Review Assignment

Assignment: Review one work from The Electronic Literature Collection: Volume 1

Purpose: to explore a broad range of electronic literature texts; to develop critical approaches suitable for responding to electronic texts; and to . Although there will not be rigid requirements about which students review which texts from which genre - the hope is that as a class we will cover representative texts from as many genres as possible. Because of this, during the preliminary stages of the project you are encouraged to identify several texts you would like to review, preferably texts from different genres. This way, when we identify your final choice of text to review, we can arrange it so that no two presentations are on the same text, and we have presentations to represent work from as many different genres as possible.

Description of assignment: Develop a review of one piece from The Electronic Literature Collection: Volume 1. You will present your review both as an interactive discussion with classmates, and as a written piece posted on your blog. Your review should characterize the piece in terms of literary traditions, identify its genre as a work of electronic literature, characterize the reader’s experience of the text, and provide your response and evaluation of the text.

Criteria for grade:
• identification of the text’s genre + discussion of the literary traditions the text draws from
• descriptions of the important textual elements including navigation design, visuals, sound, interactive features, movement, layering effects, network connections, and so on
• analysis of how textual elements create an overall effect (or not); this discussion will be based on your descriptions of textual elements
• narration of how the text is experienced including an assessment of the overall effect/feeling of reading the work
• references to what other reviewers/critics have written about your piece or genre

Form: Class presentation and blog post. The post to your blog should include the text of your presentation to the class, a link to your text, links to appropriate references, and any other visuals or links that will facilitate your discussion of the text.

Important Dates:
Feb 3: discuss assignment sheet
February 10: in class=> identify the work you will review.
Conferences for draft reviews by appointment
March 24 – April 12: Presentations
April 29: Post final draft for review