This is the page of David Nixon. Welcome to Internet ENC1102. The box is plain but the insides are not. This part of the page will serve as the syllablus, one I will update with new features and tips as you make me more aware of your needs as Internet students. I won't put it in the usual syllabus format, however. For one thing, writing the html for that would make my head hurt and, for another, this casual approach is better suited to the Internet anyway.

So what will you need to get started?

The Bedford Handbook (See the Wallace Bookstore on the South Campus or any PBCC Campus Bookstore. Ask for the most recent edition. If you are shopping for books in the Boca area you might try Booksmart in the Oak Plaza, just off Glades Road east of the entrance to FAU [a right turn if you are heading east]). I would direct you to Booksmart for the best price on most books, but of course on-campus bookstores are selling convenience along with their retail or marked up from retail books, so you weigh the options. Booksmart marks down 20% from retail on most titles [but not all]. These full options above apply to the handbook only.

What else?

Well, we use a good deal of primary literature, as well as film, as both a prompt and a basis for argumentative writing in this class. Here are those titles (available at Booksmart at the 20% discount but also at most larger or literary bookstores, such as Borders, Liberties, Brentanos, Barnes and Noble [but not at the campus bookstores!]):  The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick, The Callahan Chronicals by Spider Robinson (selected stories), and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and/or Frankenstein Unbound by Brian Aldiss and/or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? again by Philip K. Dick. Everyone will read two novels and selected short stories. The two books required for all Internet ENC1102 students are the novel The Man in the High Castle, and the short story collection The Callahan Chronicals. Everyone will then need to choose one additional work, a novel, to be able to carry out the contrastive and comparative analyses of Projects 3 and 4. For a fuller range of topic options, with possible increased emphasis on primary material, students may choose to read two or three additional novels instead of the required one. The film options (choose one after seeing details for Project 3) are Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931), Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, Director's Cut, 1991), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Kenneth Branaugh) or Frankenstein Unbound (Roger Corman). Your choice of novel for Project 3 will probably dictate your choice of film. You can best put Frankenstein Unbound (the book) with the film Frankenstein Unbound. You may attempt to try that film with the classic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, however. The 1931 Frankenstein can only profitably be contrasted with the novel by Mary Shelley. Only Blade Runner will go with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. (Blade Runner is loosely based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, a future scenario giving us a glimpse of the post-modern Frankenstein made possible [but who is the monster, the near perfect android or its flawed human creator?]). After you are able to read over the steps for Project 3, you will then select and go check out or rent for yourself one of these films. Perhaps you already have one of them. Blade Runner is available in the Director's Cut at the FAU library. The other tapes may be rented at Blockbuster and other high-volume video stores. Frankenstein Unbound is the toughest to find. Call ahead. The Blockbuster on Federal Highway in Deerfield (just south of Hillsboro) has one copy.

So what do you do with these things now?

"Alrighty then," here's what you do. Go to the Projects page to view your options for Project 1. I will put the projects out there for you one at a time. In Project 1 you read The Man in the High Castle. The Man in the High Castle is in the alternate history subgenre of Science Fiction. The premise is "What if the outcome of World War II had been very different? What would America be like then? Would the winners be a place conscious yet oddly humane ruling class driven to collect Americana, or would they be revivers of slavery and brilliant rocket designers all trapped within one insanely idealistic ideology? Or would they be both?!" The details and schedule for this critical argument are already on the Internet for you.

Are there any special policies or procedures for the Internet student, any system requirements?

You will need the orientation. There are some tricks. (We open windows over windows instead of using a space consuming frame menu, for one thing. You can reach the course information by following the links off from my South Campus Faculty Page.) I am doing this out of my office mainly with a Pentium I/100. If you have at least this powerful a machine, Internet ready, you will make good enough speed for our not graphics intensive uses. My machine in the office and my Pentium II/266 at home both use Windows 95, so of course that will be good enough for what you will doing for the course I built up using these machines. I am sure the Windows98 upgrade will also work fine. I expect you to fire your questions to me as soon as they occur, using email mainly (and preferably) but phone or voice mail in a pinch. Mail messages can sit there all weekend. Email messages will not. I check my email twice a day and answer most questions immediately. Look for a 24 hour (or better) turn around time for such message. You should back up your work, and you will need a reliable Internet mail service that allows you to send file attachments along with your messages, and to receive and handle such attachments as well, of course. These are the basic requirements. Most of you should meet or exceed these easily. If you are in doubt, I will send you a message with an attachment. You can email me back that you received it. If we can complete this exchange, you're in business. You will need to go on the Internet from time to time to follow my links to get information and research leads to carry out the steps of the four critical research/argumentative writing projects. This weekly Internet time will vary, but I am predicting a minimum of four to five hours and probably no more than eight to ten during your busiest times for research (and resulting email questions). This does not include word processing time when you are not on the Internet. That will be a more individual matter. Daily email messages are not required, and frankly I would be overwhelmed by daily messages, with numerous questions, from every member of the class, but, that said, daily messages will never be unwelcome when necessary and at least one message a week from every student is my bare minimum expectation of any serious Internet student.

This lays out the vitals for you I hope (no Frankenstein pun intended [well, perhaps unconsciously--as Jung said, there are no accidents!]). So get out there and start piecing your own monsters together!! And if you come across Bayne's translation of Wilhelm's translation of the I Ching or any good Tibetan Book of the Dead, hold unto it--you may find uses for such things!!!