This morning in class, you will compose a reflective essay for your analysis. Directions are included below, and you will receive an additional copy in class.
Directions
Compose a reflective essay that documents the process of planning, drafting, and revising your analysis. Questions to consider in your reflection include the following:
When you began transferring the words from your handwritten draft onto the screen of your laptop or tablet, what did you observe about the process?
What aspect of the writing seemed the most challenging? Deciding whether Isaac Asimov’s “Runaround” or one or more of Brian Aldiss’s supertoys stories would serve as your subject? Choosing a prompt? Determining your thesis? Identifying details to support your claims? Organizing the body of the essay? Composing the conclusion? Why did that aspect of the writing seem the most challenging?
Did the focus of your analysis change? If so, what was your original focus, and what did you change it to?
Did any of the sample analyses (“One Mississippi,” “The Strange Fruit of Sosnowiec,” “Bots in Shining Armor”) prove helpful to you? If so, which one? How was it helpful?
What do you consider the strongest element of your analysis?
At what point in the process did you decide on a title? Did you change the title during the writing process? If so, what was the original title?
What image that documents part of your writing process away from the screen did you include in your blog post? Why did you choose that image?
What relevant website did you include an embedded link to in your blog post? Why did you choose that site?
Include a quotation that complies with the requirements outlined in the preparation guidelines in the October 13 class notes. You are not permitted to refer to that blog post or any other online resources while you compose your reflection in class. As part of your reflection planning, you should have taken notes on all the necessary information in that post.
Follow your quotation with an MLA-style parenthetical citation.
Double-space your essay and write in dark ink, preferably black. You are welcome to use both sides of the page.
At the end of the essay, include the header work cited, followed by a work cited entry for the story you quote.
Staple your assignment handout on top of your reflection, and submit it at the end of class.
Upcoming Class Readings
In the second half of today’s class, you will receive copies of the articles pictured above: “Blogs vs. Term Papers” by Matt Richtel and “Why Writing by Hand is Better for Memory and Learning” by Charlotte Hu, which you should read and annotate for next Monday, October 19. If you are absent from class or misplace your copies, download and print them from Blackboard.
Next Up
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review your journal notes and the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips.
Yesterday in class, you and your classmates collaboratively reviewed the student essay “One Mississippi” and used the analysis revision guidelines for the grade you assigned to it. Afterward, we examined “One Mississippi” paragraph by paragraph. The matters of content and form addressed are included in the lists that follow.
“One Mississippi”: Notes on Content
In the first paragraph, the writer generalizes about sports rather than pinpointing the subject, implies the chapter is a work of short fiction, and incorrectly identifies the author as Joe Theismann.
Instead of presenting a claim, the thesis describes the chapter, but it’s not an accurate description. “Back Story”‘s central figure isn’t Joe Theismann; it’s Lawrence Taylor.
In the second paragraph, the writer offers more generalizations about sports and shifts the focus away from the chapter itself to its effects on readers.
The writer turns back to Theismann, offering an assessment of his mindset that isn’t warranted by anything in the chapter. He mentions Theismann’s “terrible state” (par. 3) but doesn’t specify its cause, which is dramatized in the opening of the chapter.
In the third paragraph, the writer lets readers see Michael Lewis’s words for the first time, but doesn’t introduce the quotation or demonstrate its significance.
The writer mentions Lewis’s “inclusion of Mississippi” (par. 4), but doesn’t provide evidence to support his claim that the word “indicates where the story is heading and the tone” (par. 4).
In the final paragraph, the writer offers more generalizations rather than employing one of the effective strategies for conclusions, including these: (1) offering an insight about the text or an additional quotation from it, (2) revisiting the thesis without stating it verbatim, and (3) pointing to the broader implications of the analysis.
“One Mississippi”: Notes on Form
The analysis contains three sentence fragments: “When many mental . . . ” (par. 1), “Continuous days spent . . . ” (par. 2), and “Making speedy decisions . . . ” (par. 2).
The writer repeatedly misspells Joe Theismann’s last name (pars. 1, 3, and 5).
The writer refers to Theismann as Joe rather than by his last name (par. 5). In formal writing, refer to people by first and last name on first reference. On subsequent references, refer to them by last name. Fictional characters are an exception to that rule. Refer to them by first name after the first reference unless they are called by their last names (as Donovan and Powell are in Isaac Asimov’s “Runaround”).
The title of the chapter is italicized and enclosed in quotation marks (pars. 1, 4, and 5). In MLA style, chapter titles are enclosed in quotation marks, not italicized.
The title of The Blind Side isn’t italicized (par. 4).
The quotation from “Back Story” isn’t introduced with a signal phrase.
The parenthetical citation doesn’t include the page number. Instead, it incorrectly includes the paragraph number, which should only be included if the source lacks page numbers.
The work cited entry includes “Chapter one” (it shouldn’t) and omits the period required at the end.
As you continue to revise your analysis, review the lists above to minimize your chances of commiting the same errors.
Preparing for Your Analysis Reflection
Tomorrow in class, you will compose a reflective essay that documents the process of planning, drafting, and revising your analysis. In your reflection, you will include one quotation, which you will introduce with a signal phrase and follow with a parenthetical citation.
