Tag: I Robot

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Notes on a Draft in Progress . . .

Posted on by janemlucas
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.

Posted in English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Analysis Notes . . .

Posted on by janemlucas
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

  1. Review Isaac Asimov’s “Runaround” and Brian Aldiss’s supertoys stories to locate the reference to Einstein.
  2. 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.
  3. Post your comment as a reply to this blog post by 7:30 a.m. on Friday, October 2.
  4. 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).

Posted in AI, English 1103, Teaching, Writing

ENG 1103: Beginning Your Analysis . . .

Posted on by janemlucas

This morning in class, you will begin drafting your analysis, which will focus on Isaac Asimov’s “Runaround,” one or more of Brian Aldiss‘s supertoys stories, or “Runaround” and one or more of the early covers for Asimov’s I, Robot. Assignment details are included below and on the handout you will receive in class. An additional copy of the assignment is posted on Blackboard.

Overview

A textual analysis aims to demonstrate how a text works, how it achieves its effects. The process of writing your analysis will include these steps:

  • Summarizing the text precisely so the reader can envision it. An analysis is not a summary, but your introductory paragraph will include one that will serve as a lead-in to your thesis or main claim: what you think the text achieves or what it means and how it conveys its meaning.
  • Paying close attention to details, what they imply, and how they relate to each other and the whole
  • Explaining what the text means or what it achieves and the significance of that.

Prompts

Compose an analysis in response to one of the prompts below.

  • Isaac Asimov’s “Runaround” recounts the events of the second Mercury expedition conducted by U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, and Brian Aldiss’s supertoys stories chronicle the evolution of the Synth company, from Synthank, to Synthmania, to Worldsynth-Claws. Explore the trajectory of the technological advances in Asimov’s story or Aldiss’s trilogy.
  • Both “Runaround” and the supertoys stories portray robots in service to humans. Examine Asimov’s or Aldiss’s notion of robot service and how that vision of servitude shapes the character of one of the robots and the humans it serves. You may address more than one robot, but your analysis should focus on only one.
  • Probe Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics and consider how one robot’s adherence to or violation of one or more of the laws reflects on the laws, the robots, and/or the humans whom the robots serve.
  • Brian Aldiss’s supertoys stories not only mark the change of seasons—referenced in the titles—they also depict changes in the environment. Explore those changes and their links to technological advancements.
  • Examine the interactions between one of the humans and one of the robots in “Runaround,” or between one of the humans and one of the robots in the supertoys stories. What do the human’s interactions reveal about his or her perceptions of artificial intelligence? You may address more than one human and one robot, but your analysis should focus on the relationship between one human and one robot.
  • Study the cover art for one or more early editions of I, Robot and consider the relevance of that cover or those covers to one or more aspects of “Runaround.”
  • In “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” David questions whether he is real. That line of inquiry continues in the second and third supertoys stories where he short-circuits the illusions of his virtual home and tries to make sense of the ravaged reality that remains. Explore David’s desire to be real and his search for meaning in the world.

Directions for Planning and Drafting

  1. Review the texts that you have read for class, and determine which one interests you most as a subject of analysis. You are not permitted to read any of the texts on screen during your drafting period today.
  2. Identify the details in the text that are thought-provoking or revealing.
  3. Develop your analysis through a close examination of those details.
  4. Write in dark ink, preferably black.
  5. Double-space to allow for room for my annotations. You are welcome to use both sides of the page.
  6. Before you leave class today, staple your handout to the top of your draft and submit it to me. Next Wednesday, I will return your draft with notes, and you will have the class period to begin revising and editing on your laptop or tablet.

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.

Elements for Textual Analysis

  • Language and Stylistic Devices: Literary devices (metaphors, irony, symbolism), diction (word choice), and syntax (sentence structure).
  • Content and Themes: Recurring ideas, patterns, or points of contrast.
  • Structure: Organization, including scene structure, and how it adheres to or breaks from convention.
  • Characterization: Character development, motivation, and their role in the story.

Guidelines for Revising

Your revised analysis should include the following elements:

  • A title that offers a window into your analysis
  • An introduction that presents a summary of the text
  • A thesis statement, or main claim, that presents your take on the text based on your close study of it
  • Textual evidence that supports your claims
  • A minimum of two relevant quotations from the text, introduced with signal phrases and followed by parenthetical citations
  • A conclusion that revisits the thesis without restating it verbatim
  • A work cited entry 
  • A minimum of 600 wordss

Directions for Formatting and Posting Your Revision

  1. Save your revised essay as a Microsoft Word file or PDF and submit it to Blackboard in compliance with MLA manuscript guidelines.
  2. Publish your revision as a blog post. In your post, omit the first-page information included in your file submitted to Blackboard (your name, course, section, professor’s name, and date). Add to your blog post an image that documents some part of your writing process away from the screen, such as a photo of your reading notes or a page of your draft. Also, add to your blog post an embedded link to a relevant website.

The complete guidelines for your assignment, along with the grade criteria, are also posted on Blackboard.

Next 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).

Writing about I, Robot Cover Art

If focusing on a visual text in your analysis appeals to you, but the I, Robot covers you viewed don’t spark any ideas, that probably isn’t the prompt you should choose. As the side-by-side pictures below demonstrate, the robots in artist John Berkey’s cover for I, Robot (on the left) bear no resemblance to Mark Zug’s Speedy.

