Over the course of the semester, you will complete and submit three mini-projects, one electronic portfolio, and one final project.  The mini-projects are individual assignments of various types that receive letter grades and together constitute 30% of your grade.  Thus, each mini-project is worth 10% of your grade.  The electronic portfolio is worth 10% of your final grade, and the final project is worth 30% of your final grade.

These projects should be taken seriously. You might want to begin thinking about them soon.  Below I describe each of these and indicate their due dates.  All papers must be typed and double spaced in 12 point Times New Roman font. These will be discussed in more detail in class.  Please feel free to ask questions about them at any time. 

MINI-PROJECTS 

Mini-Project #1          ---        Due February 17

 

This project is a literary analysis paper.  It should be four to five pages in length, double-spaced, and it must focus on a topic drawn from the Frankenstein.  You must begin by selecting some aspect of the text to analyze—i.e., some theme or structural element that plays an important role in the unfolding of the story.  In the interest of avoiding superficiality, select a topic that is narrow over one that is broad.  Analysis consists in determining the nature of your topic in itself and in relation to the text as a broader whole.  As with the argument analysis paper, you will make claims in this and then back them up with argument.  The arguments, though, must be textual—that is, you will be making claims about the text and then pointing to passages and other textual aspects for evidence that your claims are true. The primary goal of your analysis is to understand some aspect of the text more deeply.

 

You must get me an abstract by Tuesday, February 8.  In an e-mail, please send me a paragraph that introduces your topic, your thesis (i.e., what you plan to conclude about your topic), and several sentences describing how you plan to develop and defend your thesis.  Ten percent of your grade will depend on getting this to me.

Mini-Project #2          ---        Due March 10

The second mini-project is due Thursday, March 10. It is designed to get you well on your way to finishing an excellent Monsters Conference essay.  As you know, you will be writing a 10 page (minimum), double-spaced, thesis driven research paper that critically examines the role monstrosity plays in your group’s topic of choice. In preparing for this paper, you will need to a significant amount of research, both on-line and in the library.  The third Mini Project gives you an early deadline for some of the more important preparatory studies you complete as you work your way toward a draft of your long essay.  The third Mini Project consists of three parts:  and outline of the paper (30 pts.), an annotated bibliography (30 pts.), and an argument essay (40 pts.).

 

Mini-Project #3          ---        Due April 7

Your third mini-project is devoted to the visual realization of a scene from a monster story that you create.  If you were in my section in the fall, you have written one of these already and you can use a scene from that story; if not, you will need to devote a bit of time to thinking about a scene involving a monster or monsters.  This project consists in producing an annotated storyboard of your chosen scene.  There must be at least 12 cells in your storyboard, each of which must be annotated with dialogue, movement, and basic shot information.  (See cell sheets.) You must write a 1 to 2-page companion essay that locates the storyboarded scene within the larger context of the story, providing all the necessary information, motivation, and impact of the portrayed scenes and any missing information necessary to understand your storyboard.  (If you are using a scene from a story you have written, please append a copy of that part of the story that is your source text; otherwise, you might sketch out in a page or so the story idea that you are using.)  This project is due in class on Thursday, April 7.  Storyboard Cell Worksheet

ELECTRONIC PORTFOLIO

An electronic portfolio is a collection of the work that you have completed for this course. Essentially, it is a series of web pages dedicated to this course. It is a representation of what you consider to be your best work in each major category of this course and any additional items you think best exemplify you as a person. It is composed of both required elements and others that you choose to include. It should include both academics and personality. The point of the portfolio is to display what you consider to be the best of your work for archival purposes. It is also designed to aid you in developing what will be the singular most important tool in securing work after you graduate! In the near future, employers will find you through your webpage. You may use the template for this course in developing your webpage/portfolio (we will provide you with it), or you can develop your own design at whichever “domain” you wish using their template (hotmail, yahoo, uidaho, etc.). As a side note, your student account (which your tuition also pays for) has a relatively healthy space for a personal webpage. I would take advantage of that.

The first draft of this is due xyz, and the second draft is due on May 11.  This is something that you will continue to work on in the Spring.  For more information, see the Electronic Portfolio Information Page.

FINAL PROJECT

The final project is a 10-page research paper on an aspect of a theme selected by a group.  The group will be formed early in the semester, and will have until February 3 to submit a theme proposal.  Each member of the group will then identify an aspect of the theme on which to do research, culminating in the paper, which is due on the first day of finals week.  The abstract for this is due February 24, and mini-project #2 is designed to aid you in preparing the paper.  The group will deliver two presentations, one in class and one at the Monsters Conference, tentatively scheduled for dead week.  These will be panel presentations in which each person presents the principal argument(s) of their research in turn.  At the conference, the presentations should be 10-15 minutes in length.  The conference presentation times are listed here.  For more information, follow the conference-related links from the Schedule page.

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