getting creative, but first a note...
This 100-point paper is not optional. This is still a shorter paper, but it is required. It is also, well, different.
As with the other shorter papers, this must be a minimum of three full pages to be acceptable, at least four full pages if you are trying for a score higher than a "C." Unlike the earlier shorter essays, this one will not necessarily be fully in MLA format. A bit further down the page you will see what I mean under "Presentation."
another interruption - what is with that graphic?
Ah, the Wizard Guinea Pig is a bit unusual. He, in part, represents two things:
The Night Circus, the novel that inspired this assignment
the fact that you are guinea pigs; you are one of the first groups to attempt this feat
Now, to be fair, my past several 102 classes have had equally inventive projects relating to their novels, and, in fact, the third option here is very much like the Museum Project my students who read Station Eleven did the past few years, and those turned out excellent. If anything the Museum option below is considerably easier than what they did. Also, unlike the earlier students, you are going to get three very different options here, so if you get flummoxed by one topic, skip it in favor of one of the others.
Oh, and although their museums were different from what you will be producing if you do choose the Museum option, I will share some of the museums that those earlier students did. Yours won't be quite the same, but they will be close enough.
Ideally, you will find this chance to be imaginative fun. Who can say?
choose just one of the following three topics:
A lot more detailed instructions follow, but just to get you thinking, you are going to do one of the following:
- Write a new chapter of The Night Circus that reveals a new "tent" that you create
- Create a lost treasure or lost civilization museum exhibit for Chandresh's Museum
- In the role of a reveur, write an account of your impressions of The Night Circus when it appears in ___________
Before you make a choice, you will want to read (below) what each project requires/involves, and don't forget to look at the section on "Presentation." That may change your thinking a whole lot.
Oh, and those of you who are trying to avoid reading the novel, well, you likely have no idea what any of this means. READ the novel! You need it to do this project, and you do need it to do Discussion 9, which is worth 40 points. It is a pre-writing assignment for this project.
"Presentation" - notes on some choices you have
You may present this project in several ways. Some make more sense for one topic than they do the others, and I will offer some possible suggestions in each of the expanded topic instruction sections below, but here aer a few possible ways to present your project:
You may write in traditional, MLA-forma (with a Works Cited page if appropriate), though it will not be an essay, exactly. Note: MLA format is how authors are expected to submit their novels to publishers, so it would fit the "Write a new chapter" topic very well.
You may make it more like a catalog (such as a museum catalog, not a brochure) or a journal (which could be typed or even handwritten), in which case it will not be in MLA format. If you choose this option, you can post the pages on a site like Imgur, or some similar site.
You may create a website (pictures are required, and you may also include audio and video, if you like). NOTE: students often find this the most fun/interesting option. Be sure to usee a FREE version of an easy-to-use site like Wix, or Simplesite or Weebly (there are many others); you would need to e-mail me the link. The museum option is especially good as a website.
A specialized sort of website called a blogsite (Wordpress, Blogspot, etc.) can be done free and is particularly appropriate for something like a journal (so the reveur journal would work very nicely as a blog.
You may create a video walk-through (with a written script which you'll turn in, along with a Works Cited list).
Consider a podcast (with script) or an Instagram "story" or ______________.
If you have some other idea for the presentation, please check it with me first.
Special Note About Length Requirement: I am assuming most of you will be opting for the "at least four full pages" length. How do you test that with a website or a blog or some other non-MLA presentation format? Simple. Compose the text (without pictures) as a Word document in MLA format. Save it (often). Once it is at least four full pages (at least three for the "C" option), you can reformat and copy/paste the text ANYWHERE.
This is your invention, and you are being given a lot of freedom, so make this your own; have fun with it.
the topics in much more detail
To see more-detailed instructions on all three options, go back and revisit Lecture 9 and Discussion 9. All three topics lend themselves to some research (if you are describing a tent of your devising, for example, you might have to research the sorts of illusions or acts or phenomena that you are going to describe. For example, it you have where people experience the world as though they had the senses of different animals (I would probably make it like the tent of bottles where people would wander in and try on ornately described animal masks), you would need to look up how various animals do perceive (see, hear, smell, etc.) the world.
Of course the museum of lost wonders/treasures might be an extension of your research paper if you chose the topic on phenomenal mysteries (wonders from the Hollow Earth or from Lost Atlantis or from the Lost Dutchman Mine, for example).
As I noted before, you do not have to be able to write like Morgenstern, but try to be creative, and infuse whatever topic you choose with a sense of wonder.
And if possible, do try to have some fun with this.