LITR 4368 Literature of the Future

Midterm Assignment 2015

This webpage constitutes this summer's midterm assignment, which will be updated until Thursday, 25 June, when paper copies will be distributed.

Relative weight: 40-50% of final grade

Format: In-class or email; open-book and open-notebook.

Date: Monday, 29 June. Email students can email the midterm to whiteC@uhcl.edu any time after Thursday class (25 June) up to 6pm Monday, 29 June.

Attendance not required on 29 June.

Instructor keeps office hours during class period. Bayou 2529-7; 281 283 3380.

Grading evaluation (more at bottom of page):

Quality of writing: surface quality, readability, thematic unity.

Content: reproduction, recombination, & extension of course contents through knowledge of texts and terms, including coverage of required texts and use of instructional web links.

Evidence of Learning: Students are encouraged to develop their own insights, but demonstration of learning counts most. Beware this criticism: "You could have written this without taking the course."

Content: 2 essay questions

• Essay 1 (1.5-2 hours): Compare, contrast, and evaluate Narratives of the Future
• Essay 2 (1+ hour): Isolate a personal/professional topic in our course or readings (to be extended in final exam) 

Length(s): Essay 1 probably 5-8 paragraphs; Essay 2 probably 4-7 paragraphs.

Special Requirements / Instructions:

• Both essays must have titles

• Refer to at least one midterm answer from a previous class on course webpage's Model Assignments at some point in your exam. More than one such reference can be impressive.

• Required textual references: Somewhere in your exam you must refer to Revelation, Parable, and Time Machine + 3-4 stories . Texts relevant to midterm include Scriptural Texts of Creation & Apocalypse (esp. Revelation), Parable of the Sower,  "Stone Lives," "Bears Discover Fire," "Somebody up there Likes Me," The Time Machine, "Mozart in Mirrorshades," "Garden of Forking Paths," "The Gernsback Continuum," and "Better Be Ready 'bout Half Past Eight." You should refer to all or nearly all our texts at some point in your midterm, especially Revelation, Parable of the Sower, and The Time Machine.

• You are encouraged to refer briefly to future-vision presentations & outside readings but not required. Keep returning to course texts for examples.

• You may refer to course texts in abbreviated form, e. g. Parable, “Garden,” “Gernsback.”

• Don't copy out long quotations. Quote briefly and selectively, and analyze the language quoted.

• Overlap between the two essays is possible, not forbidden, but be efficient.

Email your answers to instructor at whiteC@uhcl.edu.

· Most common mistake: students send to “white” rather than “whiteC”

· 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

Email acknowledgement of receipt: Instructor usually acknowledges receipt of your midterm within a few hours (unless you send it at an odd time). If you do not receive an email confirmation, make sure you sent your email-midterm to the right address: WhiteC@uhcl.edu.

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.: Around weekend of 4-5 July, check your email for midterm note and grade from instructor.

Midterm Content Outline—Two (2) Question Topics > Two (2) Essays total

Essay 1 (1.5-2 hours): Compare, contrast, and evaluate Narratives of the Future (5-8 paragraphs?)

Defining narrative as an essential model and activity of human destiny and identity, describe and evaluate the three primary narratives for the future (Objective 1). How do these three narratives differ, and where or how do they overlap or combine?

Refer frequently to texts, terms, and objectives. Integrate terms, examples, themes. In defining or explaining terms, use links to instructional websites.

What signs or symbols distinguish one narrative of the future from another? How can one narrative turn into the other? Where or how do these narratives overlap or conflict?

What literary and cultural attractions or appeals to these narratives? What downsides or detractions?

What meanings do these three narratives create for our individual and shared futures? What attitudes and behaviors follow from these narratives? (e.g., decline or progress?)

Text requirements: Refer to at least two texts for each of the three narratives of the future. Revelation, Parable, & Time Machine are indispensable.

Essential websites: narrative, symbols, apocalypse, evolution, alternative futures, three narratives for the future, decline or progress?

Essay 2 (1+ hour): Choose and develop a personal / professional topic in our course or readings (to be extended in final exam) (4-7 paragraphs?)

Relating personal and / or professional reactions to course contents, 1+ course objectives, and 2-3 texts, unify these materials to focus on how this course's themes or ideas may work for your future.

• "personal" = what you've learned or thought before + personal future

• "professional" = application to student career, teaching career, or other professional plans)

Question: 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? How can you imagine Literature of the Future playing into your future?

Your emphasis may be literary, cultural-social-historical, personal, or combinations, but use examples from texts to illustrate and develop insights, and use terms and objectives to connect to the course.

Overlap with Essay 1 is possible, but be efficient.

Unusual feature of Essay 2 on midterm and final exam: You will continue your topic for this midterm's Essay 2 for your final exam's Essay 2.

Text-reference requirements: Refer to texts before midterm that feature your topic or interest, but also welcome to refer to texts beyond this course with which you're familiar that develop your topic.

Choosing a topic: The best way to start thinking of a possible topic for Essay 2 is to review what past students tried in previous summers (Model Assignments). You may use topics that have been used before and even refer to previous midterm essays for support and insight.

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 liked or remember most, and ask what about them interested or bothered you, and for what reason. 

For 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.

Advice: Don't hurry to email exam. When finished, take a break, then edit and improve. Readability, surface quality, and thematic organization are evaluated.

To enhance content, connect the course as offered to your own interests and insights.

• Refer repeatedly but efficiently to Course Objectives, terms, and texts to show you can speak the language of the course and its subject as common ground for you and instructor (writer and reader).

• Bring forward and develop your own examples, insights, and extensions of the ideas in the course. Don't find reasons to say no to your best possibilities.

Evaluation standards: Readability, competence levels, and interest.

Readability & surface competence: Your reader must be able to process what you're reporting. Given the pressures of a time writing exercise, some rough edges are acceptable, but chronic errors or elementary style limit quality.

Content quality: use of course resources (objectives, terms, lecture, discussion, instructional links, coverage of required texts.); comprehension of subject; demonstration of learning.

+ interest & significance: Make your reader want to process your essay. Make the information meaningful. Make everything matter to our study of literature and culture.

Thematic organization: Unify materials along a line of thought that a reader can follow from start to finish.