English 100 at Ashland

It’s still really early to be thinking of buying a computer, but I know some of you have generous relatives who would love to get you a graduation gift. Fine! Let them! If they want to buy you a new computer, more power to them! For the rest of us, some early advice: If you have a faithful machine that got you through high school, it will almost certainly be just fine for college. All those stickers on the lid are sort of reassuring and give you a sense of being at home. (I will give you advice later for getting Old Faithful ready for the Fall Semester.) Both Apple and Windows computers work very well at Ashland. I use Apple all the time and switch to Windows when I borrow space in the office next door. On the other hand, Chromebooks are not quite enough here. If you already have one, it will get you through our English class, but if you are buying a new machine, look elsewhere. I would avoid the big, expensive gami...

I’m writing this as the semester wraps up. People ask me how I will be spending the summer, and my answer usually disappoints them. It might be fun to go to Paris or London, but, all things considered, I am more likely to travel to Paris, Kentucky, or London, Ohio. (Nice town. Had friends who lived there.) If you are like most of us, you will get a summer job, hang out with friends, and try to pull yourself together for college in the Fall. Here are some suggestions for the next few weeks. Two things are in the back of my mind. The first is that I want these ideas to be low-impact and inexpensive. The second is that I want them to be fun. They should also help you with the getting-ready task: most college instructors will tell you that they would like their students to be better at reading and writing, so maybe summer would be a good time to work on those things as well. First suggestion: Get a library card. Summer is a great time for shade-tree readin...

In 1939, movie-goers were hit with an amazing spectacle. In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and her little dog Toto were swept up by a tornado and blown into the magical land of Oz. Until the moment when she opens the door of the cabin and sees where she landed, every movie was in black-and-white, but when she opens the door, suddenly she is in a land where everything is in brilliant, vivid color. And Dorothy says to her little dog: “Toto, I’ve a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.” College might feel that way. It will be a huge change, but it will be a good one. (After all, Oz was in full color!) I will be writing this blog throughout the summer to help you adjust and get ready for this new land. A few details about this blog: This isn’t an official AU site, and everything here is my own opinion. Because it’s not an AU site, anybody on the Internet can read it, so if you have a friend who is in another English class—perhaps even...