To comply with the requirements for your reflection assignment, you will need to complete the planning exercise that follows. In class, you will not be permitted to refer to this blog post or any other online resources. You will need to have all the necessary information written longhand in your journal.
Directions
Review the story or stories that serve as your subject of your analysis, and identify the line that led you to choose that story (or story series) as your subject. The line doesn’t have to be one that you quote in your analysis, but it should be the one that piqued your interest in the narrative.
Once you have identified that line, draft in your journal a passage for your reflective essay that introduces the quotation with a signal phrase and follows it with a parenthetical citation.
Following the parenthetical citation, include a transitional phrase, clause, or sentence that logically connects those words from the story to your analysis. (See the example below.) After you draft your passage, keep in mind the questions you asked of the excerpts you examined in class on Monday, and ask similar ones of your own writing: Do I provide sufficient context for the quotation? Do my words that follow the quotation connect logically to Aldiss’s or Asimov’s? Do I demonstrate the quotation’s significance to the development of my analysis?
Optional: Compose a work cited entry or works cited entries for your reflection. In class, you will not need to refer to your journal for that information because the MLA -style entry is included on Asimov’s and Aldiss’s stories. Keep in mind, however, that those entries are single-spaced and yours should be double-spaced. For additional examples of works cited entries for the stories, see the October 1 class notes.
Example
When I reread “Runaround,” and noticed the narrator’s reference to Speedy as “the errant robot” (49), I recalled my initial reaction to some of the early covers for I, Robot. At the time, I viewed their similarity to medeival knights as a simple matter of marketing. But later I noted how Asimov’s descriptions of Donovan and Powell riding the older robots repeatedly likened the machines to horses. Those images, the parallels between the Three Laws of Robotics and the code of chivalry, and the descriptor errant provided the foundation for my analysis.
Submitting Your Analysis Revision
The due date for your revised analysis is tomorrow, Wednesday, October 14 (before class). If you do not remember how to submit an MS Word file or PDF to Blackboard or publish a blog post on WordPress, review the step-by-step directions in the September 8 class notes.
Remember that your analysis blog post needs to include both a picture that documents your writing away from the screen (longhand) and an embedded link. If your analysis focuses on the fiction of Brian Aldiss, I recommend embedding a link to his official website or to “Supertoys Last all Summer Long” on Wired magazine’s website. To view those sites, click on the links in the previous sentence. If your analysis focuses on “Runaround,” I recommend embedding a link to a PDF of the story posted by Steven J. Miller, professor of mathematics at Williams College. To view that link, click on the story title in the previous sentence.
Next Up
In class tommorow, you will compose your reflective essay focusing on the process of planning, drafting, and revising your analysis. If you are still in the process of completing your essay on Wednesday (since you have until Friday morning’s hard deadline to post it without a late penalty), your reflection will address your work in progress. Follow the guidelines included above to ensure you will be prepared to complete all requirements for your reflection.
This morning in class, we will reveiw “One Mississippi,” the student analysis that you read and annotated for today, and we will also examine excerpts from midterm reflections and possibly a second sample analysis: “The Strange Fruit of Sosnowiec.”
Before we turn to “One Mississippi,” you will read and annotate three passages from midterm reflections, each of which includes the required quotation from Dan Rockmore’s essay “Should the Classroom Be More Like the Gym?” In your annotations, you will address these questions:
Does the writer demonstrate the relevance of Rockmore’s words to his or her experience in English 1103?
Does the writer provide sufficient context for the quotation?
Do the words that follow the quotation logically connect Rockmore’s ideas to the writer’s own?
As you prepare to write your analysis reflection, which you will compose in class on Wednesday, ask similar questions of the reflection passage that you draft in your journal.
After our discussion of the midterm reflection excerpts, we will read the opening paragraphs of Michael Lewis‘s “Back Story” as a lead-in to our paragraph-by-paragraph study of the student analysis “One Mississippi.
Time permitting, we will examine “The Strange Fruit of Sosnowiec,” an analysis I wrote as a model for my students in a previous semester. If we do not have time to address that essay in class, read it on your own. Make note of where I turn from the summary to my thesis in the opening paragraph. Also, consider which of strategies for conclusions I employ in the last paragraph. (See the list below.)
Strategies for Conclusions
Offer an insight about the text or an additional quotation
Revisit the thesis without stating it verbatim
Point to the broader implications of the analysis
Model Analysis
The October 1 class notes include the introduction and a body paragraph of an analysis of mine in progress. The full text of that analysis, which I completed over fall break, appears below.
Bots in Shining Armor
At first glance, the covers of the early editions of Isaac Asimov’s short story collection I, Robot seem to reveal nothing about “Runaround,” the story that introduces the Three Laws of Robotics. The landscapes of the book jackets could be any planets—no detail designates the setting as Mercury—and the robots that stand guard on the book jackets offer no inkling of the narrative that unfolds: An account of astronauts Gregory Powell and Mike Donovan finding their lives in jeopardy when the photo-cell banks on their life support shields begin to fail. To repair the shields, their robot, Speedy, must retrieve selenium from the planet’s Sunside, a place humans cannot withstand. But rather than completing his mission, Speedy circles the selenium pool, leaving Powell and Donovan in danger of burning alive. The covers illustrate none of that. Yet despite their apparent lack of connection to Speedy’s story, their mechanical men serve as meaningful representations of Asimov’s themes as figures that bear a striking resemblance to medieval knights. That design might seem a mere marketing ploy, drawing on a centuries-old figure evoking Arthurian legend to appeal to potential customers of science fiction. However, a close look at Asimov’s narrative uncovers a notable link between the Mercury mission and its Laws of Robotics and the quests of King Arthur’s knights and their chivalric code.
