Week Two

This week, you'll have the assignments below in addition to the new load of programming lab and writing workshop tasks.

+ Seminar Preparation task related to Flatland / Sphereland (due Thursday, week 2)

Write a short paper (2-3 pages) that compares and contrasts the roles that mathematics plays in Flatland & Sphereland.

+ Thesis Task: find and digest JSTOR articles (bring to class Thursday, final submission Friday)

Find 3 good, interesting examples of literary analysis. You will turn in about two pages that includes bibliographic information for each article and a concise description of each article's content, structure, and purpose.

content: What is the article about? What is its thesis? How does it support its arguments? What is its approach to the text under consideration? What assumptions does the author use to ground her/his discussion?

structure: How is the article put together? What are its different sections and what does each accomplish?

purpose: Why was this article written? What need or curiosity does it serve? How does it contribute to an understanding of the text or to literary thought in general?

Each of your 3 examples should be about one of the first five texts of this quarter.

If you can't find anything about a text that you want something about, you may search the web, but scrutinize your sources thoroughly—no blogs or personal websites. Even if on the web, they must be journal articles.

+ Project task (proposal + excerpt) due Friday (see project development handouts from last qtr.)

All the same parts as the last one, each modified & expanded to suit your developing idea:

—explanation of your uses of mathematics (3 uses, one page each)

—an expanded sample, 3-4 pages

—short discussion of form and content: this piece can no longer be "speculative" — please be precise and provide a thorough description of your work (1 page)

—research narrative