Hey, you–Reader. Who are you?

To write publicly is to suppose a reader. And this space, my friends, is a public space. People will read what you post here. Whether by accident or by instruction, somebody will stumble over to this little page and have a go at the language here. Are you ready for them?

What is it that you want from a text when you sit down to read it? No, really; make a list. Do you want information, entertainment, explanation, supposition, escape, experience? Do you want to know that you’re not the only person on the planet who thought that or who experienced this? Do you want to be challenged, inspired, impassioned, convinced? When do those desires change? Why?

You are a reader. You are a writer. And capital W Writers are, for the most part–though some will say differently, and those few I distrust immensely–readers, too. When you sit down to draft a piece a writing, how can you not consider the person one the other side of the page or screen, the one who will (to paraphrase Margaret Atwood) have to decode the string of symbols, slashes and dots you have composed and left for them?

Why write? (via Tales of the Caravanserai)

Why are we scrambling about, zipping in and out of portals and log in sites? What is it we have all gathered here to do?

Oh yeah . . . to write. Check out what one of my colleagues is thinking about this little gen. ed. req.

Some brief reflections on writing from, admittedly, a writing nerd and a photography geek. If writing ain’t your thing, consider this for a moment: People get themselves forgotten sometimes. They fall out of history. Their stories vanish. And we forget. If we’re lucky, they leave behind something, maybe a photograph. You’ve probably seen the “Thunderbird” photograph, for instance, which depicts six men in Civil-War era uniform standing shoulder-t … Read More

via Tales of the Caravanserai

Eve Ensler’s “Suddenly, my body . . .

Attention Authors…

Murphey’s law rules all… or at least it seems to run the Internet. My home access is kaput for the evening (stupid Comcast) so I will be granting access to the rest of you tomorrow morning.

If you are in the MWF class, bring the hard copy of your post and an e copy to class. We’ll tackle this blog posting business in class. If you’re in the MW class, bring your hard copy Monday, but you should be able to post electronically tomorrow morning.

Okay, get some sleep! Like I said in the email, no one will be penalized for late posts on this one.

(Also, I do not recommend posting from your phones… it’s such a pain!!!)

Cheers!

What not to do

Hey. I’m a teacher. In ten years, I’ll be . . . teaching.

This is an example of a terrible introductory post! So, you know, don’t submit something like this. Do, however, remember to add your post to the “Encounters” and “Invitations” categories and create two tags.

Also, you should probably not comment on this post . . . just sayin’. . .

Utopia!, or Welcome to Engl 104 at NIU

CONGRATULATIONS!! You’ve won the English 104 lottery! I’m not bragging really; I’m just very excited about what we’ll be working on this semester: maintaining a class blog, reading and posting to other NIU English 104 class blogs, and participating in many of the conversations people are having out “there” in that spatially and temporally odd place . . . CYBERSPACE . . .  (For maximum fun and nerdiness, try to say that last part with a kitschy, ’50s sci-fi voice over emphasis.)