Rhetoric/Composition/Play through Video Games

John Alberti, Northern Kentucky University, USALarry Beason, University of South Alabama, USAIan Bogost, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Persuasive Games LLC, USARichard Colby, University of Denver Writing Program, USANathan Garrelts, Ferris State University, USAGail E. Hawisher, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USAJustin Hodgson, The University of Texas at Austin, USAMatthew S. S. Johnson, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, USADebra Journet, University of Louisville, USADanielle LaVaque-Manty, Sweetland Center for Writing at the University of Michigan, USABenjamin Miller, Macaulay Honors College of CUNY and the CUNY Graduate Center, USAMark Mullen, George Washington University in Washington DC, USATrevor Owens, National Digital Information and Infrastructure Preservation Program at the Library of Congress, USAJames Schirmer, University of Michigan-Flint, USACynthia L. Selfe, The Ohio State University, USALee Sherlock, Michigan State University, USARebekah Shultz Colby, University of Denver, USAKatherine Warren, Western Illinois University, USA

• Table of Contents Foreword; Cynthia L. Selfe & Gail E. Hawisher Introduction: Rhetoric/Composition/Play; Richard Colby, Matthew S. S. Johnson &Rebekah Shultz Colby PART I: PLAY 1. The Game of Facebook and the End(s) of Writing Pedagogy; John Alberti 2. The Pencil-Shaped Joystick: A Synoptic History of Text in Digital Games; Nate Garrelts 3. Who are You Here?: The Avatar and the Other in Video game Avatars; Katherine Warren 4. Developing and Extending Gaming Pedagogy: Designing a Course as Game; Justin Hodgson PART II: COMPOSITION 5. On Second Thought...; Mark Mullen 6. Ludic Snags; Matthew S. S. Johnson & Richard Colby 7. Metaphor, Writer's Block, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Writing Process; Benjamin Miller 8. Drag and Drop: Teaching Our Students Things We Don't Already Know; Danielle LaVaque-Manty 9. Gender and Gaming in a First-Year Writing Class; Rebekah Shultz Colby PART III: RHETORIC 10. Exploitationware; Ian Bogost 11. Techne as Play: Three Interstices; James Schirmer 12. What Happens in Goldshire Stays in Goldshire: Rhetorics of Queer Sexualities, Roleplaying, and Fandom in World of Warcraft; Lee Sherlock 13. Grammar Interventions in Gaming Forums: Intersections of Academic and Non-Academic Standards; Larry Beason 14. Mr. Moo's First RPG: Rules, Discussion and the Instructional Implications of Collective Intelligence on the Open Web; Trevor Owens Afterword; Debra Journet

"Like James Gee before them, along with Cynthia Selfe and Gail Hawisher, editors Richard Colby, Matthew S. S. Johnson, and Rebekah Shultz Colby have expanded our disciplinary understanding of the substantial motivational role of gaming literacies in all stages of the writing process. Equally significant, the contributors to Rhetoric/Composition/Play through Video Games create a 'shared space' not only for rhetoric and literacy theorists but also for writing teachers and their students to collectively challenge more traditional definitions of academic writing and positively impact the future of college-level writing instruction." - Kristine L. Blair, Professor and Chair, Department of English, Bowling Green State University, USA "Here is a smart volume on the practical matters involved in bringing video games, rhetoric, and composition into a shared and vibrant intellectual space. With remarkable insight and subtlety, the editors have assembled a series of essays that are not only accessible and informative on their own, but are also theoretically and pedagogically intertwined with each other. As a result, readers including gamers, students, or anyone interested in modern rhetoric will find here a complex and critique-oriented treatment of the single most important recent development in the long history of rhetoric and composition. There are plenty of books now in circulation about the rhetoric of video games and their place in educational contexts. Here, however, is an anthology assembled and written by native and well-trained game scholars and teachers. Their deep expertise shows and it will surely speak powerfully to audiences who are themselves natives of video game culture and readily able to distinguish posers from players." - Ken S. McAllister, Professor and Director of the Rhetoric, Composition, and the Teaching of English Program at the University of Arizona, Co-Curator of the Learning Games Initiative Research Archive, and author of Game Work: Language, Power, and Computer Game Culture and (with Judd Ruggill) Gaming Matters: Art, Science, Magic, and the Computer Game Medium.