Assignment Three, part IV

Assignment Three, part IV [aka Module]
Electronic Literature
ENC 4420/5420-W61
Dr. Saper, Professor

Module 3, part IV: Computational Practice in The History of Texts
Included in this module: Goals; Assignment; Due Dates; Links to Web-site; Assessments; and Grading Rubric. Read this entire module before starting the assignment or asking any questions about the assignment.
Goals:
Students read three more hypertext novels. They also read about these works in terms of computational practice. They read about Kittler’s important historical work and use it to place electronic literature in a complicated historical context. They read John Cayley’s Translation, Brian K. Stefans’ Star Wars, One Letter at a Time. and William Poundstone’s Project for Tachistoscope. And work in relation to that history and context.
These goals correspond to the overall goals of the course: to learn about electronic literature in both its forms and contexts.
Assignment:
Students will read John Cayley’s Translation (1 hour), Brian K. Stefans’ Star Wars, One Letter at a Time. and William Poundstone’s Project for Tachistoscope (both up to 2 hours; reading only).
Students will examine both the novels and readings of the novels. The time commitment for the reading alone is 5+ hours for this assignment.
1. Read Hayles’ Electronic Literature, pp. 131-159.
2. Read John Cayley’s Translation (1 hour), Brian K. Stefans’ Star Wars, One Letter at a Time. and William Poundstone’s Project for Tachistoscope (both up to 2 hours; reading only).
3. Please note: the hypertext works do not have page numbers; so, I have supplied you with an estimate of size and the approximate time needed to read these works.
4. Describe in your notes how you read these works, and relate how Hayles, in specific terms, read these works.
5. Write a clear and concise 1250 word essay on your conclusions – jam packed with information and avoiding wordiness. In your conclusions, specifically discuss how computational practice fits into the history of texts and literature. Discuss with very specific details from the hypertext works, Hayles’, and your own, reading experience. What is the historical context for this type of work in terms of changes to the importance of computational practice in literacy and text production?

Due Dates:
Include this part of the module in your overall Module and Assignment 3. Turn the entire project in by the due date. This will give you an opportunity to ask questions about the assignment and make revisions. No late projects accepted, no exceptions.

Where: Post the finished assignment to the blog, but post a draft to a discussion on the course site. Since everyone gets credit for helping (and you can help more than one of your peers each assignment) you will find someone to give you suggestions for improvement. If you cannot offer any suggestions, then you might want to consider an alternative to academia.

Assessments:
Content: Do the materials include the following elements:
A. full name of student and helper(s)
C. description of reading experience (yours and others).
D. description of details from lexias and general plot lines and themes. Also describe how the readings relate to historical change in texts and literacy. Relate everything to historical changes to the value of computational practice in text production.
Form: Did the student include the following technical aspects?
A. turned-in the project in electronic form on the blog
B. prose contains no grammatical, stylistic, or typographical errors
The grader [in this case Professor Saper] will study the essay (including the prose), and ask the following questions.
1. Does this material present a clear representation of the student's thinking about Hayles and the novels, the contexts for reading these works, and how these works fit in a larger history?
2. Did the student have interesting insights about these novels and Hayles’s description of historical changes especially in terms of computational practice?
3. Were the insights expressed clearly? Did the student modify their time-lines to reflect the new information?
4. Is the essay interesting, unique, expressive, and informative?


Grading Rubric:
Passing Grade (in the D range): fulfilled number one in the assessment.
Adequate Grade (in the C range): fulfilled one and two in the assessment.
Good Grade (in the B range): fulfilled numbers one through three in the assessment.
Excellent Grade (in the A range): fulfilled all of the four criteria in the assessment.