THE WEEKLY PAPERS

§ 1) § 2) § 3) § 4) § the first paper § addendum §

download: MS Word THE WEEKLY PAPERS [3/21]

THE DEVICES OF SCIENCE FICTION (CL 215W, E6MB)
Rathaus 106, Mondays & Wednesdays, 6:30-7:45

instructor: Seth Young
ayoung@gc.cuny.edu / tel. 718-997-3599
office hours: Kiely 604, Mon. & Wed., 4:30-6 or by appointment

THE WEEKLY PAPERS

1) PAPERS ARE DUE EVERY MONDAY. NO LATE PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED. Exceptions: For the weeks of 2/13-14, 3/7, and 3/12-14, papers are due Wednesday. Also, there are no papers due for the weeks of February 21, May 7 and 9, and May 14. These exceptions are noted on the SCHEDULE. Papers may be emailed to ayoung@gc.cuny.edu, but email submissions are subject to the same deadline (Mondays, 6:30 p.m.).

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2) Papers will constitute 50% of your final grade. Students may opt to forgo two of the ten papers. If you write nine papers, I will drop your lowest grade. If you write ten papers, I will drop your two lowest grades. [Correction: Students may opt to forgo two of the eleven papers. If you write ten papers, I will drop your lowest grade. If you write eleven papers, I will drop your two lowest grades.]

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3) Your papers must be typed, double-spaced, and one page in length. "One page" means, yes, one page-not half a page, not three quarters of a page, but one full page (approximately 300 words or more).  Head your papers with your name and the due date.

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4) "Paper" is both too vague and too specific to describe these weekly assignments. On one hand, requirements for papers vary from discipline to discipline, and this course freely mixes literature in with other fields (philosophy, cultural studies, theory of technology, etc.). On the other hand, "paper" makes it sound  as if I am expecting a closed argument, with an introduction, body, and conclusion. Here are some things you will want to consider as you put together your weekly assignments:

* These papers are, ultimately, fragments, and it will be up to you to see what you can do with them. I expect you to make  provisional arguments in your papers, arguments open to contingency, revision, and further reflection. Think back to classes you have taken. You rarely remember the core of a certain course. It is the digressions, the random asides, the unexpected questions, the anecdotes and examples that are most memorable.

* Bold speculation, sharp reflection. Stretch yourself in writing these papers, or better, let the course materials stretch you. Merely to summarize a novel's plot, for example, enslaves you to the text you are to interrogate. I am not asking you to abandon logic or embrace solipsism. Your reflections need to be communicable, plausible, and presented lucidly. You must write with a view to bringing your reader along with you. Citing passages and indicating specific aspects of a text are the best ways to insure that your writing is readable and that I can evaluate and respond to what you are thinking and how you are presenting your thinking.

* Do not wait until Sunday night or Monday morning to begin the paper. Read the course materials aggressively enough that you are, in a sense, already writing throughout the week.

* Keep some kind of reading journal, in which you can jot down your thoughts on the fly [see, for example, Seth's notepad]. Mark passages that you find interesting or provocative. Review your class notes. Talk to your fellow students. Talk to your fellow students. You are, after all, part of a class and not alone in having to write a page every week. [Try make contact !] Talk to me, or send me email [ayoung@gc.cuny.edu] whenever you have questions, problems, inspirations. In these ways you can develop a body of  materials of your own with which to confront the project of writing.

* Each week I will suggest a few "topics." However, I am more interested in you pursuing lines of thought you develop on your own. Build on what you write about in previous papers; imagine that each paper is a fragment of a larger paper (which remains  virtual, as there is no final paper). At the same time, don't be afraid to move out in new directions with each paper. Explore.

* I can help you with the process of finding questions to explore. Especially for the first couple of papers, my comments and feedback will be aimed at pushing you in productive directions.

* Bend the syllabus to your will. You are not required to write about all of the course materials, nor are you required to write about the materials for a specific week. Depending on the direction in which your papers go, you may want to pull from texts read earlier in the semester. You may want to keep returning to the same text, examining it in light of others as you encounter them.

* Take the time to attack some of the supplementary readings. They can be "difficult" at certain points, but I am always available to work through them with you. Keep in mind that these supplementary readings are not The Truth. Critics and theorists are not automatically "right" by virtue of being professionals and published. You can use these readings as sounding boards, something to push against. You might even make your disagreements with particular readings the center of some of your papers.

* In working with the supplementary readings, as well as the required course materials, you must make a clear distinction between  your writing and the text in question. Your citations must be comprehensible. Placing appropriate page number(s) in parentheses at the end of quotations is the easiest and most efficient style of citation. If you have any questions about using quotations, you need to consult with me.

Plagiarism will result in immediate failure.

* Detail. The smallest detail opens the widest panorama for reflection. Applying pressure to a single quotation can provide you with an anchor around which to organize your paper. Also, pushing a passage as far as it will go puts you in a better position to make connections to another text or passage. The most general connections between course materials have already been made, at least insofar as I put them on the same syllabus. Specific relations between the course materials remain in question. Challenge yourself to articulate comparisons that we pass over in class.