The word chivalry derives from the Old French word chevalerie (and French chevalier), meaning horse soldier or horseman, and notably, images of the astronauts as ersatz horsemen enter Asimov’s story after Powell summons one of the older robots, from the first Mercury expedition, to find Speedy. In reply, the machine says it cannot proceed with its mission yet because Powell “must mount first” (44). Donovan solidifies the analogy when he responds incredulously, “‘We got to ride him? Like a horse?’” (44). Asimov returns to the image of the chevalerie, or horseman, when Powell spots Speedy in the distance and urges his robot forward, saying, “‘Giddy-up!’” and “thump[ing] his heels spur fashion” (48).
As Powell and Donovan move closer to Speedy, the narration indicates Speedy’s own knight-like quality with a nod to Arthurian legend: “The distance between the men and the errant robot was being cut down momentarily—more by the efforts of Speedy than the slow plodding of the fifty-year-old antique mounts of Donovan and Powell” (48). The word errant, which Asimov uses to describe Speedy, figures frequently in Le Morte d’ Arthur as a descriptor of the knights who wander in search of opportunities to prove their chivalry. As Launcelot says to Sir Tristram, “I am a knight errant . . . that rideth to seek many adventures” (Malory, vol. 2, bk. 10, ch. 86).
For Speedy, Powell, and Donovan, the holy grail is the selenium essential to the astronauts’ survival. Speedy’s initial inability to secure the selenium is not a violation of his chivalric code (the Three Laws of Robotics), but rather the result of his unfailing fidelity to the two Laws in conflict: He cannot obey his orders and protect his existence with the looming danger of volcanic action.
The repeated image in Johannes Regn’s Doubleday cover for I, Robot (1963) seems to pay homage to Edd Cartier’s first-edition jacket (Gnome, Grossett & Dulap 1950) with its solitary robot gazing out from the cover. The silhouettes that span Regn’s cover, in alternating shades of lavender, lead to a pen-and-ink version of the machines at its side. From the indeterminate figures emerges a clearly defined image of the future that evokes soldiers of the past, seen both in the distant past of the Middle Ages and the then-recent past of I, Robot’s first book jackets. The metal body Cartier renders with his paintbrush accentuates the articulated joint guards of medieval armor—pauldrons at the shoulders, couters at the elbows, poleynes at the knees—details that define the iron and steel suits worn by mounted soldiers whose chivalric code informs Asimov’s fictional world. The similarities between the narratives of Arthurian legend and “Runaround”—seen both in the story itself and in Cartier and Regn’s covers—may speak to a basic need in the shadow of A.I. Lifting the visor of a knight’s helmet revealed the windows to the soul. When we examine artificial intelligence, we see no face in the cloud, no soldier in our service sworn to bring us no harm.
Works Cited
Asimov, Isaac. “Runaround.” I, Robot. 1950. Doubleday, 1963, pp. 40-58.
Malory, Thomas. Le Morte d’ Arthur. 1485. Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/ files/1252/1252-h/1252-h.htm#chap88.
Next Up
In class on Wednesday, you will compose a reflective essay that documents the process of planning, drafting, and revising your analysis. In your reflection, you will include one quotation, which you will introduce with a signal phrase and follow with a parenthetical citation.
To comply with the requirements for your reflection assignment, you will need to complete the planning exercise in tomorrow’s class notes. In class, you will not be permitted to refer to my blog or any other online resources. You will need to have all the necessary information written longhand in your journal.
Knowing words with multiple vowels proves useful when you’re faced with a rack of mostly, or all, vowels. Here’s a list of the four-letter words with three vowels, beginning with a through m:
aeon: a long period of time (also eon)
agee: to one side (also ajee)
agio: a surcharge applied when exchanging currency
ague: a sickness associated with malaria
ajee: to one side (also agee)
akee: a tropical tree
alae: wings (pl. of ala)
alee: on the side shielded from wind
amia: a freshwater fish
amoa: a kind of small buffalo
awee: a little while
eaux: waters (pl. of eau)
eide: distinctive appearances of things (pl. of eidos)
emeu: an emu
etui: an ornamental case
euro: an Australian marsupial, also known as wallaroo, for being like the kangaroo and the wallaby; also a unified currency of much of Europe
ilea: the terminal portions of small intestines (pl. of ileum)
ilia: pelvic bones (pl. of ilium)
jiao: a Chinese currency (also chiao)
luau: a large Hawaiian feast
meou: to meow
moue: a pouting expression
After Fall Break
On Monday, October 12, we will examine the student analysis “One Mississippi,” which you will read and annotate for class. We will also discuss your journal entries on the excerpt from Maus as a lead-in to our reading of a second sample analysis, “The Strange Fruit of Sosnowiec,” which I will distribute in class that day.
