English 101 at Ashland

When I first introduced this essay, I commented that it was one I encountered in my own freshman year. Reflecting on the Scudder article itself (not on your papers), two things stand out. The first, which I got immediately and which many of you landed on as well, is the value of deep, direct observation, whether of a biological specimen or of a text. No matter how much you think you know, there is always something more. A very recent observation: This morning’s gospel reading in the Episcopal church was the incident in which someone asked Jesus if it is OK to pay taxes to Caesar. An event which many of us know inside-out. Jesus asks for the coin which would be used for paying taxes. Until today, two things had never dawned on me. One was that a good Jew would not normally be carrying a coin with the graven image of the emperor, a violation of the Second Commandment. Another is that they must have had two kinds of money—Roman and Jewish. ...

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...

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 tomorrow, 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 mig...

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...

Later in the course, I will have a lot to say about the difference between hard skills and soft skills . Briefly, hard skills are things you can write an instruction sheet for: changing a tire, writing a computer program, or taking blood pressure. Soft skills are all about attitude: how you approach the world and the work you do there. That’s what this list covers. Interestingly enough, in both the academic world and the world after college, soft skills determine your success more often than hard skills. I can teach you how to run a printing press or drive a stick shift much more easily than I can teach you how to be a cooperative part of the workforce, but that doesn’t mean the soft skills are unimportant. One of my friends who owns an electrical contracting company says the rule is “Two strikes and you are out”—late to work twice and you are fired. This list comes from a website for athletic coaches , but I think ...