LITR 4368
 Literature of the Future |
 Midterm Assignment 2017 |
 |
This webpage constitutes this semester's midterm assignment, to be updated until Monday, 30 October, when paper copies will be distributed.
Official date:
Monday, 6 November.
Email submission window: any time from after class on Monday,
30 October,
due by 11:59pm, Wednesday, 8 November.
(whiteC@uhcl.edu)
Attendance not required on 6 November.
Relative weight:
40-50% of final grade
Content: 2 essays from pre-midterm + Web Highlights
Essay 1: Complete Essay on
Narratives of the Future
(6-8
paragraphs): Compare & evaluate
3 narratives of the future
Essay 2: Begin Research Essay
(4-7
paragraphs midterm total): Referring to course readings and outside sources, introduce and
explain your learning on your selected personal / professional research topic
(to be
researched and extended for final exam)
Essay 3: Web Highlights
(5-6
paragraphs):
Review at least 3
student contributions from course website's
Model Assignments
Special Requirements / Instructions:
All three essays must have
titles.
Required textual references:
Somewhere in your exam (mostly Essay 1), you must refer to Revelation,
Parable,
and Time Machine +
3-4 stories .
You should refer to nearly all our texts at
some point in your midterm, but esp. Revelation, Parable of the Sower,
and The Time Machine.
Welcome to
refer briefly to future-vision presentations
& outside readings
but not required. Keep returning to course texts for examples and analysis.
You may
refer to course texts in
abbreviated form, e. g.
Parable,
“Garden,” “Gernsback.”
Overlap between essays is possible, but be efficient.
Demonstrate that you've reviewed our course's
instructional webpages on essential and associated terms by using terrms,
definitions, and illustrations. Best exams in past semesters showed
such knowledge,
while struggling exams used course terms in brief, superficial ways or barely at
all.
Email
your answers to instructor at
whiteC@uhcl.edu.
·Attach appropriate word processing file(s) to an email for
whiteC@uhcl.edu.
(Microsoft Word works, Microsoft Works doesn't)
Copy
and paste contents of your word processing file into an email message to
whiteC@uhcl.edu
Instructor acknowledges receipt of your midterm usually within a few hours.
Email problems?
A problem or two with email is normal in a class this size. Don't panic—communicate.
We'll
work things out.
Spacing:
No need to double-space, but OK if you do. All electronic submissions are
converted to single-space for reading onscreen.
Return of grades, etc.: Late in week of 13 November, check your email for midterm note and grade from instructor.
|
Midterm Content Details—Two Assigned Topics > |
Essay 1: Complete Essay on
Narratives of the Future
concludes (5-8
paragraphs): Compare & evaluate
3 narratives of the future
Describe and evaluate the
three primary narratives for the future
(Objective 1). Where and how do these narratives appear in
our texts, how do they differ, and
where or how do they overlap or combine?
Refer frequently to texts, terms, objectives, and course's instructional
websites,
What
signs, terms, symbols,
metaphors, sequences of events,
time scales, and values distinguish one narrative of the future from another?
What literary and cultural attractions or appeals do these narratives make to
different audiences?
Scriptural Texts of Creation & Apocalypse,
Parable
of the Sower, &
The
Time Machine are required. You will lose credit if you don't make enough
references to these texts to show you read and remember them.
Other texts that may also be included:
"Stone Lives,"
"Bears Discover Fire," "Somebody up there Likes Me,"
"Mozart
in Mirrorshades,"
"Garden of Forking Paths",
"The Gernsback Continuum";
"Better Be Ready 'bout Half Past Eight." (At least 3 of these.)
References to Future-Vision presentations
welcome but not required.
Revise and improve what you wrote for
Extend your premidterm Essay 1 draft to include essential materials you were
required to cover but didn't (e.g. texts, types of narratives, term definitions,
etc.)
Add
new paragraphs dealing with materials since premidterm up to midterm
narrative (more on evolution;
alternative futures)
texts
since midterm (The
Time Machine,
Coordinate or unify new paragraphs with earlier pre-midterm paragraphs by
reinforcing continuing themes or lines of thought, or by revising earlier
paragraphs to anticipate changes.
Essay 1 will not be continued on final exam, so
conclude by summarizing visions and learning regarding
three future narratives.