If you were absent when I distributed “One Mississippi” and the Maus journal exercise or misplace yours, print copies from Blackboard. “One Mississippi” is in the sample papers folder; the Maus journal exercise is in the readings folder.
Also, be sure to have your copy of Dan Rockmore‘s “Should the Classroom Be More Like the Gym?” We will look back at his essay as we review some short passages from your midterm reflections.
I encourage you to read the post, which includes a photograph of students in each of your classes examining the book covers. Two sections of the post, “Four Ways to Read a Cover” and “From Looking to Making an Argument” may spark an idea for your revision of you analysis. If a line in the post is relevant to your analysis, you include the blog post as a second source. Here is the model for the works cited entry:
Ward, Gerald. “Covering Science Fiction: When Special Collections Becomes the Classroom.” HPU Libraries, 1 October 2026, https://www.highpoint.edu/library/.
In your MS Word or PDF file, the second line of the entry should be indented five spaces.
Read. Reflect. Connect.
HPU Libraries‘ Read. Reflect. Connect. offers members of the university community the opportunity connect through a shared reading (this year, The Happiness Project). Registration is open now but ends this afternoon. If you sign up, later in the fall, you will receive a copy of the book (your choice of a physical or digital copy). In the spring semester, you will have the opportunity to take part in events that focus on readers shared experiences of reading Gretchen Rubin‘s book.
After you have signed up, compose a brief blog comment stating that you have registered for Read. Reflect. Connect.
Post your comment as a reply to today’s blog post by 4 p.m.today.
To post your comment, click the title, “ENG 1103: Irritable Vowel Syndrome . . . ,” then scroll down to the bottom of the post. There you will see the image of an airmail envelope with a rectangular box for your comment. Type your comment in the box and hit return.
Happy Fall Break!
I look forward to seeing you back in class on Monday, October 12.
Early editions of I, Robot (l-r): 1950 1st edition hardcover by Gnome Press; 1950 dust jacket of 1st edition hardcover by Grosset & Dunlap; 1963 Science Fiction Book Club edition by Doubleday
As a model for your own analyses, I am writing one that examines Isaac Asimov’s “Runaround” and three early covers of I, Robot (pictured above). The first part of today’s blog post features excerpts from my draft in progress and my commentary on the writing.
One of the hardest parts of composing an analysis is building paragraphs by moving effectively from sentence to sentence. The ideas you want to express may be clear to you, but shifting from one idea to the next logically and gracefully requires revision. The screenshots and commentary that follow demonstrate how I have structured my introductory paragraph and one of the body paragraphs.
Writing the first paragraph required solving several problems, including these:
I needed to show a connection where there is no readily apparent one (between “Runaround” and early covers for I, Robot).
The opening paragraph needed to include a summary, but I did not want to begin with a summary.
Whatever I began with would need to lead to the summary. How would I connect the first lines to the summary that would follow?
The summary would need to lead to the thesis. How would I turn from an overview of the short story to a claim about the story and the I, Robot covers?
In the opening paragraph (above), I begin by acknowledging the lack of any readily apparent connection between the book covers and “Runaround.” In the second sentence, I offer details that show the lack of a readily apparent connection (nothing indicates that Mercury is the setting), and I liken the robots to guards. I use what the robots don’t do (“offer any inkling of the narrative that unfolds”) as a lead-in to the summary, the first sentence of which serves as an appositive for “the narrative that unfolds.” The next two sentences continue the summary.
At the end of the summary, I turn back to the covers with the statement, “The covers illustrate none of that.” Then I shift from what the covers don’t depict to the connection I have identified, which I present as an appositive after “representations of Asimov’s themes.” After I assert the similarity between the robots on the covers and medieval knights, I acknowledge that the parallels could simply be the product of a marketing decision. I disagree with that theory; however, and my reason for that disagreement serves as my thesis: the last sentence of the paragraph (highlighted above).
In the body paragraph below, which is not the second paragraph of the analysis, I demonstrate how images of the knights of chivalry–a word that derives from an Old French term for horse soldier or horseman–occur in “Runaround.”
You are not required to cite any text other than the story or stories that serve as your subject. In the paragraph above, I cite Le Morte d’ Arthur to demonstrate the use of the term errant. No page numbers appear in the parenthetical citation because I am quoting an unpaginated online version of Thomas Malory’s chivalric romance on Project Gutenberg.
Elsewhere, I note the descriptions of Donovan and Powell riding the old robots as if they’re on horseback, and the parallels between the Three Laws of Robotics and the chivalric code. After fall break, I will post the complete analysis.
Parenthetical Citations
Yesterday in the 10:40 class (section eight), I presented models for the parenthetical citations required if you need to clarify which supertoys story you are quoting. Those models appear below.
(“Supertoys Last” 3).
(“Supertoys When” 16).
(“Supertoys in Other” 27).
Note the abbreviated versions of the titles and the placement of the periods. Brian Aldiss‘s last name is not included because you establish in your introductory paragraph that he is the author. If it’s clear in your analysis which story you are citing, do not include the abbreviated title; it’s used only to clarify the source.
