English 102 at Ashland

Here is an approach to using MS Word Online without getting lost in that strange template which seems to be a paper about exotic birds, written by Rama Gokhale. I wrote this to avoid some of the problems you might run into, beginning with the whole “Paragraph Styles” issue. (I simply left them out.) There are at least six current versions of MS Word, and they differ a lot in their appearance and the User Interface. This discussion only applies to the online version you can get through the AU Copilot link. Note: Most Windows keyboards have an Enter key. Most Apple keyboards have a Return key. They are the same. Open Microsoft Word and click the blue Create a blank document box. In the upper left, you will see “Document X” (where X is the number of documents you have created). Double-click those words and type a name for the file, then press the Enter/Return key. (Note: If you don’t do this, all of your files will be titled ...

First, the rules The material below is only about page formatting. I suggest you go to Noodletools or some other reliable resource to get the details of capitalization, punctuation, and so forth. The “References” drop-down menu has a lot of other suggestions, but I have not tried them out. The official Microsoft template (that paper on exotic birds, written by Rama Gokhale) is wrong, but if you are using it you can follow the instructions below. The good news is that MLA and APA work exactly the same way as far as page layout goes. That bibliography page (MLA calls it “Works Cited.” APA calls it “References.”) always starts a fresh sheet after the main content of your paper. It is always the same typeface, type size, and line spacing as the body of your paper. The individual items are always alphabetized by the first item in the entry (usually the last name o...

Last Friday, I visited the computer help desk in Patterson 100 to ask some questions about printing and other computer-related issues. Here is what I learned, in no particular order. Printing They no longer recommend printing from your personal computer. The official computer application you must use is unreliable. Instead, they recommend printing from a university-owned computer, which is connected more directly to the printer. One way to do this is to save your file to a flash drive and plug it in. Another way, if you are using Google Docs or Microsoft Word Online might be to simply open the file on the college computer and print from there. (I have no way to test that out.) Microsoft applications Microsoft Copilot: When the new Microsoft setup was rolled out a couple of years ago, we were told that Copilot was the only real way to get into your email, Word, etc. I was totally unthrilled by the idea that your fi...

My students sometimes get frustrated because the Blackboard Gradebook does not really reflect their grade. Here is why that happens. These are the items that go into calculating your final grade: Major assigned papers Attendance (including whether you are showing up late) Short assignments such as quizzes and participation in peer editing, etc. I do keep track of your grades in my own computer spreadsheet. For the Major assigned papers, posting the grade on Blackboard is an extra step, and sometimes I get busy—but the grade on your rubric markup sheet is the one that governs anyhow. If you revise a paper, I try to remember to update the Blackboard item, but the only number I am paying attention to is the one on my computer spreadsheet. Attendance is tricky for two reasons: one is that I have more categories than “Present” and “Absent” (I also have categories for sleeping in class and traveling with the team...

Your first major essay is due Friday, so here are a few last-minute rules about submissions in our course: The paper is due at 11:59 PM. (I could not do 12:00 because computers cannot figure out whether 12:00 is noon or midnight.) If you miss that deadline, you can still submit, but the late penalty discussed in the syllabus applies. I have set the number of attempts to “infinite,” so if you upload a draft in the morning and have a better idea in the afternoon, just load the new one. The only one I will read is the most recent. I have disabled the option of typing the whole thing raw into the Blackboard drop box. (That causes trouble for both of us and does not allow you to show where your paragraphs are.) You will have to figure out how to type something in a word processing program and upload it. If you decide to use the “Share” button in Google Docs or MS Word Online, I might...

Stuff that just isn’t true A lot of fake news circulates in high school concerning college life. Even though you are not exactly newcomers to the college life, these ideas may still be in the back of your head. You need to ignore them. “College attendance doesn’t count” Yes it does, in two ways. In our course (and in many courses) attendance is part of the grade, and unexcused absences count against you. And obviously, if you weren’t here and the teacher said something you need, that hurts too. Some teachers don’t appear to take attendance, but they really can—they just know who is supposed to be in their small classroom. (I’m not that good. I will usually call roll.) You only think that absences don’t count against you because we don’t have an assistant principal phoning your mother. You are an adult now, and you should know how much absences hurt your grade. “Showing up late is how I assert my independence” ...

