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...

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...

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...

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 ...