Works Cited
If you cite two or more of Brian Aldiss’s stories, use the list below as your model.
Note that if you cite more than one work by an author, his or her name is not repeated. Instead, three strikes of the hyphen key denote that the entry has the same author as the previous entry. Also note that the stories are alphabetized by title. “Supertoys When Winter Comes” is the second story chronologically, but it’s the last story alphabetically, so it’s listed third.
If your analysis focuses on “Runaround,” use the entry below as your model.
Note that the first date, 1950, indicates the book’s date of publication, and the second date, 1963, is the publication year of the edition you are citing. (Your class handout is a copy of the story in the 1963 Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club edition.)
If your analysis focuses on one or more of Aldiss’s stories, but you quote or paraphrase the Three Laws of Robotics, your works cited list should include an entry for “Runaround,” and the analysis should include a parenthetical citation for the laws.
Next Up
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review your journal notes and the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips.
This morning, I will return your drafts with my notes, and you will have the remainder of the class period to begin revising your analyses on your laptops. Because next week is fall break, you will have two additional weeks to continue your revision work before you submit the assignment to Blackboard and publish it as a WordPress blog entry. The due date is Wednesday, October 14 (before class). The hard deadline is Friday, October 16 (before class).
Analysis Draft Notes
Along with my handwritten notes on your draft, today you will receive a handout of general notes to review before you begin your revision work. An additional copy of those notes is included in yesterday’s blog post.
Early editions of I, Robot (top row, l-r): 1950 1st edition hardcover by Gnome Press; 1950 dust jacket of 1st edition hardcover by Grosset & Dunlap; 1950 1st book club edition by Doubleday; 1952 1st UK edition by Grayson & Grayson; 1956 Signet cover; (bottom row, l-r): 1958 Digit Books; 1961 Signet 3rd printing; 1968 Signet 6th printing; 1970 Fawcett Crest; 1968 Panther Science Fiction.
Model Analysis in Progress
As a model for you, I am composing an analysis of Isaac Asimov’s “Runaround” that considers the story in relation to some of the early cover art for I, Robot (pictured above). Tomorrow’s blog post will include excerpts from the second draft, along with my commentary on the writing.
After fall break, we will examine “The Strange Fruit of Sosnowiec,” an earlier analysis of mine, as well as the student analysis “One Mississippi.”
The Writing Center
As you continue to revise your analysis, consider visiting the Writing Center. If you do so, you will earn five bonus points for the assignment.
To schedule an appointment, register online here, email the Writing Center’s director, Professor Justin Cook, at jcook3@highpoint.edu, or scan the QR code below. To earn bonus points for your analysis, consult with a Writing Center tutor no later than Thursday, October 15.
On Friday, October 16, Professor Cook will send me a list of the students who met with Writing Center consultants to discuss their analysis drafts. That record of Writing Center visits will provide the documentation needed for students’ bonus points.
Writing Center Consultations for Literacy Narratives
Section 1: 3 of 19 students, 15.7%
Section 8: 3 of 19 students, 15.7%
If you are one of the students who did not take advantage of the Writing Center when you were composing your literacy narrative, do not miss the opportunity to receive that guidance–and those bonus points–for your analysis, and later for your final essay and annotated bibliography.
Next Up
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review your journal notes and the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips.
After Fall Break
After fall break, we will examine the student sample analysis “One Mississippi,” which I will distribute in class today. Before class on Monday, October 12, read and annotate “One Mississippi” and complete the journal exercise I will distribute along with it.
Blitt, Barry. “Pulling the Plug.” The New Yorker, 28 Sept. 2026.
First, a Short Exercise
As practice in moving from observation to analysis, ask yourself what you see (what cartoonist Barry Blitt depicts in this week’s New Yorker cover), then ask yourself (1) why he may have included some of the details, and (2) what he is trying to convey.
Tomorrow in class, I will return your analysis drafts with my annotations, and you will have the class period to devote to revising on your laptops and tablets. Along with my handwritten notes, I will distribute a handout with general notes to consult as you proceed. An additional copy of those notes follows.
The opening paragraph of your essay should include a short summary that serves as a lead-in to your thesis statement. Remember that summaries are objective by nature. If you comment in any way on the quality of your subject (the text you are writing about), you turn from summary to commentary or analysis. That should not occur until you present your thesis statement, which will follow the summary.
Summaries are written in the third person. No singular or plural first- or second-person pronouns should appear in your summary. In other words, you should not use the words “I,” “me,” “you,” “we,” or “us.” MLA style requires the present tense in writing about literature and other texts.
An effective thesis makes a claim, one that readers will question, and some will disagree with. Avoid these thesis missteps:
A thesis that makes no claim. (“This analysis explores the Three Laws of Robotics”).
A thesis that is obviously true or a statement of fact (“For Monica and David, and for any other parent-child relationship, communication is key”).
A thesis that restates conventional wisdom (“Powell and Donovan’s troubleshooting demonstrates that two heads are better than one”).
A thesis that makes an overly broad claim (“Rapid technological advances are good [or bad]”).
