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LITR 4368 Literature of the Future |
 Pre-Midterm Assignment 2019 due by email weekend of 22-24 February |
 Model Assignments |
This webpage constitutes this semester's pre-midterm assignment, to be updated until Wednesday, 20 February when paper copies will be distributed.
Purpose of pre-midterm: to make sure students understand terms, standards, and requirements necessary for the midterm. For the midterm essay 1, students must revise their premidterm drafts and extend them to include more texts and ideas including "Alternative Histories & Futures."
Relative weight:
10-20% of final grade
Format: email; open-book and open-notebook.
Window for email submission: 22-24 February . . . or any time after 20 February up to midnight Sunday 24 February.
Email
your pre-midterm submission to
whiteC@uhcl.edu.
·
Attach appropriate file(s) to an email for
whiteC@uhcl.edu.
(Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format works, Microsoft Works doesn't)
and / or
· Copy
and paste contents of your essays into an email message to
whiteC@uhcl.edu
Acknowledgement of receipt:
Instructor usually replies that he's received your submission within a few hours
(unless you send it at an odd time).
Email problems?
A problem or two with email (or computers generally) is normal in a class this size. Don't panic—communicate
& things will work out.
Spacing:
Single-spacing preferred.
No need to double-space, but OK if you do. All submissions are
converted to single-space for reading onscreen.
Return of grades, etc.: Approximately 1-2 weeks after submission.
Contents: Start 2 essays you'll continue in your midterm and final exam.
Part 1: Course Content Essay:
Narratives of the Future
(2-3 paragraphs): Begin
midterm
Essay
1 comparing and evaluating
3 narratives of the future
Part 2:
Propose and defend topic for research and reading
essay on personal/professional topic of your choice
(to be extended in
midterm
and
final exam)
(1-2
paragraphs)
Special Requirements / Instructions:
Both essays must have
titles. (If your essays
arrive without titles, I send them back for re-submission with titles added.)
Refer to
at least one
premidterm or midterm
answer
from a previous class on
course webpage's
Model Assignments at some point in
Essay 1.
You may
refer to course texts in
abbreviated form after first mention, e. g.
Parable,
"Stone," "Bears"
Overlap between two parts is possible.
Show you've reviewed our course's
instructional webpages on essential terms by using
terrms and information provided. You can't reproduce all knowledge from every term-page, but best exams
demonstrate
they've refreshed and extended what they picked up in class,
while struggling exams either ignore essential course terms or use them in brief, superficial ways.
Pre-Midterm Content Outline—Two (2) brief essays total
Part 1: Course Content Essay:
Narratives of the Future (2-3
paragraphs): Begin
midterm essay comparing and evaluating
3 narratives of the future
How are you putting the materials together into a whole understanding? Consider
emphasizing narratives as story-telling, story-telling as problem-solving.
So far we've barely studied "alternative
futures," so concentrate on
apocalypse
and
evolution, but welcome to look ahead briefly to
alternative
futures as inclined or prepared.
Special Requirements / Instructions:
Refer to something you learned from an "Essay #1" in
Model Assignments. (What you learned may
bear directly on
Narratives of the Future, or on what you learned about
conceptualizing or organizing this assignment.)
Advice:
Refer frequently to texts, terms, and objectives. Integrate terms, examples,
themes.
What
signs, symbols, or
metaphors, distinguish one
narrative of the future from another? How
may
one
narrative of the future turn into
another?
Where or how do these narratives overlap or conflict?
What literary and cultural attractions or appeals to
apocalypse
and
evolution?
Part 2: Research & Reading Essay Topic Proposal
(1-2
paragraphs): Propose a personal/professional research topic in our course and readings
(to be
researched and extended for Essay 2 in midterm and
final exam)
"personal" = what
you've learned or thought before + personal future
"professional" = application to student career,
teaching career, or other professional plans
The topic should connect to our course objectives and texts, as your research sources are expected to include at least some of our course's readings.
