4.12013

Shifman, L. (2013). Meme Genres. In MIT Press Essential Knowledge : Memes in Digital Culture (pp. 99–118). Cambridge, MA, USA: The MIT Press. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/mqau/docDetail.action?docID=10776345

Week 6: CMC Types #4: Blogs, Blogs and more blogs: Stimulating engagement in an information-saturated age

Nardi, B. A., Schiano, D. J., Gumbrecht, M., & Swartz, L. (2004). Why we blog. Communications of the ACM, 47(12), 41-46. doi:10.1145/1035134.1035163

Week 7: And how are we feeling today? Orthographic paralinguistics, emoticons, and emoji

Kalman, Y. M., & Gergle, D. (2014). Letter repetitions in computer-mediated communication: A unique link between spoken and online language. Computers in Human Behavior, 34(0), 187-193. doi:http ://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.01.047

Week 8: CMC = the end of the world! The impact of cyber-communication on RL

Baron, N. S. (2002). “Whatever.”: A new language model? Retrieved from http://www.american.edu/cas/lfs/faculty-docs/upload/Baron-MLA-Whatever.pdf

Baron, N. (2011). Assessing the internet's impact on language. In M. Consalvo, & C. Ess (Eds.), The handbook of internet studies (pp. 117-136) Wiley-Blackwell. doi:10.1002/9781444314861.ch6

Week 9: Social Networks and social networks: participating and belonging online

Manago, A. M., Taylor, T., & Greenfield, P. M. (2012). Me and my 400 friends: The anatomy of college students’ facebook networks, their communication patterns, and well-being. Developmental Psychology, 48(2), 369-380. doi:10.1037/a0026338

Paolillo, J. (1999). The Virtual Speech Community: Social Network and Language Variation on IRC. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 4(4), 0. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1999.tb00109.x

Week 10: who r u? Creating and expressing identity in online environments

Baker, P. (2001). Moral panic and alternative identity construction in Usenet. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 7(1). http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2001.tb00136.x

Vaisman, C. L. (2014). Beautiful script, cute spelling and glamorous words: Doing girlhood through language playfulness on Israeli blogs. Language & Communication, 34(0), 69–80. http://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/10.1016/j.langcom.2013.08.006

Week 11: Moderation and control in online environments: Creepy Treehouses and Big Brother

Wise, K., Hamman, B., & Thorson, K. (2006). Moderation, response rate, and message interactivity: Features of online communities and their effects on intent to participate. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(1), 24-41. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.00313.x

Week 12: Don’t read the comments! Anonymity and social constraints

Baker, P. (2001). Moral panic and alternative identity construction in Usenet. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 7(1). http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2001.tb00136.x

Hardaker C. (2010). Trolling in asynchronous computer-mediated communication: From user discussions to academic definitions. Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture. http://doi.org/10.1515/jplr.2010.011

Unit Schedule

Week	Lecture
1	Welcome, setting the scene: Language innovation and change, a 2000 year perspective
2	Just because you can access it, doesn’t mean you can use it: Digital Literacy in the cyberage
3	CMC Types #1: Compressing language into tiny spaces: texts and tweets
4	CMC Types #2: Email: familiar formats but new rules?
5	CMC Types #3: Multimodality and remix: Image-macro Memes
6	CMC Types #4: Blogs, Blogs and more blogs: Stimulating engagement in an information-saturated age.
7	And how are we feeling today? Orthographic paralinguistics, emoticons, and emoji
8	CMC = the end of the world! The impact of cyber-communication on RL
9	Social Networks and social networks: participating and belonging online
10	who r u? Creating and expressing identity in online environments
11	Moderation and control in online environments: Creepy Treehouses and Big Brother
12	Don’t read the comments! Anonymity and social constraints
13	Revision lecture

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Academic Honesty Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html

New Assessment Policy in effect from Session 2 2016 http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy_2016.html. For more information visit http://students.mq.edu.au/events/2016/07/19/new_assessment_policy_in_place_from_session_2/

Assessment Policy prior to Session 2 2016 http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy.html

Grading Policy prior to Session 2 2016 http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grading/policy.html

Grade Appeal Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html

Complaint Management Procedure for Students and Members of the Public http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/complaint_management/procedure.html

Disruption to Studies Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html The Disruption to Studies Policy is effective from March 3 2014 and replaces the Special Consideration Policy.

In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/student_conduct/

Results

Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

Learning Skills

Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.

Student Services and Support

Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.

Student Enquiries

For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/.

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Graduate Capabilities

Creative and Innovative

Our graduates will also be capable of creative thinking and of creating knowledge. They will be imaginative and open to experience and capable of innovation at work and in the community. We want them to be engaged in applying their critical, creative thinking.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

Communicate theories of and practice in online community engagement to appropriate audiences, in both academic writing and social network modes i.e. via Text, Tweet, Blog, and Meme.
Analyse and apply effective strategies relevant to online community engagement.
Critically analyse academic material and deliver written and oral presentations of their findings.

Assessment tasks

Tutorial Quiz
Tutorial Presentation
CMC Report

Capable of Professional and Personal Judgement and Initiative

We want our graduates to have emotional intelligence and sound interpersonal skills and to demonstrate discernment and common sense in their professional and personal judgement. They will exercise initiative as needed. They will be capable of risk assessment, and be able to handle ambiguity and complexity, enabling them to be adaptable in diverse and changing environments.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

Communicate theories of and practice in online community engagement to appropriate audiences, in both academic writing and social network modes i.e. via Text, Tweet, Blog, and Meme.
Analyse and apply effective strategies relevant to online community engagement.
Critically analyse academic material and deliver written and oral presentations of their findings.

