First Paper for Crown 80A – Winter 2018
Draft due on Friday, January 12 in hard copy.
Final version due on Wednesday, January 17 at the beginning of class – hard copy.
Content: Please turn in the paper you wrote on what it is to be human (according to the three science fiction stories) before you came to UCSC. The original is fine but if you have a revised version only, that is OK. In addition, you have a choice of two options for completing that assignment for our class. Both choices include an additional piece of writing of 300-600 words, double-spaced, hard-copy, stapled to your original essay or to a version of it.
Form: Both choices involve writing a latter, so you may be as informal as you like in your prose. Write as if to a friend. I will be looking at quality, not quantity, so be proud of what you write.
Choice A: Please write a letter to your September 20, 2017 self, focusing on points connected to the paper you wrote and the thinker/ reader/ writer you were 3.5 months ago.
Here are some possible issues to write about:
· How you have changed as a reader – what you look for now, how you read, how you take notes. Think specifically about whether you would now read those three stories in the same way you did during the summer or how you might have different thoughts while reading it or a different method or different assumptions. As one example, what connections to other texts (films, stories, articles, lectures) might filter into your consciousness if you were reading them now?
· How you have changed as a writer – did all the work on team writing affect your process? Would you now ask friends to look over a draft? Would you have thought about asking if you could co-write the paper with a friend? Have your writing goals changed? Are you becoming happier with your own writing or have you set your standards even higher than before?
· Looking at your paper alone, are you happy with it now? What additions, including illustrations, links to videos, or non-traditional format, might you use now? Or, if you are happy with it, what about the paper makes you proud? Be specific about your ability to write clearly, to use appropriate illustrations to support your points, to read analytically, to spell correctly and use appropriate grammar, etc.
· If you have changed from your September 20, 2017 self, what is the most significant reason for that change?
Choice B: Think through the position of the non-human. Write a letter to yourself from the point of view of an alien, robot, android, or angel. For ideas about what it is like to be non-human, look at the three stories we read during the summer, Garcia Marquez’s “Very Old Man,” Liu’s “The Algorithms for Love,” and de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. What characteristics do you (as a non-human) envy? What parts of you exasperate humans? What don’t you understand about humans?
Grading: I will grade according to the rubric on the syllabus (giving grades A through F) unless you ask for a number grade. If you want that, I will use the following system: [referring to your September paper] 40 points for clarity and organization, evidence that you read all three stories, analytical reading, and use of relevant examples, [referring to the additional new letter] 10 for answering the questions on the assignment sheet directly, 10 for style or content showing you understood the “letter” aspect of the assignment, 20 for specific examples, which may include quotations from your September paper, 10 for grammar and punctuation, and 10 for interesting ideas. 100 total points.
Alternate Assignment for students who did not take Crown 79 during Fall Quarter, 2017.
Please write a letter to your younger self and focus on the same issues: yourself and the changes in your reading and writing skills. If you have a paper to show me that you wrote on your own at least 3.5 months ago, without a teacher’s assistance, then please include that paper along with the extra assignment.