For the
pre-midterm research proposal, refer to at least one course text (so far or later in
semester) that relates to or inspires your topic, and preview possible outside sources with helpful information about or
connections to your topic.
Write about what you want to learn, where or how you will look for information
or ideas.
"Outside sources" may be scholarly research, web sources, other fiction texts, films, video,
etc.
For the
midterm, you must refer to at least two of our course texts and to
at least two outside sources with helpful information about or connections to your topic.
(Course-text requirements may change with 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.
In any of these exams, you may refer to other stories, books, movies, TV, or other media that inform your knowledge of this subject or story-line.
Additional content requirements / suggestions for Essay 2 research proposal:
Don't feel stuck in what our first few classes are about—scout later-in-semester topics and
themes?
Explain why you chose your topic, where the idea came from,
where you saw it in our texts so far (or later), and any previous
experience reading about or otherwise experiencing this subject or area of
study.
Consider other possible topics, or how your topic may evolve as you research it.
If you're uncertain or stuck between two topics, you can describe your
situation, the attractions and possibilities for various topics.
Remember that you'll revise the Pre-Midterm essays for the Midterm and the
Final, so the pre-midterm may look very different from what you end up doing.
What theme(s), idea(s), aspect(s), or element(s) of our course intrigue you or
matter most? Why? What issue(s) seem most important and worth reading and
discussing? What do you learn about your interests or assumptions?
Your emphasis may be literary, cultural-social-historical, personal, or
combinations, but use (or anticipate) examples from
texts to illustrate and develop insights, and use terms and objectives to
connect to the course.
Overlap with Essay 1 is possible.
More on choosing / developing a topic:
Other ways to choose a topic:
When
writing Essay 1, pay attention to issues you want to write about
but have to leave out or minimize.
Reflect on which readings you like or remember most, and ask what about them
interested or bothered you, and for what reason.
For midterm and final exam, you will continue this topic in reference to texts read after the midterm. The topic can be varied according to what you see in those texts. If you change topics significantly, at least acknoweldge and rationalize the change.
Don't feel pressure to conform to views of instructor. The point of the essay is to show yourself learning.
Don't be afraid of repeating a topic. I won't remember or care! Besides, you can
use previous research reports as "outside sources."
Develop a
theme, idea, or issue that appears in our course and elsewhere.
Describe a
sub-genre of Literature of the Future: science fiction,
speculative fiction, prophecy, apocalypse, post-apocalyptic, or one of our
end-of-semester "scenarios" like high-tech, low-tech, ecotopia, alien contact.
(Course term-pages may serve as "outside sources.")
An author you've read or want to learn about: Octavia Butler, H. G.
Wells, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Neal Stephenson, Margaret Atwood.
A
movement or group of authors from a particular period
(e.g. Golden Age SF, Silver Age SF,
cyperpunk, steampunk,
Young Adult Dystopias)
Diversity or social justice issues in Literature of the Future:
gender equality, science fiction as all-white boys' club, classism, speciesism.
Educational issues (e.g., computers in classrooms, reading
online or onscreen vs. reading print / paper,
science fiction / fantasy /
speculative fiction as
teachable?); video games as instruction
General grading standards
Readability & surface competence: Your
reader must be able to process what you're reporting. Some rough edges are acceptable, but chronic errors or
elementary style limit quality.
Review & edit
your midterm before submitting. Don't make instructor
write, "You expected me to read your midterm when you didn't even read it
yourself?"
Content
quantity and quality:
Evidence of learning, esp. understanding of
terms and application to texts.
Coverage and analysis of required texts.
Use of course resources
including instructional webpages
(esp. for terms) + materials from class
discussion and lecture.
Interest & significance: Make your reader
want to process your
essays by making the information meaningful to our study of
literature and culture.
Thematic
unity / organization: Unify materials along
a line of thought that a reader can follow from start to finish.
Dr. White's Instructional Materials
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