English 313 Science Fiction
Feedback on Sections and Papers 030123

I.       Sections

A.   Some very good discussion…

1.                 The relationship (of humanity and/or some individual) to Nature needs to be explored

2.                 The meaning (to humanity and/or of some individual) of Science needs to be explored

B.   …but not quite as vigorous or as conclusive as last week.  Why?

1.                 Some people are clearly not doing all the reading—R: this is foolish

2.                 The material seemed harder to approach

a)                Some of the stories had confusing endings

b)                The Eden Complex needs further elucidation

II.    Papers

A.   Some improvement, especially for people who met with discussion leaders

B.   Some grade reversal—R: remember, the criteria of acceptability keep rising

C.   Some excellent comparisons, but also some stumbling because people didn’t chew what they bit off

D.   Some difficulty in going from an observation (often an insightful and provocative observation) to a detailed exploration of the significance of that observation.  Symptoms:

1.                 Unhelpful plot summary

2.                 Little discussion of evidence concerning the observation

3.                 Little discussion of the significance of the observation or of the evidence

4.                 Little traces of honest search for counterexamples

5.                 Lack of revision