Your team will be randomly assigned one of the texts on the syllabus, and asked to rewrite this text (or part of it) into another literary form. The second half of this assignment involves your evaluation of the results of this transFORMation. How did your rewrite affect the meaning of the text or its impact on the reader? Did it enlarge or diminish the text? Make it more sublime? More comical? And why?

What are the parts of the assignment, and how long is it?

There are two parts to the assignment, each about 600 words in length. (If you are transforming into a lyric, then you may use less than 600 words for the first part.)

The first part is a piece of creative writing. You are asked to rewrite a part of your text in another form. You need to choose a segment of text which will show the consequences of formal changes especially well. For example, if you were asked to rewrite Mother Courage as a novel, you would need to choose a scene which would change substantially in moving from performance to narrative.

The second part is an analysis of what you have achieved in the first part. In this second part you should explain:

• Reasons for your choice of segment for transformation
• The formal features of the two forms which are crucial for achieving transformation (e.g., verse and prose)
• The effect of your transformation on character, event, and language of the text
• An evaluation of the possibility of success in transforming this particular text into this form

You won't know this until the day you do the assignment. To get an idea of the possibilities, take a few turns at the randomizer. Thus, it is important that your team come well prepared in both the literary forms we have studied in class and the individual texts. This is an open book, open notes project.

How is the assignment graded?

Each of the two parts receives a maximum of four points. In the second part, the four points are divided evenly among the four items.