Essay 2: Begin Research Essay
(4-7
paragraphs midterm total): Referring to course readings and outside sources, introduce and
explain your learning on your selected personal / professional research topic
(to be
researched and extended for final exam)
"personal" = what
you've learned or thought before + personal future
"professional" = application to student career,
teaching career, or other professional plans
"collective"
= application to our common future, how we work, survive, and learn together (or not)
If you're still having trouble with your topic, see suggestions in pre-midterm assignment. Your topic may shift or evolve naturally in relation to your research and analysis, but if your topic shifts drastically, at least acknowledge and explain the change.
For the
midterm, you must refer to at least two of our course texts and at least
two outside sources with helpful information about your research topic.
For the
final exam, you will revise and extend the draft you wrote for
your midterm, adding at least two additional course texts and at least two
additional outside sources.
More on course texts: Connect your topic or your interest in it to two or more of the texts we've read together in class. (For the final exam, you're expected to connect to two additional course texts since the midterm.) If your topic is so exotic that connections aren't easy, at least make the effort to indicate which of our shared readings come closest to connect.
"Outside sources" may include some combination of
primary, secondary, or background
sources from our course website, the internet, library research, and / or
personal reading. The prestige and quality of these sources may vary widely,
with varying effects on the quality of your essay, but a lot depends on how well
you identify and integrate the ideas that catch your interest.
Primary sources might include fiction, films, video games, TV
series, documentaries
Secondary sources might include a course term-page (e.g.
science fiction,
millennialism) and / or a previous Essay 2 written for the 2011,
2013, or 2015 Model Assignments. Other
impressive possibilities include scholarly articles and books accessed through UHCL's Neumann
Library have the most prestige and bring the most credit. Film or video
documentaries on your subject count.
Background sources might include interviews with teachers or other knowledgeable
acquaintances; encyclopedias, and companions to literature that provide basic
generic, biographical, or historical information. Background sources
on the Web start with
Wikipedia
or other more or less specialized
websites providing common knowledge or basic information on varied
topics. Documentation at such sites can lead you to more specialized sources.
(You don't have to do all three—just detailing options.)
Essay 3: Web Highlights
(5-6
paragraphs):
Review at least 3
student contributions from course website's
Model Assignments
Assignment: Review at least 3 submissions from previous semesters' submissions on the course webpage’s Model Assignments page and write 5-7 paragraphs (total) on what you found and learned.
Requirements & guidelines:
Web Highlights essay must have a
title.
Review at least two midterm Essay
1s from
previous midterms.
Review at least one
Research Essay (Essay 2) from
previous midterms or final exams.
“Review”:
describe what interested you, where, why you
chose it,
what you learned. You may criticize what you found, but not required.
To identify passages, copy and paste brief selections into your web review or refer to them using names, locations, paraphrases, summaries, and brief quotes. (Both options in models.) Either way, highlight and discuss language used in the passages as part of your commentary. Critique what you learn.
What did you learn from reviewing model assignments that you didn't learn from in-class instruction?
Note on organization and grading: Some students fulfill assignment by going
through 3 assignments individually, one at a time until finished, with few or no connections between the separate models.
Better submissions unify the three reviews into a whole, purposeful essay in
which the learning experience of one review connects to the learning experience
of another, and your entire learning experience is previewed and
summarized in the essay's introduction and conclusion.
Successful submissions sometimes start by identifying a subject of special interest, then choosing Model Assignments that meet
this interest.
Sample Web Highlights from other courses:
| LITR 4340 American Immigrant Literature 2016 | LITR 4340 American Immigrant Literature 2016 |
Evaluation standards: Readability, competence levels, content coverage and development, and thematic unity.
Readability & surface competence:
Your reader must be able to
process what you're explaining. Given the pressures of a timed writing exercise,
some rough edges are acceptable, but chronic errors or elementary style can hurt.
Content coverage & development:
Comprehension of subject, demonstration of learning,
use of course resources including instructional webpages + interest & significance: Reproduce course materials accurately
but refresh with your own insights, examples, and experiences.
Thematic Unity and Organization:
Unify materials along a line of thought that a reader
can follow from start to finish. Consult sites on
Unity / Continuity / Transition &
Transitions.