(L-R) John Berkey’s cover for the 1970 Fawcett Crest paperback edition of I, Robot and Mark Zug’s illustration of Speedy in I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay (1994).

Although Berkey’s painting and the other early covers of I, Robot may not initially lead you to any ideas for your analysis, thinking about “Runaround” as you plan your draft may reveal a connection between the story and one or more of the covers.

Be open to discovering unexpected parallels as you write, and alter your focus if your interest changes.

In your September 16 writing about the book covers in the Asimov Collection at Smith Library, some of you observed that the robots in Berkey’s cover resembled droids in Star Wars. Notably, Berkey’s painting pictured below served as a concept poster for the first film in the franchise.

(L-R) John Berkey’s cover for the 1970 Fawcett Crest paperback edition of I, Robot and his concept poster for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)

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. Also, look back at the Scrabble debriefing notes on moving from observation to analysis. Those notes are included in the September 21 blog post.

Posted in AI, English 1103, Reading, Teaching

ENG 1103: Covering Sci-Fi Follow-Up, “Supertoys Last All Summer Long”

Posted on by janemlucas

Yesterday in class, after you wrote your individual observations about the paperbacks from the Asimov Collection, you developed talking points for our discussions of “Runaround” and “Supertoys Last All Summer Long.”

Today’s blog post includes the talking points you generated, along with pictures of your observation work.

If you would like to revisit the cover art that you examined yesterday, remember that all the paperbacks are included in the images in yesterday’s blog post. Because there is a glare on the cover of I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay, that book figures prominently in the photo above. Notice that my copy has a slightly different cover from the one in the Asimov Collection. My edition has the same cover art by Mark Zug, but the image is framed by a black border with words of the Three Laws of Robotics in gray.

Foreground (L-R): Claire Jahnke, Ryder Pitek, Hayden Porter; Background (L-R): Michael McNamara, Kel Wadley, Brenna Murphy, Bridgette Murphy, Gavin Godfrey-Ryan, Madison Haugk, Nicole Halucka, Grace Duffy, Oliver Henderson

Talking Points

  • “A common theme of forced space exploration. Why do authors use this topic?”
  • “All very technologically centered, and show humans’ relationships with technology.”
  • “We discussed that the covers all convey a sense of danger.”
  • “The covers all also represent exploration, adventures, and discovering the unknown.”
  • “The covers convey a negative effect on humanity through artwork.”
(L-R): Ryder Pitek, Seb Olander, Kai Jarvis, Claire Jahnke, Michael McNamara, Brenna Murphy
  • “These books relate to the excerpts [sic] by showing the long-lasting detrimental affect [sic] technology has on humans.”
  • “One talking point is why do you think these authors/illustrators depict a sense of eerie loneliness when taling [sic] about the future?”
  • “How technology affects how society (high and lower class people) interact/ daily life/ and beliefs.”
  • “How sci-fi books influence technological development and our view of technology today.”
(L-R): Baylee Shattenberg, Madi Stone, Kel Wadley, Bridgette Murphy, and Oliver Henderson
  • “Very future orientated with robots and space.”
  • “The one group of books focused more on aging and time rather than space and technology.”
  • “Space/other worlds or planets.”
  • “Robots and spaceships.”
  • “Lack of human growth.”
(L-R): Ryan Lofton, Devyn Jones, Zach Roseman, Sophia Stewart, Vivian Laliberte, Leslie Mendoza Arreola, Skylar Bowry
  • “The covers from the books we looked at today connect with ‘Runaround’ and ‘Supertoys Last All Summer Long’ by projecting and predicting visions of space and the possible future.”
  • “The covers of the books also connect to the short stories by visualizing adventure & possible danger.”
  • “How do humans view their relationships with technology in these novels?”
(Background to Foreground): Lance Morgan, Cole Wilhelmsen, Layla Rothberg
  • “Why do authors depict AI taking over society?”
  • “Most covers displayed a very optimistic view of the future through technology that allowed them to accomplish feats, even in space.”
  • “Some covers conveyed that the relationship between AI and humans was not good and might have caused conflict.”

“Supertoys Last All Summer Long”

Because our class time yesterday focused on the science fiction book covers in the Asimov Collection, we didn’t discuss Brian Aldiss’s short story. We will, however, examine it on Monday, along with his other two Supertoys stories: “Supertoys When Winter Comes” and “Supertoys in Other Seasons.”

As you prepare for Monday’s discussion of “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” consider these questions:

  • Unlike Isaac Asimov’s method of presentation in “Runaround,” which maintains the focus on Mike Donovan and Gregory Powell, Aldiss employs cross-cutting: the technique of shifting back and forth between two locations: the Swintons’ apartment and the banquet hall where Henry Swinton, Managing Director of Synthank, delivers his speech. Why might Aldiss have chosen that technique? What does it achieve?
  • Near the end of the story, Aldiss reveals that Teddy is not the only robot in the Swinton household. What words reveal that fact?
  • What details foreshadow the story’s revelation?

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 with Scrabble tips.

Coming Soon

For Monday’s class, you will read and annotate Brian Aldiss’s short stories “Supertoys When Winter Comes” and “Supertoys in Other Seasons,” which I distributed in class yesterday. If you were absent or misplaced your copies, print ones from Blackboard.