"'It's this accursed Science . . . You tamper with it and it offers you gifts.
and directly you take them it knocks you to pieces
in some unexpected way" (68).
H. G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon (1901)

reading response essay / impassioned pleas / term project

READING RESPONSE ESSAY (9%)

• respond to a prompt: essays should respond to one of the points for reflection pertaining to the assigned reading for the day in question.
• pursue a narrowly argued thesis: your essays should move in a very specific direction. Do not attempt to touch on all tangentially related ideas.
• deliver a structured argument: these will not resemble personal journal entries, blog-style writing, or stream-of-consciousness reflections. Essays should be tightly organized, with main points logically ordered. The whole should be framed by a creative, short introduction and some kind of conclusion (do not wrap up by summarizing your main points).
• evince creativity: these exercises are all about effective, persuasive argumentation, and not at all about giving me some "correct" answer you think I want to hear.
• provide adequate evidence: bolster your own claims with textual evidence (using MLA-style page citations) Whether I agree or not with your thesis matters little, as long as it is sufficiently supported and logically, persuasively rendered.
• convey your argument in 500-600 words: this constraint on length represents one of the most challenging parameters of the assignment--take it seriously.
• demonstrate familiarity with the assigned chapters: your essay should indicate awareness of as much of the assigned text as has been assigned thus far
• evince polish: essays should show signs of careful revision.
• be sent to Dr. M by 9:00 p.m. the day before the relevant class meets and immediately follow the prompt itself, which you should paste at the head of your entry.

IMPASSIONED PLEAS (10%, 5 pts each)

Students will post two separate, 75-100 word responses (no more, no less) to two of the four introductory videos I upload to Digging in the Dirt this quarter. To calibrate your efforts, please look over some of these sample pleas. Be sure to subscribe so that you know the moment I publish a new video: post within 48 hrs. (If you post under an alias, let me know.)

Student responses should tackle some specific idea in the video. My entries will make observations about cinema, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and/or faith en route to preparing viewers to think critically about a particular novel and/or film. Write something quite specific which extracts an idea I've raised and engages it by way of: other stories you've encountered, personal anecdotes, and/or relevant observations about art and culture. Do NOT list the word count in your post.

When assigning grades to students' brief responses, I will primarily consider voice and tone, so try to evoke feeling in your audience by writing with passion (pathos). You can earnestly plead, humorously regale, or angrily castigate, but take hold of some idea raised in my video and express a decided opinion.

For this assignment, please use first-person singular or plural pronouns (i.e. refer to yourself--for this assignment only).

Note: This is the single most difficult type of writing assignment in this course, as it requires students to accomplish a number of things without going over the word limit. Do not be deceived by its brevity into thinking the task easy. These entries will be scored according to the rubric below:

grade A: such a response will address one or more specific ideas in Dr. M's video, and will express a clear and cogent opinion using: 1) grammatically correct prose, 2) precise diction, and 3) lively language enriched by figures of speech (e.g. metaphor, hyperbole, etc.) and/or powerful modifiers (i.e. adjectives, adverbs).

grade B pts: this response covers all requirements of an A, but its structure could be tighter and its creativity edgier. Its diction could be more precise, and its phrasing more spare and exacting.

grade C: this response conveys a particular opinion about Dr. M's video, but retains notable problems with expression (grammar, diction, etc.).

grades D and F: these responses do not include all elements identified by the guidelines above. Whether it barely passes will depend on the writer's skill.

If a student wishes to replace one of the three (no more than one) by writing a fourth Impassioned Plea, they may do so.

