Last updated: 1/8/2000
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Assignment Schedule (four credit version)

Naming your homework files

In this course, you will turn your homework in as word-processing files attached to email messages, or using a web upload page, or on a floppy diskette (this last is a temporary arrangement if you need more time to work out an email account). If two people use the same file name, then the file that is turned in second will replace the file that is turned in first. Also, as the Instructor, I want the file name to tell me about the person and the assignment. Therefore, make up the names for your homework files with the following parts, in order:

• Your three initials. If you do not have a middle initial, use the underline or understroke character _, <shift>hyphen on the keyboard.
• One-letter assignment code as follows:
  • "a" for Essay A
  • "b" for Essay B
  • "t" for term paper topic (final)
  • "o" for term paper outline
  • "d" for term paper draft
  • "p" for term paper itself
• "cw0" to indicate Creativity, Winter 2000
• Normal extension for your word processor. (Note: Macs do not use file extensions, so Mac files would not have extensions.)

So for example, since my middle initial is "R" and I use Microsoft Word, the file name for my Essay A would be drbacw0.doc

When I grade the assignments, I will add a "g" to the end of the filename and return it as an email attachment. So I would return my graded Essay with the file name drbacw0g.doc

Also, as backup file ID, include the following header lines at the beginning of each file:

1. Your name (not just initials)
2. Course (ISP 5500) and course name (Creativity)
3. Semester (Winter 2000)
4. Assignment (not just the code, write it out, e.g. "Essay A"
5. Word processor and version number (this is in case I have trouble reading it).
   (In Windows, to find the name and version number of any program, including a word processor, open the program, click on its "Help" menu item, and then on the "About" item on the drop-down menu list.)

For example, for my Essay A I would include the following lines at the beginning of the file:

David Bowen
ISP 5500, Creativity
Winter 2000
Essay A
Microsoft Word 7.0

The essay title and text would start after this header.

Overview of Assignments for ISP 5500, four-credit version

• Read Creating Minds, Creativity, Corporate Creativity, and a fourth book on creativity of your choice, subject to Instructor's approval
• Read everything on the course web site and in the computer conference
• Two essays using the assigned readings, topics to be posted on course web site
• Term paper with topic, outline and draft turned in earlier
• Thirty postings on computer conference
  • Includes topics listed below, and additional reading questions during the semester
• Weekly course reports

Assignment Schedule. Please note: if there are differences between this table and listings elsewhere on this web site, this table is the final authority.

NOTE: I will allow you to redo assignments and turn in missing work after the course is over. Such work will not appear in your regular grade, but it will be taken into account later in a Change of Grade, and it will eventually appear on your official transcript. The University will allow me to file a Change of Grade up to one calendar year after the end of the semester in which you took the course. For this course, that is through the end of the Winter 2001 semester. I will not accept major assignments or a large amount of work during the last month of this period. If you are redoing an assignment, the original assignment with my comments and grades must be turned in along with the redone assignment.

Computer Conference assignments

• For ISP 5500, contribute a minimum of five lines, on the average of twice a week. Total for semester: 30. These contributions must be substantive, concerning the readings or other points from the conference. For example, "Gee, I thought that was right on" is not substantive -- it does not make a contribution. As an alternative, you can agree with another comment, and then explain it further, extend or go beyond it, or apply it in a new way. The following special postings are included within the 30 total:
  • A description of what about the topic of Creativity is most interesting to you. That posting must be under the appropriate topic.
  • "Creative people we know," a description of someone whom you think is creative (this person can certainly be you). Describe the person, describe how they relate to other people, and describe what they do that is creative. That posting must be under the appropriate topic
  • Post a minimum of six times by the date in the table above
  • Post a draft topic for your term paper by the date in the table above. That posting must be under the appropriate topic.
  • By the date given in the table above, post comments and/or suggestions for at least three other topics for papers (we will form "suggestion groups" with at least four people in each). These comments and/or suggestions must say something substantive about the proposed topic, such as making a suggestion about an approach, or suggesting where to find material. These postings must also be under the posting for the proposed topic.
  • Collect suggestions about your paper topic from at least three people and turn them in with your topic
  • By the date given in the table above, go back and read your "Creative people we know" description, and say how you would change it as a result of your work in the course
  • Periodically, the Instructor will post reading questions. You must post a response to each of these questions.  These postings must be under the appropriate topic.

NOTE 1: This does NOT mean that you have to log on to the computer conference twice a week. You can make multiple postings during a single session.

NOTE 2: "Under the appropriate topic" means that you must be able to find an existing message on the left-hand (yellow) side, pull up the message, and respond to it, either as "Reply" or "Reply/Quote"

NOTE 3: Postings for the Creativity class will not be counted if they are under another conference such as "The General Conference" or "Nissani 2030 Chat Room".

