This is a description of project number one. Read the novel,  The Man in the High Castle , by Philip K. Dick. Do this first without looking for any critical articles to answer your  questions or shape your interests. Read three chapters a day, at least, until you are done, and then email your questions to me. I will provide some research leads at that point to help you answer these questions. Since Philip K. Dick is a Science fiction writer whose works are in a radical speculative vein, you are bound to have some questions. Dick's narrative techniques are experimental and, for his day, controversial to many. Your questions may have to do with basic reader concerns such as what is the viewpoint or what is the sequence of events. Don't be alarmed by these questions, but do get help when you need it.

Phase I: This assignment will involve getting background on the alternate history subgenre of science fiction and on science fiction forms and conventions in general. The article by Tom Shippey in the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts is excellent in laying out the rules of this subgenre and I will put that on reserve, two copies, in the FAU library. Ask at the Circulation Desk. With the two copies on reserve you should not have to wait for this.

Don't worry, you do not have to be some kind of science fiction expert to do well in this class. Dick's speculative brand of science fiction lends itself to philosophical, new cultural, postmodern, and also psychoanalytical approaches. Feminist and Post-Marxist approaches have also proven useful. His work is difficult but not impossible, both timely and rewarding. Try to get a reading from this exploratory background research as to the consensus of opinion about the place of this writer's work, both in the Science Fiction genre and in the literary/academic mainstream.

Phase II:  Read over the articles from Science Fiction Studies, Extrapolation, Foundation, or The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts we discussed during orientation.

Pick from the seven available articles about The Man in the High Castle a single article that contains a specific debatable point, one with which you find yourself disagreeing. You do not have to be in direct oppostion to this point, rather you might feel that it is a hasty or otherwise faulty generalization, or that it is an oversimplification and needs qualification, or perhaps that is misses the proper emphasis or needs to be expanded and clarified. Make sure you have the bibliographical information on this article, including the page range of the article. You will need this for documentation. Now you can go back home to the comfort and security of your computer and proceed with the rest of this assignment (one of four equally weighted major projects for the semester).

Phase III: The next step involves planning, writing and revising. Email me practice thesis sentences by the end of week two and after I check these out you may proceed.

Follow this format and you should have no major focus, organization or transition problems:

Make the introduction as brief as possible while establishing what the novel is, who wrote it, who wrote the article about it, and what the basic thrust of the article is. Then, in a definite yet tactful and unforced thesis sentence, end your introductory
paragraph by clearly summarizing the causes for your disagreement with a single salient point of this article.

In the first body paragraph quote the point you call into question, and expand on why you disagree with the critic's viewpoint. Don't overquote the article. Take just enough to convey the essence of your grounds for disagreement with it.

In a new, transitional paragraph next offer some conciliatory acknowledgment of a general merit of the argument whose single point you are challenging, and then in this paragraph's next and last sentence (a total of exactly two sentences for this special transitional paragraph) pivot with a summary of the evidence you find in the novel that will not allow you to accept the already singled out point as reasonable, sensitive or accurate. The problem might mainly be too great or too little emphasis, remember. End the argument's body by quoting the novel at least two but no more than four times to show that your disagreement with the article is well grounded in a close and careful reading of the relevant section or sections of the novel. Make the conclusion pointed, with a focus on how understanding and/or appreciation of the novel has been the winner, not so much your argument or the critic's. One to three sentences (at most) will serve this purpose. A separate Works Cited page will supply the bibliographical information for The Man in the High Castle and the article about this book whose assertion you have chosen to challenge.

When you have completed a good first draft following this format, email it to me as an attachment to an email message that alerts me to what you feel may be the weak sections and clearly states any unresolved technical, critical, or documentation questions. While any handbook written after 1984 will guide you adequately through all but the most labyrinthe areas of the MLA Style, only the MLA Handbook for Writers of  Research Papers, 4th edition (or later) by Joseph Gibaldi is authoritative. E-mail this attachment by week three. Keep your article copies. You may be using them later if you opt to focus on some problem of interpretation in The Man in the High Castle in a later paper. I will edit and return your drafts via email attachment, and the final draft will need to be mailed to me, again as an attachment to an email message by week four. Iwill email the grade for this first project to you as soon as I have been able to formulate it.