On first reference, refer to the author by first and last name. On subsequent references, refer to the author by last name, not first.
On first reference, refer to characters by first and last name. On subsequent references, refer to the Swintons by their first names, and refer to Powell and Donovan by their last names (because the narrator refers to them by last name).
Text is a blanket term for all your readings. When you refer to a particular reading, do not use a blanket term. Instead, identify it by type: short story or trilogy of stories. Do not refer to a short story as a chapter, a novel, or a passage. Factual errors such as those will undermine your analysis.
Write in active voice. The subject of the sentence should perform the action. Avoid passive constructions such as this: It is seen that Speedy malfunctions. Instead, simply write, Speedy malfunctions.
Do not foreground the words page and paragraph in your sentences. In other words, do not write on page twenty-two . . . . Page and paragraph numbers are for parenthetical citations.
For conventional academic writing, MLA’s editors recommend you use first-person sparingly, if you use it at all. If you find it difficult to write in third person, compose your analysis in first person, then afterward recast it in third person.
In your drafts, some of you presented ideas that you heard in class as if they were your own, which is a form of plagiarism. If you mention an idea that I presented in class, you should introduce the idea with a signal phrase, such as this: As Professor Jane Lucas has observed, telling David not to grieve, as Monica does, indicates that she perceives him as human because machines cannot grieve.
In the example above, the signal phrase verb is past tense because it refers to a statement from a previous class, but Monica and David’s verbs are present tense (does, perceives) because of the present-tense MLA rule. See https://style.mla.org/literary-present-tense/.
If you paraphrase a statement of mine from class, include the following work-cited entry at the end of your revision. You will need to consult your class notes to identify the correct date.
Lucas, Jane. English 1103: Academic Research and Writing. 21 September 2026, High Point University.
Do not use the phrase in conclusion or any variation on it at the beginning of the final paragraph of your essay. While that transitional phrase can be useful in a speech (because the audience cannot see that the end is near), there is no reason to write those words when readers can see for themselves that only one paragraph remains. For more, see Harvard University Writing Center’s notes on conclusions: https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/conclusions.
Early editions of I, Robot (top row, l-r): 1950 1st edition hardcover by Gnome Press; 1950 dust jacket of 1st edition hardcover by Grosset & Dunlap; 1963 science fiction book club edition by Doubleday; 1952 1st UK edition by Grayson & Grayson; 1956 Signet cover; (bottom row, l-r): 1958 Digit Books; 1961 Signet 3rd printing; 1968 Signet 6th printing; 1970 Fawcett Crest; 1968 Panther Science Fiction.
Kudos
Avery Broadbent, Madison Haugk, and Devyn Jones received bonus assignment credit for correctly identifying the typo on the cover of one of the early editions of I, Robot pictured above. What is the error? For the answer, see the end of today’s post.
Not the AI Tool Called Einstein (Albert, the Physicist)
In his New Yorker essay “Should the Classroom Be More Like the Gym,” Dan Rockmore addresses the viral A.I. tool Einstein–a short-lived stunt and mostly hype–that would not only generate students’ assignments but also post them on their behalf on the Canvas learning management system.
Bonus Assignment
One of the science fiction stories we have studied includes a reference to the real Einstein (Albert, the physicist). Which story is it?
Directions for Finding and Submitting Your Answer
Review Isaac Asimov’s “Runaround” and Brian Aldiss’s supertoys stories to locate the reference to Einstein.
Compose a response of one or more complete sentences that includes the title and author of the short story, a signal phrase that introduces your quotation from the story–a phrase or clause that mentions Einstein by name–and a parenthetical citation with the page number.
Post your comment as a reply to this blog post by 7:30 a.m. on Friday, October 2.
To post your comment, click the title, “ENG 1103: Analysis Notes . . . ,” then scroll down to the bottom of the post. There you will see the image of an airmail envelope with a rectangular box for your comment. Type your comment in the box and hit return. Voila! You have submitted your answer. I will make the comments visible after Friday’s deadline.
Next Up
On Wednesday, I will return your handwritten drafts (with my notes), and you will have the class period to begin revising on your laptops. Because the first week of October is Fall Break, you have two additional weeks to revise before you submit your analysis to Blackboard and publish it on WordPress. The due date for your revised analysis is Wednesday, October, 14 (before class). The deadline is Friday, October 16 (before class).
This morning, you will compose a reflective essay focusing on your experiences in English 1103 throughout the first half of the semester. Instructions for your reflective essay are included below.
Directions
Plan and compose a midterm reflective essay that documents your work in the first half of the semester, focusing on two or three assignments or aspects of the course that have contributed to your development as a writer and a student. Since you have already written a reflection devoted solely to your literacy narrative, your midterm reflection should focus primarily on other assignments or aspects of the course, including these:
Keeping a journal
Studying one or more of the class readings, including “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” “The Day Language Came into My Life,” the excerpt from To Kill aMockingbird, the excerpt from “The Falling Man,” “Runaround,” or one of the supertoys stories. On first reference, identify the reading by title and the author’s first and last name.