TERM PROJECT (30%)

This writing project requires students to envision and describe a state of being that buckles and changes dramatically under the pressures of some kind of cataclysmic event.

structure

Each student's project will include three parts that describe, in turn: 1) a pre-cataclysmic state of being, 2) the cataclysmic event's advent and progress, and 3) the adaptive changes experienced by the survivors of the cataclysm. I will not provide length prescriptions, but do recommend thinking about the total project as the equivalent (in time and effort) of a polished, 25-30 page story or 15-page research project.

state of being (part one): the first section of the project should describe life before the event happens. You may expand your focus to encompass the macrocosm of interstellar, global, national, or municipal mechanisms and dynamics, or contract your attention to examine life within a neighborhood, a local organization (religious organization, club, etc.), a family, a two-person relationship, or even a single brain.

cataclysmic event (part two): the agent of change can resemble virtually anything, including such usual suspects as natural disaster, nuclear or chemical warfare, invasion (human or alien), or disease. You may also generate a less obvious catalyst, such as a hostile conqueror's mutilation of a conquered civilization's bodies (e.g. cutting off a hand, crippling of the legs, plucking out an eye, cliterectomy, castration, etc.) or some kind of event that has a less visible but very psychologically traumatizing impact (e.g. collective loss of memory; sudden disappearance of a people group defined by age, sex, or ethnicity; everyone's inexplicable loss of one of the five senses; etc.)

change (part three): consider the changes catalyzed by the event. Whether you focus on life at the level of the government or the family (or something else), the kinds of details relayed should match in scope what you describe in part one of the project.

mode

Students may render the world of their imaginings in a number of ways, employing a variety of genres and media. Students must use three different modes of approach as they move across the three required sections. Please note that at least two of the three sections must constitute some form of writing, and at least one of these two pieces of writing must take its cue from option #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, or #6.

Possible approaches include:

• option one: a historical explication in which events are described through a "hindset is 20-20" perspective
• option two: an epistolary fiction constructed of a sequence of letters written to a specific audience
• option three: a diary of entries written before, after, or during the event in question
• option four: a newspaper-style exposition in which a journalist witnessing the events relays them objectively
• option five: an editorial-style report in which a journalist relays and actively interprets events as they happen
• option six: an original short story
• option seven: an original poem
• option eight: an original song
• option nine: a video documentary constructed of scripted "interviews" with individuals experiencing the event
• option ten: a short film that captures life lived either before, during, or after the event
• option eleven: a graphic novel
• option twelve: a work of visual art

assessment

This assignment constitutes 30% of your final grade, and each of the three sections will be worth at least 5 points. Students individually determine a formula they would like Dr. Marchbanks to use when assessing their work. One student may decide to assign 10 pts each to a section one newspaper-style exposition, a section two original short story, and a section three short film, Another may choose to distribute 5 points to a section one diary, 5 points to a section two poem, and reserve 20 points for a section three editorial-style report. A third student, most comfortable with the objectivity of historical explication, might assign 12.5 pts to a section one historical explication, 12.5 pts to a section three historical explication, and 5 points to a section two original song.

Students will also determine what criteria they'd like me to use--in addition to grammar, which I will inevitably consider--as they assess each section of their project, selecting 3-4 variables (per section) from the following list:

• ambitiousness: risk-taking; willingness to try something wild and new
• implies depth: the fictional world is fully realized, even if some elements of it are only implied
• narrative consistency: the three sections work well as interconnected pieces of a cohesive unit
• plausibility: however fantastic the tale is, the human variable is plausibly rendered
• design & organization: each of the three parts flows into the next--the whole is logically structured
• lyricism: effective use of literary devices, rhythm, and diction--the writing evinces obvious artistry
• aesthetics: this consideration of artistic merit applies only to project sections which involve a visual component, be it static or dynamic
• pathos: the narrative is moving--it prompts an emotional reponse from the reader/viewe
• voice: this concerns the relative realism of any voices (that of the narrator, if there is one, and any characters)
• intertextuality: the text is aware of literary tradition and canon (incl. literary references, allusions, etc.)

Projects scores will primarily hinge on the final project itself (Friday, June 9, midnight), but will also be informed by a 5-7 minute oral presentation of the project that follows its completion (Monday, June 12, 7:10-10:00 a.m.) Projects can take any form the student wishes, but should in some form or fashion represent all three sections of the project. You may present your material extemporaneously (I recommend visual aids--poster board or slideshow) or create a video presentation ahead of time that you play for us.

The rubric I use to grade these projects will be shaped by the students, but will definitely incorporate such items as: grammar and mechanics, voice, creativity, and level of detail.