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May 08, 2007

Announcement: Grade distributions are on the grades page

Deadline: FINAL EXAM

7:00 - 10:00 p.m. -- held in our usual room.

Deadline: Submit six of your weekly assignments for grading

Follow the directions given to choose six of your weekly assignments from those completed after the midterm and submit them for grading. Choose assignments from the assignment page including "Breaching Experiment" or later. You may not submit the first four assignments.

(See the handout from 3/2 "How to Turn in Blogs for Grading" for details.) Put them in a category marked "final". DEADLINE: Blogs must be submitted by 7:00 pm (before the final starts).

Assignment: EXTRA CREDIT BLOG POST: The technology of 1984

This extra credit blog post can be turned in at any time before the class ends (that is, anytime before the start of the final exam.) It counts the same amount as any other blog post in the class and it will be graded the same way.

For this post, imagine that you are a very successful literary critic. Part of your job is to explain the complicated nuances of the book 1984 to readers who may not be as familiar with Orwell (or who don't read books as closely as you do). Write a blog post explaining the role of one communication technology to a key concept or theme from 1984.

First, choose one term from the first list and one communication technology from the second list and explain how the two are related in the novel. For instance, you could explain that avoiding thoughtcrime depends upon the versificator (although this particular example is very unlikely and would be hard to write).

Terms doublethink thoughtcrime Room 101 "2 + 2 = 5"

Technologies telescreen speakwrite newspeak versificator

To do this successfully, you'll have to (1) briefly explain both the term and the technology, (2) quote at least one example from 1984, and (3) show that you are a widely read literary critic by relating your explanation to any other reading from the class (for instance, you could compare your technology to another technology we've read about, or you could use a concept or theory to describe the relationship you identify).

Post an answer of at least 250 words to your blog. DEADLINE: post this blog anytime before the start of the final exam.