Jason W. Ellis – Page 4 – ENG2420 OL74 Science Fiction, Spring 2021

Lecture, Week 3

In the Week 3 Lecture, we continue discussing Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and explore what elements make it Science Fiction.

After watching this week’s lecture and doing the assigned reading, you can respond to the Weekly Writing Assignment posted below. Remember to write your response somewhere it can be saved before copy-and-pasting your work into a comment added to the Weekly Writing Assignment post below.

If you get behind in the assignments, remember to email me when you get your work posted so that I can go back and give you credit for the work. It’s always better to submit something rather than nothing, too.

Finally, I have office hours on Wednesday from 3:00pm-5:00pm (see the top of the syllabus for the link) or you can contact me by email (jellis at citytech.cuny.edu) with questions or to make an appointment for another day/time.

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 3

For this week’s Weekly Writing Assignment, add a comment to this post that summarizes some of the highlights from your reading of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and this week’s lecture (posted above).

Take time to read the comments of others in the class on this post and the previous posts–especially the first Weekly Writing Assignment post where everyone introduced themselves. Feel free to reply to other folks in the class if you share an interest in SF or discover a connection that you would like to share. Consider our OpenLab Course Site as the place where we can discuss and meet others studying the same topic. While our class might be asynchronous and online, it doesn’t have to be without community and connection.

Announcement: WAC Workshop on Plagiarism, Thurs., Feb. 18, 1-2pm

City Tech’s Writing Across the Curriculum program is offering a free workshop on what is plagiarism and how to avoid it. This is highly recommended but not required. Details are below:

Avoiding Plagiarism: A Workshop for Students

Plagiarism can be less obvious than you think, especially in an online environment. This workshop will give you practical information and strategies to ensure your writing assignments are plagiarism-free.
 
When: Thurs, Feb 18, 2021, 1-2 pm
Where: Zoom 
 
Students register in advance for this workshop:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYlcuisqDwiGdCAM6NjOX1bx7qOGExOV-wa
 
After registering, a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting will be sent.

Lecture, Week 2

We are beginning the second week of Science Fiction!

Above, you’ll find this week’s lecture on precursors to Science Fiction and background on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Watch the whole lecture as your schedule permits and make handwritten notes on what you learn. Remember that your handwritten notebooks contribute to 40% of your final grade (20% midterm and 20% end of semester).

Also, remember to keep up with the reading this week of Frankenstein as described on the Syllabus (linked to the left in the navigation menu).

Watch for posts tagged as Announcements that have opportunities and events that are related to SF that I think might be interesting and beneficial to you.

My office hours are on Wednesday from 3:00pm-5:00pm. See the Syllabus (linked to the left in the navigation menu) for the link to Google Hangouts. I’m also available by appointment–just reach out with your availability by email to jellis at citytech.cuny.edu.

Finally, this week’s Weekly Writing Assignment is available below.

Be well and stay safe!

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 2

For your Week 2 Weekly Writing Assignment, use your notes of this week’s lecture (posted above) and your reading of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, to write at least 250-words summarizing what you identify as highlights or important points. This exercise contributes to your graded writing in the class and gives you an opportunity to return to the course material to think, choose, and report on what you have learned. These are graded on best effort, but they should primarily focus on the course material. However, you may make connections between course material and other SF that you’ve read, seen, etc. Type up your response someplace safe that you can save, and then copy-and-paste your response into a comment made to this blog post.

Lecture, Week 1

Each week, I will make posts relevant to that week’s work based on the schedule on the syllabus. As you can see here, I made one post for this week’s lecture and one post below for this week’s weekly writing assignment. In both cases, these are labeled as pertaining to “Week 1” to help you keep track of what needs to be done now before next week when I post the next lecture and assignments on our OpenLab Course Site.