Reading and editing sample student literacy narratives
Creating and maintaining a WordPress blog and writing for an audience beyond the classroom
Collaborating with your classmates on in-class writing assignments
Playing Scrabble and collaborating with your teammates on Wordplay Day
Writing longhand
Limiting screen time
Include in your reflective essay the following elements:
A title that offers a window into your reflection
An opening paragraph that introduces your focus and presents your thesis
Body paragraphs that offer concrete details from your work to support your thesis
One relevant quotation from Dan Rockmore’s essay “Should the Classroom Be More Like the Gym?”
A signal phrase and a parenthetical citation for the quotation
A conclusion that revisits the thesis without restating it verbatim
A work cited entry for Rockmore’s essay.
You are welcome to refer to any of your class handouts and journal notes as you write, but you are not permitted to consult any online sources or use any digital devices as you write. If you followed the preparation guidelines in yesterday’s class notes, the citation information you need is recorded in your journal.
If you choose to include an optional second quotation from another reading for the course, that quote should also be introduced with a signal phrase and followed by a parenthetical citation. You will need to include a works cited entry for that quotation also.
Kudos
Vivian Laliberte posted a blog entry about the HPU Book Fair, where she won a container of kinetic sand, picked up freebies (such as the ones pictured above), and learned about the HPU Libraries‘ resources. For her efforts, she received a bonus assignment credit.
Next Up
On Wednesday, I will return your handwritten drafts (with my notes), and you will have the class period to begin revising on your laptops. Because the first week of October is Fall Break, you have two additional weeks to revise before you submit your analysis to Blackboard and publish it on WordPress. The due date for your revised analysis is Wednesday, October, 14 (before class). The deadline is Friday, October 16 (before class).
Monday in class you will plan and compose a midterm reflective essay that documents your work in the first half of the semester, focusing on two or three assignments or aspects of the course that have contributed to your development as a writer and a student. Since you have already written a reflection devoted solely to your literacy narrative, your midterm reflection should focus primarily on other assignments or aspects of the course. One of the requirements of the reflection is incorporating a relevant quotation from Dan Rockmore’s essay “Should the Classroom Be More Like the Gym?” Before Monday’s class, determine what phrase, clause, or sentence you will quote, and draft a sentence in your journal that introduces the quotation with a signal phrase and follows it with a parenthetical citation.
Directions
To comply with the requirements for your reflection assignment, you will need to complete the planning exercise that follows. In class, you will not be permitted to refer to this blog post or any other online resources. You will need to have all the necessary citation information written longhand in your journal.
Review “Should the Classroom Be More Like the Gym?” and number its paragraphs.
Choose a phrase, clause, or sentence pertinent to your experience as a student in English 1103. What you select may remind you of a particular assignment or activity in the course, or may speak to your experience with or concerns about A.I.
After you have chosen a passage, compose a signal phrase in your journal to introduce the quotation. (See the examples below.) Many academic writing assignments, including most that follow MLA style, require a signal phrase. A quotation that lacks one is considered a dropped quotation.
Follow your signal phrase with the quotation, and follow the quote with an MLA-style parenthetical citation. (See the examples below.)
Optional: Below your sentence, write the MLA-style work cited entry for Rockmore’s essay. You will not need to refer to your journal for that information because it’s included on your copy of the essay. In class, when you write your work cited entry, you can refer to the one on your handout. Why write a work cited entry in my journal if I’m not required to? you might ask. As Rockmore notes, “the exercise is the point” (par. 15).
Examples
In “Should the Classroom Be More Like the Gym?” Dan Rockmore observes, “If the process is the goal, we should be focussing on how to create classrooms that make the process worth doing for its own sake” (par. 8). That aim underlies my classes’ varied structure. Alternating close reading of texts, drafting, and revising, with frequent short exercises, small-group collaboration, and weekly Scrabble play provides students with a variety of opportunities to hone their skills as writers, readers, and thinkers. And the range of assignments and activities reduces the risk of the monotony that can plague a seventy-minute class period.
In “Should the Classroom Be More Like the Gym?” the author observes, “If the process is the goal, we should be focussing on how to create classrooms that make the process worth doing for its own sake” (Rockmore, par. 8). That aim underlies my classes’ varied structure. Alternating close reading of texts, drafting, and revising, with frequent short exercises, small-group collaboration, and weekly Scrabble play provides students with a variety of opportunities to hone their skills as writers, readers, and thinkers. And the range of assignments and activities reduces the risk of the monotony that can plague a seventy-minute class period.
The two examples above are very similar, not identical. The first one names the author, so only the abbreviation par. and the paragraph number appear in the parenthetical citation. The second does not name the author, so his last name and a comma precede the paragraph number in the parenthetical citation.
Notice how the two sentences that follow the quotation demonstrate the relevance of Dan Rockmore’s ideas to my own teaching philosophy and practices. If I were to continue the reflection that I began in the examples above, I would offer examples to support my claim that such activities as close readings of essays and short stories and Scrabble play develop students’ analytical skills.
Note that Rockmore’s spelling of focusing as focussing with two s‘s is an acceptable variation, but the single-s spelling is preferable in formal writing.
