Blog Post #3

Read James Thurber's "University Days," on pg. 343 in your yellow Seagull Reader book.

Now, write a blog post where you tell me about a class where you had difficulty--either because the teacher wasn't very helpful in relating the material, or because you simply weren't inclined to grasp it entirely.

For me, it was chemistry. I still wake up in cold sweats...

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A small housekeeping matter:

I'll be grading the blogs about every couple weeks. As I've said before, it's a credit/no credit thing, so not a whole lot to worry about, if you have them done,. Your blog grade for the week will be based on whatever's there when I check, so make sure you're keeping up on your blog. Also, if your name doesn't appear anywhere on your blog, I don't know who you are and can't give you any credit for it, so make sure your name is on there somewhere.

Blog Post #2

Read Joan Didion's "On Keeping a Notebook," on pg. 75 in your yellow Seagull Reader book. Done? Good.

Now I want you to talk about the idea of keeping a notebook (or, as we're 40-some years after she wrote this essay, a blog). Is it about "keeping in touch" as Didion says? Is it usually an exercise in narcissism? Do you keep a notebook (or blog) yourself? How do other forms of social media fit in? Do they change the way we record the world around us in a way that was unavailable to Didion in the 1960s? Or is it accomplishing the same thing?

Since I asked you to do it...

In order to try and bridge the gap created by an online class, I'll let you know a little about myself, too. I'll probably throw in a little about what you can expect in here, as well.

I'm originally from Meriden, Kansas but am currently living in a little town in Eastern Oklahoma. I went to undergrad at Washburn and did grad school at Minnesota State University, Mankato. (In case you were wondering, no that's not the school on Coach—that school isn't real, but our colors were purple and yellow.) I got an MA in English with an emphasis in Technical Communication.

I'm an adjunct instructor at Washburn, which means I'm part-time here. I also teach a photography class at Eastern Oklahoma State College and work from home part-time for the Resource Center for Independent Living, Inc. (RCIL) in Osage City. With this somewhat crazy schedule, I understand the stress of a lot of you part-time students. That also means I hope you'll give me a little latitude on contacting me. Believe it or not, I don't live in the computer, and I'm not chained to the desk. If you email me, please give me some time to get back to you. Try again if you haven't heard from me after a couple days. And I generally don't work on the weekends, so you'll have to wait for a response till Monday.

In my "spare time," I do a little writing and graphic design freelance work, and I'm also involved with the local arts council and several other community organizations.

In general, I'm not really a grammar-Nazi type of teacher. My main concern is that you're able to understand the larger concepts we're exploring in this class, but that doesn't mean you have a free pass on spelling and punctuation and the like. You want your papers to have resonance with your audience, and if your writing sends off a distinct "I don't care for no book learnin'" type of vibe, you're not going to succeed in that manner.

So, essentially, my goal for you is that when you write a paper, you sound like an intelligent, well-reasoned, articulate, college-educated person. Think that's a good goal? Me too.

Welcome to English 300

This is the blog I'll be using for EN 300, Sections VE & VF for the Fall 2011 semester. Make sure you check here every day to keep up with the course work. I'll likely be using this page more than the Angel page, because it seems like an easier online system for everyone to follow.

If you need to contact me, email me at my Washburn address instead of on Angel, since I never remember to check the inbox on there. And give me a little bit of time to respond—contrary to what some students think, I don't live in the computer, nor am I attached to it.

Course materials for your major papers will be posted on Angel, and papers will be handed in through Angel's dropbox. Your first assignment—the summary paper—is on there.

Setting up your blog

This being a writing class, it stands to reason that writing will be a major part of the coursework. The best way to become better as a writer is to write. And write some more. That's why you'll be doing blog posts over the course of the semester—to make sure you get in your writing practice. I'll be having you do about 3 per week, so make sure to check back often (generally Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).

Go to Blogger and follow the instructions there to set up an account. It's a fairly simple process. Yes, you need to set it up through Blogger, and yes, you need to set one up just for this class. When the whole class is on the same platform, it makes it easier for me to track. And it's cool if you already have a blog set up that you use all the time, but I'd like it if your blog where you'll be doing work for this class is specifically for the work we'll be doing here—I don't want to have to wade through posts about your personal life (some of which I probably shouldn't see as your teacher) in order to read the stuff I asked you to do. Cool?

Two EXTREMELY Important Notes:

1. When you set up your blog, put your blog's address as a comment on this post. If you don't, you won't be able to get credit for your blog entries.


2. It's okay if you set your blog to private, but make sure you add me on the allowed viewers list. If you don't, you won't be able to get credit for your blog entries.

Otherwise, I don't care what your blog is called or what your blog looks like (as long as I can read it—if I can't read it, you can't get credit), so feel free to personalize it and make it your own.

One Not-So-Important Note

• This is the only time you should have to leave your blog address and comment on a post. After you do that, you'll just do the blog entries on your own blog (the one you're setting up) and I'll come look at them. Sound like a plan?

Blog posts aren't going to be graded in the traditional sense, where each one will be assigned a letter grade. I'm not going to go crazy on grammar or anything like that, either. Blog posts will be a credit/no credit thing—you either do them or you don't—but that doesn't mean you just need to slap up a couple sentences and call it a day. I'm expecting you to put forth the effort to provide at least a few paragraphs each time, otherwise I'm not going to count it. And if you've checked the syllabus, you know that the blog is worth 15% of your grade, so you can't afford to lose that much of your class grade without it having an impact on the outcome. And just because I'm not strict with the grammar on these doesn't mean I don't expect you to at least make an attempt to write in complete sentences to the best of your ability. Basically, I just want you to sound like you have a college education.

Now that you've got your blog set up and you left your address in the comments on this post (you did that, right?) I want you to make a post on your blog telling me about yourself. That's your first assignment—get your blog set up and make a post by the end of the day Wednesday, August 24. Then make sure to check back every couple days for your blog post topics.