Assessment tasks

Tutorial Quiz
Tutorial Presentation
CMC Report

Discipline Specific Knowledge and Skills

Our graduates will take with them the intellectual development, depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content in their chosen fields to make them competent and confident in their subject or profession. They will be able to demonstrate, where relevant, professional technical competence and meet professional standards. They will be able to articulate the structure of knowledge of their discipline, be able to adapt discipline-specific knowledge to novel situations, and be able to contribute from their discipline to inter-disciplinary solutions to problems.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

Communicate theories of and practice in online community engagement to appropriate audiences, in both academic writing and social network modes i.e. via Text, Tweet, Blog, and Meme.
Show an understanding of, and a critical approach to, the sociolinguistic theories used to explain and investigate online communication.
Demonstate an insight into the historical patterns of linguistic innovation and change and how these patterns are evidenced in online communication.
Critically analyse academic material and deliver written and oral presentations of their findings.

Assessment tasks

Tutorial Quiz
Tutorial Presentation
CMC Report

Critical, Analytical and Integrative Thinking

We want our graduates to be capable of reasoning, questioning and analysing, and to integrate and synthesise learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments; to be able to critique constraints, assumptions and limitations; to be able to think independently and systemically in relation to scholarly activity, in the workplace, and in the world. We want them to have a level of scientific and information technology literacy.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

Communicate theories of and practice in online community engagement to appropriate audiences, in both academic writing and social network modes i.e. via Text, Tweet, Blog, and Meme.
Show an understanding of, and a critical approach to, the sociolinguistic theories used to explain and investigate online communication.
Demonstate an insight into the historical patterns of linguistic innovation and change and how these patterns are evidenced in online communication.
Analyse and apply effective strategies relevant to online community engagement.
Critically analyse academic material and deliver written and oral presentations of their findings.

Assessment tasks

Tutorial Quiz
Tutorial Presentation
CMC Report

Problem Solving and Research Capability

Our graduates should be capable of researching; of analysing, and interpreting and assessing data and information in various forms; of drawing connections across fields of knowledge; and they should be able to relate their knowledge to complex situations at work or in the world, in order to diagnose and solve problems. We want them to have the confidence to take the initiative in doing so, within an awareness of their own limitations.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

Communicate theories of and practice in online community engagement to appropriate audiences, in both academic writing and social network modes i.e. via Text, Tweet, Blog, and Meme.
Show an understanding of, and a critical approach to, the sociolinguistic theories used to explain and investigate online communication.
Analyse and apply effective strategies relevant to online community engagement.
Critically analyse academic material and deliver written and oral presentations of their findings.

Assessment tasks

Tutorial Quiz
Tutorial Presentation
CMC Report

Effective Communication

We want to develop in our students the ability to communicate and convey their views in forms effective with different audiences. We want our graduates to take with them the capability to read, listen, question, gather and evaluate information resources in a variety of formats, assess, write clearly, speak effectively, and to use visual communication and communication technologies as appropriate.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

Communicate theories of and practice in online community engagement to appropriate audiences, in both academic writing and social network modes i.e. via Text, Tweet, Blog, and Meme.
Show an understanding of, and a critical approach to, the sociolinguistic theories used to explain and investigate online communication.
Demonstate an insight into the historical patterns of linguistic innovation and change and how these patterns are evidenced in online communication.
Analyse and apply effective strategies relevant to online community engagement.
Critically analyse academic material and deliver written and oral presentations of their findings.

Assessment tasks

Tutorial Quiz
Tutorial Presentation
CMC Report

Engaged and Ethical Local and Global citizens

As local citizens our graduates will be aware of indigenous perspectives and of the nation's historical context. They will be engaged with the challenges of contemporary society and with knowledge and ideas. We want our graduates to have respect for diversity, to be open-minded, sensitive to others and inclusive, and to be open to other cultures and perspectives: they should have a level of cultural literacy. Our graduates should be aware of disadvantage and social justice, and be willing to participate to help create a wiser and better society.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcome

Communicate theories of and practice in online community engagement to appropriate audiences, in both academic writing and social network modes i.e. via Text, Tweet, Blog, and Meme.

Assessment tasks

Tutorial Presentation
CMC Report

Socially and Environmentally Active and Responsible

We want our graduates to be aware of and have respect for self and others; to be able to work with others as a leader and a team player; to have a sense of connectedness with others and country; and to have a sense of mutual obligation. Our graduates should be informed and active participants in moving society towards sustainability.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcome

Communicate theories of and practice in online community engagement to appropriate audiences, in both academic writing and social network modes i.e. via Text, Tweet, Blog, and Meme.

Assessment tasks

Tutorial Presentation
CMC Report

Changes from Previous Offering

The 2015 10% Short Essay task has been replaced with a 5% Tutorial Task that incorporates a tutorial quiz
The 2015 Tutorial Presentation has been adjusted to:
- increase the assessment weighting
- Include a separate submission requirement for four student-created CMC texts
- remove the 10% peer assessment/ 10% tutor assessment split.
The 2015 CMC Report has been adjusted to increase the assessment weighting.
The 2015 Final Exam has been removed from the LING248 assessment schedule.