To: English 1301 dual-credit students
Via: angryverbs.blogspot.com
Cc: Stacy Gillis, JHS counselor, sgillis@jasperisd.net
From: M. Hall, mhall46184@aol.com
Subject: Textbook and other needful things
Date: 17 July 2014
Dear Students:
The one assigned textbook for our English 1301 class is:
The Bedford Handbook,
9th Edition
Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers
Bedford / St. Martin’s
Boston & New York
© 2014
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4576-0802-5
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4576-0802-8
I have always recommended used textbooks for the sake of
thrift; however, this year’s Bedford revisions
are far beyond cosmetic, and so you will need this undoubtedly expensive edition. Unless the 9th edition was in use
this summer, I don’t think you will find a used copy. However, you are welcome to go halves with a
classmate and share a copy. Also, search
the ‘net book shops now; sometimes they offer a book a little cheaper. Use the ISBN numbers for a quicker search. The book will of course be for sale at the Angelina
College Jasper Teaching Center, but I don’t know when.
Happily, the book is good, and will be a useful reference
for you for some years since among its many worthy features it covers the MLA,
APA, and Chicago formats. You might want
to begin with “Academic Reading and Writing,” pp. 107 – 198.
The instant you begin your search for this book on the
Orwellian telescreen you will begin receiving predatory advertisements for
other materials – don’t buy them. For
class you will need only this book, a notebook of your choice, lots of writing
paper, and lots of pens with black or blue ink.
About those pens - if you have to ask if a shade of ink
is acceptable, it isn’t. Black or blue –
the choices are that simple. Note the
plural – pens. A student would no more
attend class with one pen than he or she would take to the deer stand with one
bullet. Pencil or variant inks are never
acceptable in an English class for adults, and submitting an in-class
assignment written in pencil or ink other than black or blue is a zero. Pleas such as “I haven’t got a pen” or “No
one would lend me a pen” are not only annoying but futile. You have been told; make the pens happen.
We begin each class with a journal writing assignment,
and I will provide cheap notebooks for that purpose. If you wish to bring a nicer blank book for
this daily assignment you are welcome to do so, but remember that everyone reads
everyone else’s daily entries.
BlackBoard is not available to anyone until the first
class day; I have no idea why. I find it
unaccountably creaky and whimsical when it works at all, and it sometimes
rejects my entries. Instead of wasting
time with BlackBoard, access my lessons and messages to students at
angryverbs.blogspot.com.
Until term begins the only way of contacting me is
through my email: mhall46184@aol.com (my
Angelina email account stopped functioning last year) or Mr. Gillis. I will be pleased to respond to emails that
are written in a complete and professional business letter format (this is a
writing class, after all), and with adequate information in the subject line (“your
English 1301 student” will do). I always
reply to student emails unless the spelling, punctuation, usage, and content
are childish, but since my Verizon service is erratic, limited, and expensive I
don’t open the (accursed) Orwellian telescreen often. I now possess a DumbPhone, but again the
service is limited and very expensive. As
a result, my response to you will probably not be immediate.
I look forward to meeting you when term begins. Don’t be late for class, and do sit up front –
don’t be shy!
Cheers,
Mr. H
No comments:
Post a Comment