You are welcome to cite one or more additional readings in your reflection. If you plan to do so, repeat the steps in the directions above with your chosen essay, short story, or chapter. In your journal, make note of the examples in the September 8 class notes. Pay close attention to the differences between parenthetical citations for sources with page numbers and those without. You do not need to write the work cited entry in your journal because it’s included on your copy of the reading. In class, when you write your work cited entry, you can refer to the one on your handout. Note the hanging-indent style of the work cited entries, which is the opposite of an MLA-style paragraph.
Constant Consonants
In Scrabble, if you think it’s impossible to make a play with the tiles on your rack, you can forgo a turn and swap tiles, all seven or fewer. If you think losing a turn and swapping tiles is inevitable, examine the board closely to determine whether a one- or two-letter low-point play is an option. Often it is. If not, and the problem you face is a rack without vowels, one of the words in today’s list might be an option.
brr: used to indicate that one is cold
crwth: an ancient stringed instrument (pl. -s)
cwm: a cirque (a deep, steepwalled basin on a mountain, pl. -s, prounounced to rhyme with “boom”)
hm: used to express thoughtful consideration (also “hmm“)
mm: used to express assent or satisfaction
nth: describing an unspecified number in a series
phpht: used as an expression of mild anger or annoyance (also “pht“)
psst: used to attract someone’s attention
sh: used to urge silence (also “shh” and “sha“)
tsk: to utter an exclamation of annoyance (-ed, -ing, -s)
tsktsk: to “tsk” (-ed, -ing, -s)
Next Up
In class on Monday, you will write your midterm reflection. Review the guidelines in today’s blog post to prepare.
Coming Soon
On Wednesday, September 30, I will return your handwritten drafts (with my notes), and you will have the class period to begin revising on your laptops. Because the first week of October is Fall Break, you have two additional weeks to revise before you submit your analysis to Blackboard and publish it on WordPress. The due date for your revised analysis is Wednesday, October, 14 (before class). The deadline is Friday, October 16 (before class).
The pictures above, featuring the card we gave to Gerald Ward, Assistant Director and Head of Archives and Special Collections at HPU Libraries, are from a LinkedIn post he made about the card and our library session devoted to cover art from the Asimov Collection. The complete LinkedIn post appears later in today’s class notes.
Using AI Ethically for Your Analysis
Just as I turned to ChatGPT as a model for your own possible literacy-narrative brainstorming with AI, I prompted ChatGPT to ask me a series of questions to help me choose a topic for a textual analysis. The images below are screenshots of that conversation.
Review the screenshot above and note how many specifics I offer about the two topics I’m considering and how I ask the AI agent to ask me a series of questions. Developing your initial question and requesting multiple questions in response will lead to a more productive exchange of ideas.
In response to my answer to the first question, the AI agent asks me a question I would ask you: “When you think about these two possibilities, which one are you more curious about right now . . . ?” If you’re still trying to decide between two or more topics, ask yourself that same question.
Note that the AI agent shifts from the question of curiosity to the kind of analytical work each topic involves. In the second question (pictured below), the AI agent asks me to imagine that I’ve already written each essay and what the writing might have led me to discover.
Notice how my reply to question two (pictured above) provides me with paths for my writing. Also note that the AI agent tells me, “Don’t worry yet about whether either answer is a defensible thesis.” Those words echo ones in your assignment: “Think of your preliminary draft as your down draft; your aim in the early stage of the process is to get your ideas down on the page. You may need the process of drafting to discover what you think the text means and how it conveys its meaning.”
The AI agent’s third question (pictured above) and its examples lead me to additional points to consider by asking what puzzles I would need to solve.
ChatGPT’s fourth question (pictured above) and the commentary that precedes it address the two distinctive types of analysis the projects would require. Would I rather “move outside the story” of “Runaround” or remain “more firmly inside the text” of the supertoys trilogy? The answer isn’t clear to me yet. It will emerge as I continue to put pen to paper and see where it leads.
Though I could have continued the conversation after question four, I was ready to turn away from AI and from the screen. As you continue your own draft, remember that using generative AI to write your analysis and presenting an AI agent’s words as your own violates High Point University’s Honor Code and is grounds for an F. However, using AI ethically, as I do in the model above, can be a useful step.
Congratulations to Brenna Murphy and Avery Broadbent, winners of yesterday’s drawings for Supertoys Last All Summer Long and Other Stories of Future Time.
Gerald Ward’s LinkedIn Post
Bonus Assignment Opportunity
Students who correctly respond to question below will earn a bonus assignment credit.
Uncovering the I, Robot Cover Blunder
One of the eight early covers featured in the September 22 post includes a typo. Which one would have benefited from additional proofreading?
Directions for Finding and Submitting Your Answer
Examine the I, Robot covers in the September 22 post, and identify the one with a typo.
Compose a response of one or more complete sentences that identifies the edition of I, Robot by publisher and year (see the photo caption) and briefly explains the error.
Post your comment as a reply to this blog post by 7:30 a.m. on Monday, September 28.
To post your comment, click the title, “ENG 1103: Using AI Ethically . . . ,” then scroll down to the bottom of the post. There you will see the image of an airmail envelope with a rectangular box for your comment. Type your comment in the box and hit return. Voila! You have submitted your answer. I will make the comments visible before class on Monday, September 28.
Next Up
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review your journal notes and the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips.