You will want to have your notebook out and watch the lecture. I will talk about note taking strategies for our class. Your notes have to be handwritten notes for the reasons that I discuss in the lecture. These will be scanned and submitted as part of your grade at the midterm and at the end of the semester.

As discussed toward the end of the lecture, you should download and read over this document that I made for you of a variety of definitions of Science Fiction. We will refer to this document throughout the semester and it will be essential to your research paper later this semester.

After you’ve watched the lecture and made notes, you will want to begin reading Frankenstein (linked from the syllabus’ schedule) and respond to the Weekly Writing Assignment posted below.

I will have office hours on Wednesday 3:00-5:00 (see syllabus for link). Bring your questions then or email me at jellis at citytech.cuny.edu.

I’m looking forward to a fun and engaging semester focused on Science Fiction with you all!

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 1

For your first 250-word (minimum) weekly writing assignment, please add a comment to this post (click on the title, “Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 1,” and then scroll down the page to find the comment box and the “post comment” button) that accomplishes two things: 1) introduce yourself to everyone in the class (your name–first name or pseudonym is fine, your major, hobbies, and favorite examples of Science Fiction–authors/books, films, video games, music, etc.), and 2) briefly summarize some of the main points or highlights from today’s lecture on what is SF and why should we study it?

Remember to write and save your response elsewhere (on your computer, in the cloud, etc.) and then copy-and-paste your response into a comment that you make to this post. This keeps your work safe so that nothing is lost.

Welcome to Science Fiction, ENG2420 OL74!

Dear all,

I would like to welcome you to our Spring 2021 Science Fiction class! To make sure you’re in the right place, this is ENG2420 OL74. I am Prof. Ellis and I will be leading our class this semester.

It’s important that you read through this message carefully and follow my directions below to join our class on OpenLab.

Even though classes don’t begin until Friday, January 29, the school asked faculty to reach out to students early to help everyone acclimate to distance education. At any point, feel free to reach out to me by email with any questions that you might have.

Our class is completely online this semester and we will not be meeting synchronously (meaning at the same time). Instead, our class is designated asynchronous, which means each student can watch lectures and do the work at times of their choosing as long as deadlines are met.

We will be using City Tech’s OpenLab to coordinate our class and the work that you will be doing this semester. To get you setup with the OpenLab, you will need to create an account using your City Tech email address (if you haven’t already done so), which you can do here: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/register/

After you login to OpenLab with your account, you need to visit the Profile Page of our class and click on “Join Now” on the left side under the avatar of Boba Fett and other Star Wars characters: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/groups/eng2420-ol74-science-fiction-spring-2021/

Then, to access our class site where I will post lectures and assignments, and you will turn in many of your projects in the class, click on “Visit Course Site” after you joined the course, or you can go there directly by following this link: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/elliseng2420sp2021/

On our Course Site, you will see this Welcome message from me at the top of the page. Before Wednesday, February 4, I will post the first lecture video and weekly writing assignment. I explain a lot about how the class works and what we will be doing in that video. It is imperative that you watch each video lecture completely and have a notebook out to take notes in during the lecture.

Also, look at the menu on the left side of our Course Site to find the link to the class Syllabus: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/elliseng2420sp2021/syllabus/. All of our class’ policies, major assignments and grades, and schedule can be found there. I go over the syllabus in detail in the first lecture video.

Finally, I will hold weekly virtual office hours on Wednesday from 3:00pm-5:00pm on Google Hangouts here: https://hangouts.google.com/call/ffqYdoXngPvd-4OB-HTtACEE. I will post a link to Google Hangouts on our Course Site each week, too. If you would like to meet with me at a different day and time, please send me an email with your availability for the coming week and we can arrange a time that works for both of our schedules.

I’m looking forward to working with you all over the fall semester. Remember to contact me with questions or if anything comes up that affects your performance in the class at jellis@citytech.cuny.edu. I want us all to complete the semester successfully!

Be well and stay safe!

Best, Professor Ellis

Author: Jason W. Ellis