This week, we conclude Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and discuss the Research Essay. See the posts below for the Weekly Writing Assignment and an Announcement about emailing Prof. Ellis with your Research Essay topic.
Category: Lecture
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.
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!
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!
