in class this morning

The main thing we're going to be doing for the first week is making as sure as we can that everybody understands as thoroughly as possible how this course is going to work. Because it's very different from most -- and even from most of mine -- it's important that people have time to consider in detail what's going to happen and how they feel about that. I'll begin, in a few moments, by giving out a printed copy of the course introduction, which is a lengthy document in which I try to say as much as I can about how this course will be conducted and what its aims and methods are -- and about why it's organized this way.

You may already have read an earlier version of this document, on line. It's worth reading it again. Here are some reasons why.

For one thing, (a) I've edited it in the last few days, maybe (I hope) making it clearer. For another, (b) documents are never as clear as I hope they'll be; second readings often help. And, finally (c) often second (or third) readings identify problems or questions you hadn't thought about the first time. It's also worth reading it while thinking about the other folks who didn't get, or read, their email, or who enrolled later, and who may need some help getting clear about it.

In some ways, this course's central intention is to help people learn to read better -- with more engagement, imagination, and resonance -- and part of its strategy is to work with writing as much as possible. I use it like this, for example, as a way to organize the conduct of the course. Hence, most of the structuring of the course will be done through "prompts" like this one, which will be distributed in print, and which will also be available on the course Web and Moodle sites (which you should plan on visiting regularly, since they are integral to the conduct of the course). These prompts will usually, like this one, be pretty discursive; they won't be lists of instructions. I want people to understand why I'm doing what I do. Helping people learn to read this sort of writing is part of my aim, in this and all my courses.

So, to reading. I'm going to structure the process in two parts, one of which begins now, and the second occurs  on Friday morning. Here's how the first part will work.

Take the course introduction away with you, or stay and read it here. Read it with care (as my colleague Thom Parkhill phrases it, "read suspiciously"). Think about what its implications are, how things described abstractly might work in practice, what's not clear, what you'd like to know more about. Imagine what might be confusing for others, even though you think you get it. Make marginal notes. Underline or highlight things. Talk about it with someone else in the class, or someone who's not. Spend as much time as you need. Think about some questions you might ask. Then create a list of as many questions and reactions as you can.

Between now and tomorrow afternoon at 5:00, go back to the document, read through it again, and compose and send an email to the course list -- whose email address is hunt2223@stu.ca -- in which you ask any questions which have occurred to you, or comment on the process, or express any worries or hopes you have. You might respond to someone else's already emailed question by answering, or elaborating, or modifying, it. The list is set up to distribute email to everyone enrolled. Thus you'll get quite a lot of email between now and tomorrow evening. Read the course email that's already come in before posting your own, to avoid duplicating what someone else has already said.

(Note: you need to send mail to the list from your STU email address; the list is set up only to accept postings from that address, in order to keep spammers from advertising their wonderful opportunities and products to us.)

Your first assignment for English 2223, then, is to send an email to the course list before tomorrow evening.

We'll continue the discussion in class Friday morning.