Your final assignment is summative: it gives you a chance to reflect on the stories you’ve read this semester, and it provides me evidence of your learning.
The general idea: you will assemble a mini-anthology of short stories you’ve read from the Reading Room along with an introduction to your anthology that explains why you’ve selected these stories.
How to assemble your anthology:
- Open a new google doc. Name this doc: “Short Story Anthology: [Your Name].
- Select your short stories – – you’ll need at least four. You should select these only from the stories you’ve read from the Reading Room. You can use a variety of criteria to select your stories: favorite stories you’ve read, or stories centered on a particular theme, or stories that exemplify some formal aspect (i.e. setting, plot, character), etc.
- Once you’ve selected your short stories, for each story: enter the title, the author, and a link to the story. If you want, you can also copy or import the story into your doc.
- Prepare to write your anthology introduction by re-reading your short stories or by consulting your reading journal.
- Write the introduction to your anthology. This introduction should basically explain why you’ve included these stories, i.e. what makes them interesting, what makes them worth reading, what makes them hang together as a collection. Your introduction should probably be around 750 words. The introduction should be enjoyable and easy to read (i.e. edit for correctness). The introduction should precede the stories themselves and should be titled: “Introduction.”
- The very tippy top of your doc should include a title (“My Anthology,” “The Greatest Anthology of Greatest Short Stories,” “Hella Good Short Stories,” or etc.) and your name. If you want to get fancy, you can design a cover for your anthology and put this at the top/beginning of your doc. If you’re interested, there are several free cover design sites: edit.org; Canva; GooDocs; MSWord Templates. (I’ve included a couple of book covers that I mocked up pretty easily on edit.org and Canva below.)
- Transmit your anthology to me. You can either export your anthology as a pdf and send it to me via email or share it with me as you would share any google doc (get a share link that allows me to view or comment and email or share directly with me). (It’s always best to use my gmail address to share/send: profhanley@gmail.com.)
In sum: your anthology must include – – an introduction, links to or copies of your selected short stories, and your name and title.
Due date: Tuesday, December 14, 2021, by midnight.
