LITR 4632: Literature of
the Future
Final Exam Assignment 2007
(Updated 27 June. Use this webpage copy rather than the assignment in syllabus.)
Basic information:
Relative weight: 40-50% of final grade
Format: In-class or email; open-book and open-notebook
Date: Monday, 2 July, during or around regular class schedule.
Time: The exam should take at least two hours to complete, but you may use the entire class period (2 hours and 59 minutes). In-class students may begin writing at 9am and must turn the midterm in by 11:59. All students should use the copy of the final exam assignment posted on our course webpage's "Model Assignments."
In-class materials: Write in blue or black ink in a bluebook or on handy paper. Fronts and backs, single-spacing acceptable.
Email students may take the midterm during any 3-hour time period after our class on Thursday 14 June. Keep a log of when you start and stop. Pauses or interruptions are okay.
Deadline and acknowledgement: If you take the exam by email, you must email it to the instructor by 1pm on Monday 2 July. Instructor will usually acknowledge receipt of your midterm within a few hours (unless you send it in at an odd time).
Email problems? In a class this size, a problem or two with email is normal. I'm used to dealing with such problems, so don't panic. Just keep trying and communicating and we'll work things out.
Email: email a copy of your answers to instructor at whitec@uhcl.edu.
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The mistake students are most likely to make is to send it to “white” rather than “whitec”; if you send it to “white,” it goes to another teacher.
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Attach appropriate word processing file(s) to an email for whitec@uhcl.edu.
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Copy the contents of your word processing file, then paste them into an email message to me at whitec@uhcl.edu
Prep time and writing time: Spend only about 3 hours writing the exam you will submit, but spend as much time preparing as you like (or can find). Preparations could include the usual review of notes and texts, but you are also permitted to outline and practice drafting. Outlines and previous drafts count as notes, which you may consult as you write your midterm for submission.
Spacing: No need to double-space, but OK if you do. I convert all electronic submissions to single-space for reading onscreen.
Special requirements:
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Refer to at least one previous final exam from a previous class on the course webpage.
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Refer to at least one student presentation or student-led discussion relevant to your themes
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Please provide a title to your essays.
Purposes, organization, evaluation, length, and audience:
Purposes: Demonstrate ability to explain and explore "scenarios" of Literature of the Future and speculate on applications of course to career, teaching, or world beyond course. Language and content should derive from course texts, objectives, and your own speech, backgrounds, experiences, other readings, and personal understandings.
Organization: Write two complete essays on the following topics or one long essay combining these topics. With either approach, unity and transitions are essential. The best exams connect parts to form larger ideas. Pause between paragraphs to review what you've written or to preview what comes next. Summarize. Explain. Explore.
Length: Besides unity and organization, the other main indicator of quality in exams like this is quantity of material. Generally, better exams have more writing. As with the 2005 midterms, the best of the 2005 final exams have 10-14 paragraphs. Since our final exam has two parts, you should probably write a minimum of 9-10 paragraphs total.
Audience: Write so that someone in our class could recognize your terms and explanations and enjoy your personal contributions or styles. The instructor has to be kept in sight--connect with shared terms and texts, and "write up" in terms of organization and ambition of thought.
Final exam
Content / Assignment:
Essay 1 or part 1
Referring to 4 (or more) texts since the midterm, organize a discussion of 1 or more of objective 2's “scenarios of the future” or some other theme, issue, or thread you find significant in the texts and scenarios.
Objective 2—Visions of the Future
2. To identify, describe, and criticize typical visions or scenarios of the future (seen from 2007).
a. high tech; virtual reality—slick, clean, cool, unreal, easy with power.
b. low tech; actual reality—rough, messy, hot, real, hungry for power.
c. utopia / dystopia / ecotopia—perfectly planned worlds / dysfunctional world / + ecology
d. off-planet and / or alien contact—exploring and being explored
Some possible organizing themes—but you may develop your own set of standards, priorities, topics, or themes. Combine, vary, or improvise:
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Short-term—long-term
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Likely—unlikely (or probable—improbable)
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Utopian—dystopian (or hope—fear)
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Friendly—unfriendly (or warm—cold)
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Mechanical—organic
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Virtual reality—actual reality
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High tech—low tech / ecotopia
Essay 2 or part 2
Conclude the course with an expansive overview or an intensive refocusing of your experience with Literature of the Future. You may concentrate on its readings, objectives, presentations, discussions, and / or your own personal reflections on the course and your experience.
What parts of the course mattered the most, and why? What can you do with the knowledge or imagination you've developed? Any frustrations or complications? Welcome to apply to your teaching career, reading interests, or your sense of the world.
"Expansive overview": Survey a wide range of learning to which you've been exposed, but connect the parts into an overall vision.
"Intensive refocusing": Choose a specific lesson or exploration of a topic that you're inspired to develop.
This 2nd part or 2nd essay may refer to and extend materials in your midterm, especially the midterm's conclusion (not required)
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Is the future written or being written?
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How has the course altered either your perception of the future or of the literature pertaining to it?
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If there is one idea or insight that this course has given you regarding literature or the future, what is it? What do or will you keep thinking about regarding your or our future? (Explain.)
Required textual references: Across the exam you must refer to at least 7 texts overall, and at least four stories since the midterm (see Essay 1 or part 1). References to texts before the midterm are encouraged, but your choices of contents may dictate otherwise.
Welcome to refer to texts in abbreviated form, e. g. "The Logical Legend of Heliopause and Cyberfiddle" > "Cyberfiddle."
No page references necessary unless you're citing something very surprising or obscure.
You
are welcome to refer briefly to outside readings, but not required.
Texts since midterm
"Johnny Mnemonic," (BC 1-22); "Burning Chrome," (BC 168-191); "The Logical Legend of Heliopause and Cyberfiddle" (VN 159-180)
"The Onion and I," (VN 8-21)."Drapes and Folds," (VN 126-139)."Speech Sounds"(VN 91-108).
K. S. Robinson, “Introduction” to Future Primitive. "Chocco," (FP 189-214); "House of Bones," (FP 85-110)
"Newton's Sleep" (FP, 311-338); "Men on the Moon" (VN 238-247); "Hinterlands" (BC 58-79).
"Homelanding," (VN 3-7)."They're Made out of Meat," (VN 69-72)."The Poplar Street Study" (VN 140-148); "The Belonging Kind" (BC 43-57).
Texts before midterm
Genesis and Revelation; Parable of the Sower; Time Machine; "Stone Lives"; "Bears Discover Fire"; "Somebody up there Likes Me"; "Garden of Forking Paths"; "Gernsback Continuum"; "Mozart in Mirrorshades"; "Better Be Ready 'bout Half Past Eight"
Links to recent models of final exams
Future-Vision Presentations 2007