* Fun. You have the opportunity to pursue your own thinking in an open-ended and ongoing way, which is to say, you are being given the opportunity to question authentically. Like "paper," "course," perhaps, does not adequately describe our activity this semester. The process of walking the path takes priority over any destination we might wish for along the way. Take pleasure in the twists and turns of the route itself...

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the first paper (2/14 appendix)

Quick notes / my estimation of the first papers (as a group):
* We're still shooting too wide, taking on too many things. Narrow the focus of each paper.
* Again, applying interpretive pressure to a single quotation can open up the widest panorama for reflection. Think of what we were able to do with the epigraph to  The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. [See Seth's notepad.] This means  reading the quotation in question becomes the paper's primary activity (instead of merely tossing off examples for your argument, which is otherwise separate).
* There was a great deal of consensus on aspects of reading  and VR, such as "immersion." However, many papers skipped over the complexity of the relation between the reader and the text by assuming that all of the energy rests with the text. Most of you left the participation of the reader implicit but unexplored. Relation is a tough concept to think. It only obtains between two things, but it should not be confused with either of them.
* Most importantly, perhaps, we need to work on theorizing from particulars instead of offering a readymade definition and reducing examples to it. Start with the specific (reading experience, quotation, what have you) and use it to launch the more speculative aspects of your paper. This is nearly an inversion of standard academic essay form, which is deductive in nature (thesis to supporting argument). Although we're playing with the idea of a "body" of fragments on these assignments, we still need to consider organization when it comes to final draft time.
* At the risk of redundancy, your best strategy for these assignments is working, in whatever way you can,  throughout the week toward producing a paper.

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addendum

Here is the tip sheet I hand out to my 100-level courses. Their writing assignments are more rigidly defined, and these tips are oriented toward more straightforward analytical writing, along the lines of the "scholarly article." Our weekly papers are, by contrast, more inductive, interrogative, essayistic (recall that  essay means "attempt"). Nonetheless, I hope you will find some of these prescriptions helpful as we move deeper into the syllabus. In particular, as we move on, please take care to edit, correct spelling errors, punctuate properly, etc. Take pride in your work.

Re short analytical essays on literature

* Your introductory paragraph includes an interpretive and articulate thesis statement about the text(s). A thesis organizes and controls your presentation. The "essay" lacking a thesis is the decapitated track star: running fast in no particular direction.
Do not just repeat an element of the text, summarize plot events, or quote part of the topic that you have been given. Formulating a thesis is not a fixed procedure but involves patient, imaginative, and scrupulous (think details) work with and in a text.

* Precise arguments are more convincing than wandering ones. General essays are difficult to take issue with because they seem to say very little; your reader may dismiss your "argument" for the simple reason that s/he is not given enough specific information with which to evaluate your position. If I can't disagree with you, then we're not arguing.
Avoid the hopelessly vague, such as: how a character or piece of literature exemplifies some conventional notion (e.g., love is stronger than hate); how a narrative plot reflects situations thought to be common in "reality" (e.g., being near death results in scrutiny of one's life); the application to literature of popular psychological beliefs (e.g., we know this character was spoiled as a child because s/he is selfish); or how a piece of literature exemplifies some moral truism. Remember that characters are not people, and the story in a piece of literature has never taken place.

* Your focus is language. Base your argument on specific passages in the text that you quote or to which you refer as reinforcement.  Showing how something works is more powerful than merely telling. Ultimately your argument is about specific passages, and you should not make use of quotations as if they are examples of an otherwise separate argument. Work through cited material as opposed only to paraphrasing it.

* Avoid irrelevant information. If you cannot explain how something contributes to your argument, then eliminate it from your essay.

* Guide readers to  your conclusions. Whether with an iron hand or a softer touch, direct their reception of your argument.—They are reading your paper and not what you were thinking when writing it. Supplying clear transitions between paragraphs, from one point of your argument to the next, will aid readers in following you like the lost dogs that they are.

* Avoid words and phrases such as "clearly," "it is evident," "definitely," "there can be no question," "while in fact," "I do believe," and "in my opinion." These kinds of locutions gum up your syntax, burdening direct statements with filler, and they undermine your argument because they imply that it requires a crutch and can't stand on its own.

*  Do not summarize the plot. Plot paraphrase is not engaging and rarely constitutes an argument. Keep in mind that events in a narrative are plotted by an author in spite of their perception, reception, or conception by narrator or characters. Narrator/character perception, reception, or conception of narrative events is also plotted by an author; your argument should not entail consideration of what might have been if something did or did not happen in the story.
If your essay is written in the past tense, then you are most likely summarizing the plot. Write about literature in the present tense. And make sure that your textual citations are not being used as short-cuts in a plot summary.
It is difficult to imagine an essay that never mentions plot. However, pertinent plot elements will emerge "organically" in an argument that takes as its primary focus the language of the text.

* Your essay "represents" you. Have someone with fresh eyes read your work  before sending it into the world. Proofread, edit, revise, tweak, format until you can no longer proofread, edit, revise, tweak, and format. Grace your essay with a title.

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