Almost every bit of printed information in this course will come through the Blackboard Learning Management System (LMS). I assume you learned how to use it during orientation, but just in case you missed that part, here is a quick access guide. There are a lot of ways to get to the first entry point. Here is one that works. You are already in our blog, so go back to the home page and look in the upper left for the little three line thing ☰ (it is called a hamburger). Click that to open the sidebar and find Our English Course. Now click Blackboard Log-in . The username and password are the same ones you use for Ashland University email. If you cannot get in using these, your next step is to talk to the IT people in the library or Patterson Hall. Once you are in, you are faced with (unfortunately) a very confusing screen which has little to do with you. On the left, in the dark grey area, click Courses. Th...

The word “syllabus” is one of those specifically academic words (perhaps your first) that only means something in college. You did not have one in high school, though a good teacher had a lesson plan and probably a set of personal rules and regulations. I have intentionally made our syllabus very complete, probably more complete than the ones you will meet in other courses. This is because I assume you are new to the college game and I want to give you a good overview of the sort of requirements you must face. In a way, the syllabus is a legal contract between you (the student) and me (the representative of Ashland University). When a dispute comes up between me and a student, the first question my supervisor asks is “Was it in the syllabus?” If you have ever dealt with union contracts, a college syllabus will make more sense. A word about audience On your first pass through, you will notice a lot of jargon and technical language. This is because—surp...

I just received an email from Dr. Grady, the Director of Composition, with this paragraph. (I assume you already knew this material, but I am posting it here so we are all on the same page.) Please note if you have student-athletes in your classes that coaches and the athletics’ staff want to be alerted to any issues asap—the student-athletes are required to inform their professors of any sanctioned absences due to game participation. Student athletes are NOT permitted to miss class for practice, advising, or photos or other team-related events that are not directly related to scheduled games where they are playing. Normally you will get some kind of paperwork from your coach, telling you when the excused absences will occur. I want to see that. When this email refers to “any issues,” I take that to mean such things as being habitually late, missing deadlines for paper submission, getting lost in one’s phone, or dishone...

Here is the problem everyone faces when they enter college. For twelve years or so, you were in school and it all felt the same: you came in, sat there for several hours (maybe moving from one room to another), then you got to eat lunch, then went back to a classroom and sat there for a few more hours before they let you go home. If you messed up, you had to face the assistant principal and your parents. And some school districts were very poorly run—they truly did not care greatly about some things. If you could get through the day without committing a felony, that was a success in their eyes. Now, suddenly, you are in college, and all those rules have changed. First problem: It just doesn’t feel like school. You spend a lot less time sitting there. Fifteen credit hours is a pretty standard load for freshmen, which means that you might be in class only three or four hours per day. It is too easy to feel like the rest of the day is vacatio...

One really important part of my life is the journal I write in several times a week. (I like to say that it is cheaper than a psychiatrist and nearly as effective—and I really do believe that.) I keep several, for different purposes: one is the day journal, which usually gets about a page when I go to the coffee house for a morning muffin, about three times a week; another is specifically church-related stuff; yet another (three, actually) relate to the three English courses I usually teach. These last ones, the church journal and the English course journals, might go several weeks without an entry. The key idea is to get used to putting your ideas on paper. I like to look back sometimes and see where I was a month or six months ago. Sometimes that is very encouraging. Here are some of my personal rules about my journal. It’s very private. I do not want you reading it without permission. (On the other hand, I am aware that my kids ...

Academic Integrity—plain old honesty—is a big deal at Ashland, and I will hit the topic several times as the semester begins. (You will probably get tired of hearing me talk about it.) At least two reasons are behind my focus on this topic. “My high school teachers didn’t care.” I hear this one all the time. I take it to mean one of three things: the student is lying to me, the high school teacher was a fool, or (probably the most likely) the public schools didn’t have a meaningful way to enforce the rules. None of these is a good sign. Ashland University might be a tremendous change for these students. The teachers and administrators really do care here, and we do not have any obligations to keep dishonest students. “No harm, no foul.” We probably inherited this one from athletics: if the referee didn’t see you do it and you didn’t actually injure the other guy, everything is OK. The peopl...

