If you couldn’t make it to the Literary Arts Festival last week but would like to earn the extra credit, you may watch the ~2 hour long event video above, write 250-words about your experience (who did you hear speak? whose work resonated with you? what did you take away from the event?), and email your response to Prof. Ellis (jellis at citytech.cuny.edu).
If you’d like to earn extra credit to apply toward a Weekly Writing Assignment or points to another assignment as needed, you can attend the Literary Arts Festival next week, write at least 250 words describing your experience of the event (naming the people you listened to, what you learned and liked, etc.), and email your event write-up to me at jellis at citytech.cuny.edu.
I wanted to give you all a heads-up that your midterm grades are now available on our OpenLab Course Site. Click on the Gradebook link on the left side to see your midterm grade. This is only an indication of how you are doing in the class. It doesn’t average into your final grade. I looked at your participation on the Weekly Writing Assignments and other work so far this semester. Midterm grades are: Passing, Borderline, and Unsatisfactory. If you received Borderline or Unsatisfactory, there’s still plenty of time to turn that around and earn a good grade in the class. If you have any questions or need some extra support, remember to email me or come to my office hours on Wednesdays from 3-5pm.
If you’d like to earn extra credit that can take the place of a Weekly Writing Assignment or be applied to a larger assignment, register for a free pass to this year’s Eagle-Con, attend at least one session on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, and email Prof. Ellis at least 250-words about what went on and your experience at the virtual convention.
Eagle-Con is a science fiction convention held annually at Cal State LA, but the pandemic moved the event online this year making it easier for those of us on the east coast to participate. Renowned SF writer Nnedi Okorafor and Star Trek actor George Takei will be there receiving special awards. The full schedule of events is linked below.
Eagle-Con 2021 will be held virtually on Thursday, March 11 (10am-5:30pm); Friday, March 12 (10am-4:30pm); and Saturday, March 13 (9:20am-4:00pm).
Our special guest on Thursday is writer Nnedi Okorafor (the Binti trilogy, Black Panther: Long Live the King), who will be awarded the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Award.
On Friday, legendary actor and activist George Takei (Star Trek, They Called Us Enemy) will be given the Prism Award for outstanding contributions to diversity in science fiction across media.
Our special guest Saturday will be production designer Wynn Thomas (Mars Attacks, Hidden Figures) who will be presented the Imaginator Award for wondrous achievement in visual conceptualization.
Each of this year’s awardees have long been barrier breakers for other writers and artists, building impressively varied careers that have impacted millions in a manner that is at the heart of Eagle-Con’s mission.
Each day of the event will feature two exhibitions of artwork from our Founding Sponsor, Art Directors Guild (Local 800), that showcase the work of their members from your favorite science fiction, fantasy, and horror movies and television shows.
Eagle-Con’s mission is to educate Cal State LA students and members of the Greater Los Angeles community about the history, impact, and continued necessity of the contributions of women, BIPOC, the LGBTQIA-identified, the differently-abled, and the variously-aged to the science fiction and fantasy genres. Our 2021 event explores representations of diversity within these genres and furthers our efforts to provide opportunities for students to learn about these genres from artists, writers, and professionals working in southern California’s entertainment industries, network with these professionals, and imagine how they might one day join their ranks.
As discussed in the Week 4 Lecture, you should begin thinking about the work of Science Fiction that you want to write about for your Research Essay. While there is plenty of time for you to work on this before the end of the semester, I would like you to choose your topic sooner rather than later. Then, email me at jellis at citytech.cuny.edu with your topic, a short description of the question you want to investigate in your essay, and any questions you might have right now about the Research Essay. I will reply to everyone to give some feedback before you begin your research. This isn’t due this week, but you should email me as soon as you choose your topic so that you have as much time as possible to work on your Research Essay.
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.
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/
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!
