English194assignments

From English 194 Wiki

Contents 1 Team Project 1.1 Preparatory Tasks 1.2 Final Tasks 2 Solo Assignments 2.1 Student Bio 2.2 Respondent to Readings 2.3 Annotated Bibliography 2.4 Research Report 2.5 "Interpretive" Essay 2.6 Extra Credit Assignments

Team Project

Students will group into teams of 3 to 5 each. Each team will design a project exploring one of the alternative paradigms of literary interpretation discussed in the course (e.g., graphing, mapping, modeling, simulating, gaming, story-telling, etc.). Teams will be formed up in Class 6, April 18. Grading: 50% of the final grade of each student will be based on the team-wide grade for the project.

Team projects are due at the end of the quarter, but require preliminary collaborative tasks on the following schedule:

Preparatory Tasks

1. By Class 9, April 30: Meet face-to-face outside class at least once to brainstorm. (Subsequent team collaboration can occur through any combination of meetings, email, use of the class wiki or other online collaboration tools (e.g., Google Documents & Spreadsheets, phone calls, etc. The instructor will check in informally and periodically with each team to be sure that collaboration is in fact happening.)
2. By Class 10, May 2: Choose a literary work (or part of a work) that the team project will "interpret." During Class 10, May 2, teams will present their candidate work to the class along with the reasons for its selection. (Prepare for the class: citations and, as appropriate, excerpts or summaries [on your team page].) Alternatively, teams may present a short list of candidate works from which a final candidate has not yet emerged.
3. Class 12, May 9: Brainstorm two or more ideas for the team project based on the chosen literary work. Teams will present their ideas to the class for critique during Class 12, May 9.

Final Tasks

Classes 18-19, June 4/6: Due to the shortness of development time during a 10-week quarter, teams are not expected necessarily to finish with a fully realized, working "product" (though, of course, the closer to that goal the better). Instead, the goal is to finish with at least a publicly presentable "prototype," "demo," "model," "maquette," "draft," or whatever similar term fits the nature of the project. During the last week of the course (Classes 18-19, June 4/6), teams will make formal presentations of their prototypes. These presentations will be advertised as part of the Literature & Culture of Information (LCI) specialization's Film.Literature.Software (FLS) event series; and other undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty in the specialization will be invited.

By the formal presentation date, teams must have ready the following:

1. A cohesive, well-designed page on the course wiki that presents (links to) the prototype and explains it. (That is: if you were to pitch the project to a funding agency or venture capital firm, this is the make-or-break page.)
2. The prototype itself, existing in some combination of specifications, sketches, images, videos, web sites, demos, etc. (Depending on the needs of the teams, we can optionally set up a shared class WordPress blog that allows for easy creation of web materials somewhat less constrained by the text-oriented limitations of the course wiki. Even more freedom is available through students' individual UWeb accounts, which allow setting up web pages of whatever nature.)
3. Supporting annotated bibliography of books, essays, software, other projects, etc., related to the project (created through individual "Annotated Bibliography" assignment; see below).

Solo Assignments

Besides team work, each student has individual assignments that contribute to the class as a whole or to their team project but that are individually graded. A total of 50% of the final grade for each student derives from these solo assignments.

Student Bio

Class 5, April 16: By this date, each student will create a bio for the course wiki, including their intellectual interests. (For the format, see the bios from an earlier version of English 194. (A member of the class will be appointed the course photographer for the bio pics.) This assignment will not be graded as such, unless it is not done.)

Respondent to Readings

Various dates during first half of course: During the first half of the course when there are assigned readings, students will be asked to sign up to be "respondents" to the readings for one class. A respondent is responsible for posting to the course wiki (by 6 p.m. of the previous day) a 100-300 word observation, analysis, critique, concern, question, or other statement about the readings that might help fuel class discussion. A good way to shape a statement is to present an observation that leads up to a strong question, or that relates the issues to some more general and/or unexpected context. (5% of final grade.)

Annotated Bibliography

Class 14, May 16: Create an annotated bibliography of 5 items relating to either, or both, the literary work upon which your team project is based or some other topic relevant to the approach, technology, or other aspect of your team project. An "item" might be, for example, an essay, book, software tool, web site, related project, suggestive paradigm, etc. (There must be at least one print or originally-in-print item included. Wikipedia articles do not count as possible items, though Wikipedia may be used to supplement the description of an item if used according to the course Wikipedia Use Policy.)

An annotated bibliography entry for an item consists of the following (see bibliography template):

• A bibliographical citation (in MLA style). [See MLA Handbook. For rules and examples for citations of Web sites, see Transcriptions Guide to Evaluating and Citing Online Resources.]
• A 200-600 word objective description of the work, including quotations and links as necessary (aim for one double-spaced page as the average for each entry).

Each student's bibliographical entries will first be written to a page named "[Your Name]'s Bibliography." Later, students will merge their entries into the annotated bibliography page that each team will set up for its project under the page title, "[Project Title] Bibliography." In the event that more than one student on a team includes the same item in their bibliography, the team bibliography page will simply collect multiple annotations per item.

(10% of final grade.)

Research Report

Class 15, May 21: Choosing one of the items in your individual annotated bibliography, write a 4-page "research report" on it that includes the following sequence of sections:

1. Abstract (100 words or less)
2. Description (An objective description or summary; may include portions of the annotation written for the annotated bibliography.) Screenshots or other images, where appropriate, would be useful.
3. Evaluation of Opportunities/Limitations for Your Team Project (What possibilities does this item suggest for your team project and its general idea? What problems or limitations does it also suggest?)
4. Resources for Further Study: a brief set of follow-up citations or links (including the citation/link to the item under discussion). (Please note the course Wikipedia Use Policy.)

(10% of final grade.)

"Interpretive" Essay

The Monday after classes are over: June 10: 8-page essay about the literary work that is the basis of your team's project. The goal of the essay is to provide an "understanding" of the work--analytical, contextual, ethical, aesthetic, and/or technical--that benefits from (and may include discussion of) the team project. Important: your intended audience for this essay is a general scholarly audience, not the "insiders" in our class. So take care to provide the necessary context (i.e., explain the work and your project as if you were writing for another professor in the English department). So, too, speak of your project in the objective third-person (not "our project makes me think that . . ." but "the [project title] at UCSB shows that . . .). These essays, in other words, should be designed to be publicly presentable, and will be linked from your team's project page on the course wiki. (Please note the course Wikipedia Use Policy.) (25% of final grade.)

Extra Credit Assignments

Be creative! There are a variety of tasks related to the course wiki page that could use volunteers as the quarter proceeds (5% extra credit on the final grade.) Tasks include (suggest others):

• Create a site logo and associated images for various site pages related to such motifs as mapping, modeling, gaming, etc. (or a collage of the above). (Source images should be original photos or artwork.)
• Be the class photographer.
• Be the editor of the class bio pages.
• Take the lead in finishing the site home page.
• Etc.