William FitzGerald						Spring 2007
English 394 - Song to Cyberspace

Midterm Exam (take home)

Instructions: You may take this exam anytime within the next week; return it to class or send to my email address before 9:30 am on Tuesday, March 27. You may take the sections in any order when you feel prepared to do so, but you may take no more than one hour per section; once you begin a section you must finish it. You may either type or handwrite.

The exam is open book, open notes. Discussion and group studying is permitted prior to beginning your first section.

Part I. Identifications. Choose eight of the following twelve terms and, demonstrating your familiarity with the material we read, write a several sentence description of the concept. Offer clarifying examples as needed. (32 pts.)

	a. typography		b. icon		c. remediation	d. secondary orality
	e. incunabula		f. syllabary	g. lithography		h. quipu
	 i. broadsides		j. codex	k. garamond		 l. palmer method

Part II. Short Answer. Choose three of the five questions below and answer in a succinct but substantive response. (36 points)

1. What according to Ong (following after Havelock) is the significance of alphabet literacy to the development of abstract, logical thought.

2. Milmann Parry and Albert Lord were pioneers in the early 20th century in research on the compositional features of oral ‘literature’. What were some of their sigificant findings?

3.Explain how the rise of print technology contributed to the development of modern science, basing your response in the discussion presented by Eisenstein?

4. What are some of the distinctive features of comics according to Scott McCloud? 

5. Describe some of the significant differences between chirographic and typographic cultures? 

Part III. Long Essay. Respond with specificity, substance, imagination, and clarity to one of the following options. (32 pts.)

1. Consider a technology of communication we have not discussed in great detail, e.g., film, television, telephone, CD-Rom, and summarize its salient features, employing terms of analysis we have considered in our readings and discussions. What aspects of orality and literacy help inform your understanding?

2. Certain forms of communication have evolved over time. The newspaper of old is not that of today; its virtual, online version is not the same as its physical version. At what point does a medium become new? What interactions between the producers of word/image and their receivers are essential for a particular medium? When does a changed technology/form effectively transform a medium?