The coming semester is very nailed down now. (You can follow the Course Content link on the left to get the complete details.) Every semester is a challenge because the calendar moves around (Thanksgiving in the Fall and Easter in the Spring are never in the same place as last year) and because college requirements change. One thing I have never quite understood is why the Academic Integrity Policy , which is foundational to a lot of our work, needs a completely different web address every couple of years. I can understand adding new rules, for example concerning Artificial Intelligence, but why put it in a dfferent place? Anyhow, I think I caught them all. If you click on a link and it doesn’t work, go to our syllabus for the real rules. I am looking forward to the semester. As always, the stress in 102 will be on research and critical thinking—and that is where the real enjoyment lies. I have said it before: start a notebook and star...

During this last month Look carefully at your class schedule. Mistakes happen, and you will find it much easier to correct them in the week or two before classes start. Do a campus walk-through. We are a small campus, but we are still big enough to be confusing. Some buildings are known by more than one name. (A great example is the building our class is in: commonly called Bixler, it’s on the campus map as “14 Bixler Hall; Center for the Humanities (CFHB),” and it shows up in your computer list as “Center for Humanities Bixler.”) Your Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule is different from your Tuesday-Thursday schedule. Walk both of them and actually find the rooms. Get an eye exam. Don’t laugh. At least one student in every section I teach sits in the back, squinting and struggling to see the board. If you need glasses, get them. Wear them. They don’t look weird. ...

After you leave my tender care, you will probably need to write some sort of research paper fairly often. The interesting thing is that, depending upon your path, there are two completely opposite kinds of research paper, and you might need to know how to do both. No freedom whatsoever—do exactly what the boss says. This is typical of the business report. The boss says, “Write a report on the feasibility of building a new factory in Smallville.” The topic is prescribed. Boss wants to know the pros and cons, wants it laid out cleanly with good reasons, and wants your conclusion about whether the factory is a good idea. Not only that, but the format and structure of the report (including all the summaries and such) is prescribed. These things are the meat-and-potatoes of business writing, and if you are a business major, I strongly suggest you take a business writing course so you can learn how to do them. The sky is the l...

Background Beginning about 1980, we got enthralled by computers, the academic world more than anyone else. We got the idea that nobody would ever write anything by hand again and computers would be our only way of communicating. Ohio public schools stopped teaching children handwriting because they were convinced that everything would be done by machine and picking up a pen would become an ancient, useless skill like churning butter. I see the results of this attitude every semester: If I give a quiz in class, half of the students do not have pen or pencil, and I suspect that they do not even own them. If we do an in-class writing exercise, several students will be shaking their hands in pain after five minutes. You would think they had stuck their hands into a fire. If a student must miss a class session, I get an email with the incredibly insulting question: “Did we do anything in class?” It would never d...

Any good musician, athlete, or artist will tell you the same thing: good equipment and setup are extremely important. They all believe in good quality specific tools, so I’m going to send you to the store. Walmart or Target (or the campus bookstore when we are back in session) should have everything you need. (By the way, I want to keep this project very inexpensive.) Pencils, pens, etc. A couple of common yellow #2 pencils would be a good choice (though you would have to figure out a way to sharpen them). Rollerball pens are also very good for what we are doing. There are several good brands, but I like the Pilot Precise V5 Rollerball Pen (you can get a package of seven in a variety of colors for about sixteen bucks). You might like to buy a single pen and try it out; if you don’t like it, you can try something different. Avoid ballpoints, especially the cheap give-aways from the bank. (The lady at my bank says she always brings in her o...