NOTE 4: Postings should make use of the following techniques for helping your readers establish a context:

• If you are responding to an earlier posting, editing the title to indicate that this is a response and not the original positing
• If you are responding to an earlier posting, using "Reply/Quote" but editing out parts of the original posting that you are not responding to

Course information form

Fill out the Course Information Form on the course web site by Wednesday January 19. If last semester is any guide, this may be the only information I get about your registration for the course, so accuracy in important. If you say that you are registered for the three credit version, when in fact you are registered for the four credit version, or vice versa, that will create problems for you and me at the end of the semester. The telephone numbers should be current and valid. The email address you give should be for an account that you check regularly. If you do not yet have an email account, put "none" for the address, and email me when you do have an account set up.

You will need an email account for this course. If you do not have one, you can go to any of the following world wide web locations and sign up for a free email account:

• www.hotmail.com
• www.yahoo.com
• http://home.netscape.com/

Comments on specific email and Internet Service Providers:

• www.juno.com provides free email. That is probably not suitable for this class, because the last I knew, it did not allow document attachments.
• America On Line (aol.com) is the most popular Internet Service Provider. It also provides email, that does handle attachments. The last I knew, it allows you attach a maximum of one file per message, and to receive a maximum of one file per message. That should be adequate for this course but you should be aware of the limitation.
• Wayne State University provides free Internet access and email accounts for all WSU students and staff. The Internet service is good -- it is what I use, and I am willing to pay money -- but some people say the service is slow. Activating your email account is a hassle, and attaching and receiving files is very difficult from a WSU computer lab (although you can use the mailman email program that is a link off of the course Welcome page.
• www.netzero.com will provide free Internet access.

You will also need world wide web access to take this course. This can be from a home computer, a WSU lab computer, a computer at your local library, or any other site with world wide web access.

Weekly Course Reports

Each week, you will send me a Course Report, describing your status and progress in this course. I will post a format and method for these reports on the course web site. These are the way that I will keep in touch with how you feel the course is working out for you, and whether or not we need to discuss how things are going. These reports will not be optional; filing one each week is part of your grade for the course. "There are many valid excuses for being late with an assignment, but there is no acceptable excuse for missing a weekly class report."

Creativity Essays

The essay assignments on creativity are to write five-page double-spaced essays on assigned topics. The essays should be written for a general reader, say a magazine reader or a newspaper reader. Specifically, the essay should not be written "to" the Instructor. A general reader will not be interested in whether or not the essay was written for a particular course, or to fill a particular assignment, so these aspects of the assignment should not be mentioned in the essay.

The essay should have the following parts, in this order:

• Header as described near the top of this page.
• A descriptive Title; that is, a title that describes the specific contents of the essay. "Creativity Essay" is not descriptive in this sense, because it is general and does not describe the specific content.
• An Introduction that describes what the reader should expect in the essay; a road map for the essay.
• A Body that contains the information in the essay and addresses the specific points above. The Body should contain detail to support the general points. References to readings can be made "in line", for example "as Howard Gardner states on Pg 37 of Creating Minds". Titles of books should be underlined; other sources, including conference postings, should be in quotation marks.
• A Conclusion that summarizes the main points of the essay as a whole. New material should not be introduced in the conclusion; the conclusion should be a summary of material presented earlier.
• A Bibliography (not counted within the five pages). I do not particularly care about the specific form of the bibliographic listings. Each entry should include author name, title, date of publication and pages referenced.

A cover page is not necessary, but the header is necessary.

Essays will be graded on the following basis:

• Content. 40%. Content includes the ideas, arguments, concepts, and references to the readings and the computer conference discussion.
• Form 40%. Form includes the presence of the parts Header, Title, Introduction, Body, Conclusion and Bibliography, and the organization of the essay in a logical and progressive manner. The essay should flow well or naturally from one topic and part to the next. The essay should have a consistent voice (first person, second person, etc.) and tense (past, present, future) throughout.
• Mechanics 20%. This includes grammar, spelling, punctuation, and other mechanical aspects of writing. It also includes having the header described above, and the correct file name.

NOTE: The essay form counts for a major part of the essay grade. You should read the description of the form carefully, and clear up any questions or doubts you may have about it, before starting to write an essay. The requirements for the Introduction and Conclusion mean that you should have written a draft or an outline or at least thought through your content before you begin to write the final version.

Essay A

A description and definition of what you think creativity is, as a result of your own experience and your work so far in this course. In the course of your essay, you should work in answers to the following (not necessarily in this order):

• A brief description or definition of creativity
• Is creativity limited to major contributions to the cultural, artistic and scientific arenas ("big C"), or does it include corporate creativity and innovation, and creativity in personal everyday lives ("little c")?
• What is important about creativity?
• Three examples of creativity, including the creative person, the creative product, and what was the nature of the creativity?
• One or more questions or open areas concerning creativity that interest you. These can be either areas that you think may or will come up later in the course, or that will remain as questions after the course is over.

As an alternative to the essay, you can write a creative work, such as a short story, that illustrates the points outlined above, without specifically answering them. If you are interested in this alternative, but are unsure of what would be acceptable, so am I! Use the computer conference or email to work this out. For this alternative, be assured that, if you let me know what you are thinking of, and if you make a good-faith effort, I will not penalize you.

A second alternative is a contribution to the web site for this course. Call or email me if you are interested in what you might do here.

