How is this going to work?

Although it would be great if everybody had already read the course introduction, I know that most won't have, and I do want to make sure, right from the beginning, that everybody has the best possible understanding of what this course is about and how it will work. So a fair bit of time tonight will be given over to reading and considering the introduction to the course. Usually, we can expect enrolment to change a bit over the first week or so. New people may be joining in, and perhaps others will be deciding that it's not what they wanted after all. So we're going to start in a little more slowly than I usually would, to give people a chance to get on board. On the other hand, we only meet once a week, so we need to use the time we have tonight efficiently.

A bit of background explanation

The discipline of "English" is mainly concerned with language that's written down -- at least that's the way it's been taught since Speech departments split off from English and became something dealt with in a separate department, if at all. Most of the time, there are two kinds of written language in English courses: there is "literature" -- the poems, fiction, and plays that form the focus of our attention -- and there are "essays" about literature, mostly written by students and mostly read only by a teacher.

One of my aims as a teacher is to broaden the range of the kinds of written text we attend to and produce, and also to broaden the range of ways in which people deal with written texts. So, not only is this course about a kind of writing that usually doesn't come into English classes much; it also uses some kinds of writing you may not have experienced.

At the beginning I'm introducing a number of unusual kinds of texts, and inviting you to participate in dealing with them. The first kind of text is the "prompt" -- documents, like this one, in which I explain what I think we ought to do (and often discuss why we're doing it, too).

And, speaking of that, why do I do this? There are lots of reasons; I'll only offer a few of them here, so we don't spend all our time in explanations. More later, as seems appropriate. But the most immediate reasons are:

• that I find it a lot easier to give everybody a good chance to understand what the assignment or task is than I do explaining it orally (you can read at your own pace, and reread if necessary, instead of listening at my pace);
• to make sure everybody has the same chance to remember what I said (everybody gets to keep a copy, and there's one on the course Web site); and
• that by writing it in the first place I find I can think through what I'm planning much more thoroughly (writing is a tool for thinking. I use it a lot).

The course introduction

Because this is very much unlike most English (or other) courses, I'm inviting you to read the Introduction to the Course with some care, and over an extended period of time. In fact, we're going to use an hour or so, right now, for you to read it and respond to it. Between now and 8:15, you should read, carefully and at your leisure, that introduction. You'll need to be on line to do that. If you have a laptop you can do that from the classroom; if not, you can do it in the Dunn Hall lab.

I'll show you how to find online, if you haven't found it already, that document. You can get there by typing this -- http://people.stu.ca/~hunt/27831314/ -- the URL, directly into the Location window of your browser. Or you can navigate there from the main St. Thomas Web page: one path is Current Students / Academic Departments / English / Faculty / Russ Hunt / Courses and teaching -- it's a long way, and a lot of clicks, so you should bookmark it, because you'll need to be going to it regularly.

You may have already read the Introduction: if so, read it again (reading things twice is only rarely a waste of time -- moreover, it may well have been edited since you read it last). Read it responsively. Where you don't understand something, make a note. Where you have a question, write it down. Where you're uncomfortable or confused, write that down, too. Where you're encouraged by something, keep track of that. My colleague Thom Parkhill calls this "reading suspiciously."

When you've read it, you're ready to begin discussing it. We'll start that discussion in writing. We'll do that like this.

When you're done reading take out a sheet of paper (or, if you can get access to printing, start up a word processor) and write for at least ten minutes (just start writing; don't plan, and don't stop till you've produced at least 250 or 300 words) about the document. Keep writing after you've run out of things to say (that's often when the interesting stuff happens). It doesn't have to be organized; it doesn't have to have an introduction, body, and conclusion; don't worry about grammar and spelling, as long as someone else is going to be able to figure out what you're getting at. It doesn't need to be anything other than reflections on reading the course introduction -- questions, confusions, expressions of interest in specifics, explanation of how you understand aspects of it, whatever. The best way to do it is simply to sit down, start writing, and quit after ten minutes. If you're writing by hand, write legibly, because what's going to happen next is we're all going to read whatever everybody else has written.

At 8:30, bring your inkshed (if you've done it before, you'll know that's what we call this kind of impromptu writing) back to the classroom. You'll need a paper copy; we can't do what we're going to do next with onscreen text.

Forward to next prompt
Back to the course introduction
To the list of prompts
To the main course Web site