Years ago, I knew a guy who tried to learn tap-dancing by reading a book. It didn’t go too well. He had the history and the theory (sort of) but not the moves and rhythm. We have the same problem with this blog item: I can share some tips and tricks and tell you of some problems I have faced, but handwriting is a very physical skill and a lot of what you need will come from just watching someone do it (and watching yourself for places you can improve). But we have to begin somewhere, so here we go. Personal disclosure: I wasn’t taught very well either, so I began with two really big mistakes. I held the pen in a death grip so tight that my hand was sore after just a small amount of writing (and I destroyed several cheap fountain pens before I learned to lighten up). Not only that, but I somehow got the idea that the goal was to write very fast. So here is the first rule: Relax! Chill a bit! What we are trying to make Seventy-five or a hundred ye...

A little background Years ago, the in-class handwritten exam was standard in almost every college course. Across Ashland University, we are returning to that sort of assignment, and many other colleges are doing the same, to assess what students can do without ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or any other machine doing the writing. What do you know? That’s the question we are working on. Here is my advice for doing well on these tests. Before the test It’s always OK to ask beforehand what sort of test it will be. If you are asked to discuss course content (lectures, reading, and so forth), spend some time reviewing your notes. Bring your own pen and paper. Bring extras—pencil points break and pens run out of ink. If your instructor has special requirements (blue book, for example), be sure to bring the right stuff. A good night’s sleep will help a lot. You probably do not want to tank up on coffee. ...

We are halfway through the summer (about six weeks until classes begin at Ashland), and if you are like me, you have not done much thinking about college yet. We need to begin getting our brains back into gear though. Quality reading this summer will help you a lot, and it does not have to be school stuff. In fact, it shouldn’t be. I am about halfway through Fahrenheit 451, and I admit that it is sometimes heavy going. It does stretch one’s mind, a good thing to do. You might prefer a collection of short stories. Write an actual paper letter to someone. We will be doing a lot of in-class handwriting this Fall, so you might as well get into practice. The Post Office can sell you an envelope if you do not have one. You know that you will need some preparation for Fall: new clothing, getting the computer fixed, etc. Might as well do it now and do it gradually. (If your computer needs service, you don...

Any time I tell someone I teach college English, I get the same question. Not “How do you get through reading all those papers?” Not “Are students less prepared than they used to be?” Not even “Freshmen are a fun bunch, aren’t they?” No, the question is always “What are you doing about Artificial Intelligence?” It’s a fair question, and it’s being asked on every college campus in the country. Before I get around to answering it, I want to deal with a couple of other questions. Why is A.I. so appealing? I don’t think most of my students sat down in April and said to themselves, “I think I’ll cheat my way through college.” The problem, though, is that many high schools have not done much with teaching students how to actually write things (your teachers may not have known either), and then you get to college and you’re in ...

One of my little projects this summer is finding some music to fill the ten minutes or so before the class begins. I have used YouTube “Ambient Music” in the past, but it is often computer-generated and forgettable. This time around I am looking for some genuine quality. It would be nice to do themes, about a week long. Perhaps one week of Beethoven and another of very young musicians and another of opera in public places. Maybe one of bluegrass and one of stride piano. I have a couple of reasons for doing this. One is that I believe an “educated person” knows more than simply how to punctuate a sentence correctly, and this is a great moment to broaden your horizons. (A while back, I used a movement from Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” for “gap music.” One of my students commented that it is now his favorite piece.) The other is that I think a good teacher transmits more than facts: I want to invite y...

I first ran into this Ray Bradbury novel when I was in high school—a very long time ago. Recently, when I was buying a graduation gift for a granddaughter, I was browsing the shelves at Barnes & Noble and saw a 60th anniversary edition on the shelf. Just had to get it. (I think I have an older paperback copy somewhere, but this book seemed to deserve my time.) The title of the book refers to the temperature at which book paper bursts into flame. The book is set in some distant future when all the houses are fireproof and the government wants to control everything people think, so one of the best strategies is to burn books. Firemen (the book’s central character is a fireman.) no longer have water in the tanks of their fire trucks. They have kerosene. And their job, if anyone is suspected of owning books, is to go to the home of the offender and burn everything in sight. I remember reading this as a teenager and never really recovering ...