Creativity Term Paper

The Creativity Term Paper should address your focus in this course. There are three assigned texts for general background, and you choose a focus within the overall topic of Creativity by choosing a fourth book, and by choosing the topic for the term paper. Unlike the Creativity Essay, the Creativity Term Paper does not have to address the whole field of Creativity. Some examples of possible topics are shown below. The course covers three general areas of Creativity:

• Cultural, artistic and scientific Creativity. Two specific possible topics of interest to me here are:
  • Analyzing the creativity of Martin Luther King
  • Analyzing the creativity of Henry Ford

  NOTE: analyzing Martin Luther King, Henry Ford, or any other individual does NOT mean producing an uncritical paper full of only praise for the individual, unless you make it clear how this person escapes the negatives that Gardner writes about in Creating Minds.

• Corporate Creativity, which can include
  • how to be creative in business on a personal level
  • how to manage or supervise for creativity in your workers
  • how to train people in a business or corporate setting to be creative or innovative
• Creativity in personal or everyday life, which can include
  • General or social considerations
  • Specific, personal concerns, such as a particular form of creativity that you are interested in for yourself

Your Creativity Term Paper can focus in one of the above areas, which are shown as examples, or in another area of your choice.

Length: 10 pages, double-spaced not including References and Bibliography

Content: Should include references to the relevant readings, including your journal and Internet articles, and to the conference content, where it is appropriate.

The organization and grading will be the same as for the Creativity Essay. That is, the organization is Title, Introduction, Body, conclusion, References and bibliography, and grading is on the basis of Content, Form and Mechanics.

References can be in-line, mentioning the author and year, spelled out with page references on the References page. For example, "As Howard Gardner states (Gardner 1993)" in the body, and then broken out on the References page with the author's name, title of the work, publisher and publication year, and page reference, as "Page 10: Gardner, Howard, Creating Minds. Basic Books 1993, pg 172"

Titles of books and journals are underlined, but titles of individual articles in a journal or of individual chapters in a book are in quotes. Otherwise, I do not care about the specific form of the references and bibliography entries. You can use the References and Bibliography in Creating Minds as a model, if you want.

Note that the following preliminary work is also required:

• Draft topic posted on conference by February 9
• Topic due by March 8 as email attachment (assignment code is "t")
• Outline due by 3/29 as email attachment (assignment code is "o")
• Draft of term paper due by 4/12 as email attachment (assignment code is "d")
• Term paper due by 4/19 as email attachment (assignment code is "p")

A creative work is also acceptable for the Creativity Term Paper. In this case, the preliminary work is also required. A contribution to the web site for this course is also an acceptable alternative. Call or email the Instructor to work out a project.

Pre-approved choices for fourth book for ISP 5500. You can choose any of the books in the list below as your fourth book on Creativity, and just inform the Instructor of your choice. If you choose a book not on the list below, you must get the Instructor's approval first.

1. The HP Way. Hewlett Packard has been very successful, a market leader, and consistently innovative.
2. Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Peter Drucker is one of the foremost business "gurus." Here, he speaks forcefully for the need for innovation, gives many case histories, and describes methods for innovation. He argues against the idea of innovators as risk-takers. "Big C" creativity, he argues, the type that creates a whole new product, is unreliable for business purposes.
3. The Nature of Creativity. A survey of academic approaches to creativity. In some approaches, the creative person seems almost an afterthought. The contributions of society are analyzed.
4. John Kao, Jamming. pub. HarperCollins, 1996. A quick tour of management and business techniques to foster creativity and innovation. Makes use of analogy to "jamming" by jazz musicians.
5. Daniel Goleman et al., The Creative Spirit, pub. by Dutton and Penguin USA 1992. Companion to a PBS series on creativity. A survey of creativity in art and culture, children and business.
6. Rollo May, The Courage to Create, pub W.W. Norton & Co 1994 (first published in 1975). Rollo May is a psychoanalyst who is also an artist, and here he describes artistic and cultural creativity from both perspectives. The A large part of the courage here is making a full commitment to a domain of endeavor.
7. Tom Peters, Liberation Management, pub Fawcett Columbine 1992. I haven't read this one yet, but Tom Peters is another business "guru." The book advocates "Necessary Disorganization for the Nanosecond Nineties" (the quote here is the subtitle). Something like this was implemented by Chrysler to develop the Viper supercar in record time.
8. Robert Lutz, Guts pub Wiley 1998. A Chrysler VP given a lot of credit for innovation and creativity in the automobile industry, tells what he did and how he did it. An iconoclastic and passionate presentation.
9. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow pub. Basic Books 1997. A detailed experimental study of how people find meaning in everyday lives. Also, how to increase the level of creativity or "flow" in your own life. An excellent choice if you want to pursue your personal creativity.
10. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow pub. Harper and Row 1990. I haven't read this one yet, but it is on my list. Presents Csikszentmihalyi's concept of "flow" as optimal experience. Based on extensive research on everyday lives of a large number of people.
11. Ed Frank Barron et al., Creators on Creating pub. Tarcher/Putnam 1997. Individual creators, classical to contemporary, tell their own stories of how they create. Also has an extensive introduction on the nature of creativity and creativity research.