Welcome!

Welcome to the blog for our English 305 course.

I hope that you feel comfortable with this venue, and if you've never blogged before, I hope you'll jump in feet first and learn about it with me.

So what is the purpose of a blog in an English class? (I know you're wondering that.) Well, it's my desire that you will find this to be more inviting, more user-friendly, and even more visually appealing than the boring message boards we've traditionally used through WebCT and Blackboard. Because this is an online course, we won't have the live conversations that you're used to in face-to-face courses. So this, in my opinion, is the next best thing.

I will post the essay assignment prompts to this blog, so make sure that you read the prompts before you begin writing. I will also post a discussion question every week. For each posting, I want you to respond in some way with a post of your own: you can respond to my initial question or prompt, you can respond to other students' responses, or you can generate your own questions requesting response. You can also post parts of your essay so classmates can give you feedback. Essentially, you can ask and/or answer essay-related or research-related questions of any sort.

The only requirement is that your posts must be substantive and must keep the conversation flowing.

If you have any questions at any time, please let me know. Also, questions directed to me personally should be sent to me by email (English305@bak.rr.com). This blog is intended for you to interact more with your classmates than with me.

Please post a quick response to this Welcome note as soon as you have created your profile and logged in, so I will know that you are ready to go.

I'm looking forward to a great quarter!