English 101 at Ashland

After reading about fifty of your responses to the M.L. King quotation, I have to admit that my eyes got a bit glazed over, but I began asking myself what I would have written in response to that quote. What follows is more like my notes for a full paper, not a polished essay. First, here is the original prompt: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Dr. King was a pacifist and believed that hatred and prejudice could be fought with love. Do you agree with him? Do you think that in all situations a peaceful response is the correct one? As a teacher, I want to deal with two things that seemed to cause a lot of fuzzy thinking in some of those papers I read. The first is a definition problem; the second is a misreading of the prompt (which I must confess I did as well). Definition problem There is a big difference between “hatred” and using necessary force. Police officers ...

I began this blog when the heavy winter storm of January 24–27 closed the college and kept most of us indoors. As I write this on January 29, I realize that we probably still need it. Winter is not over yet, and a lot of us cannot get to campus every day. I currently have 57 students on my rosters for my three sections. Yesterday’s incoming emails included five requests for excused absences due to sickness, and I know that a couple of teams are on the road and will miss the Friday class. That means something like ten percent of you will not be able to attend. The Wednesday session of 101-B had only 10 of the 18 students present. Winter will continue to fight us. What to do about it One of the great problems of college courses—and everyone has the same problem—is that the schedule is very tight. We only have fifteen weeks and a ton of material we must get through, so we simply cannot take a day off. You cannot take a day off either. Even if your c...

As I write this on Tuesday morning, we are officially back to normal operations. Things are not quite “normal” yet for many of us: Very extreme cold (plus wind chill) is our future for several days, so protect yourself. If you are a commuter, I expect you to make your own decision about whether you can safely drive to campus, and if you don’t think it’s a good idea, please email me. Between the cold weather and the possibility that country roads still aren’t clear, driving might be a challenge. I am not 100% sure I will be able to make it to campus. I haven’t been outside my apartment since Friday, and I live on a dead-end street at the very edge of the City of Mansfield. (I can see the line from my bedroom window, about fifteen feet from my bed.) It is a street with many apartments, home to hundreds of people, but we really are the edge of the world. No snow plowing yet. I will do my best, but my car is not made for pushing through deep snow. Watch your email to see whe...

As I think about the Artificial Intelligence (AI) problem, I am convinced of two things: First that relatively few of you sat down in your senior year of high school and said “I think I will just cheat my way through college,” and second that AI is a desperation move for many students. Nobody taught them how to write (perhaps because nobody in their high school knew either), and now in college they need to actually produce something to pass their courses, keep their scholarship, and stay on the team. I put this semester together with the idea that if we start back at the very beginning and work on the root problem—how to actually write things—that will be the best way to help you. The “Poison Fish” reading (From Ken Macrorie’s Telling Writing ) came across my desk a dozen years ago, and it was a breath of fresh air. So many of my students struggled with writing in a natural voice—often they did sort of an imitation of legal language (“hereinunder” and “heretofore”) or...

The university just canceled classes for Monday, January 26, so we can all hide out, drink hot chocolate, and try to figure out the rest of our lives. I have no idea how much longer the snow emergency will last (and some news outlets think we might be looking at several days), so I am using this somewhat more human way to communicate. Better than email. Academic stuff As I said Friday, college class schedules are tight enough that we cannot simply take a day off. (I have been grading your in-class papers this weekend, so I know what it’s like to do a working vacation.) You have two main tasks for our course: Begin drafting your “Memorable Teacher” paper. Keep up with your daily Blackboard reading. You would be really wise to pace yourself—and keep up with all your reading for your other courses as well. Perhaps you could simply follow your usual daily schedule of classes, but do it in your bedroom with your computer. Non-academic stuff I just looked out the back door (4 PM...