Ask the Experts

What is your area of expertise? Tell us about something you find interesting and know a lot about, but write in such a way that someone who doesn't know anything about your subject will still find it engaging.

Blog post #2: If you could invite one person, living or dead, to dinner at your house, who would it be and what would you serve them? Expand.

Hmm, who would I invite to dinner? I think I would invite my future wife (whoever she may be), and I'd make something generic, like spaghetti. Here's why: 1. I would meet my future wife, and it would be kind of nice to know who it is. 2. Most people don't have a great aversion to spaghetti, so I may not score on the favorite food category. If not, at least I would not have picked the most hated food by her (unless it was actually spaghetti and then that would stink). 3. I would be able to do the spaghetti and then add to the meal a bit with some warm garlic bread, so I may win brownie points in being able to cook and even cook well.
4. If making the meal turns out to be a complete failure, she may think that was way sweet of me to try to cook for her. I think it's pretty hard to royally mess up on spaghetti though, so that is a safeguard.

Post #1: Your Writing Process

 Tell us about your writing process. Do you have one? Is there a certain place you like to be when you write, or specific tools/resources/snacks/good luck charms you need to have on hand? How do you generate ideas for things to write about? Do you write one draft and then edit, or edit as you go along, or not edit at all? Share some of your best and worst practices for writing. 

Why A Blog?

Congratulations, Minions: You have a blog of your (collective) very own.

Throughout the semester I'll be posting prompts on this blog to which I'd like you to respond. These exercises are to give you some practice in writing to express and enjoy yourself, without having to frantically count your commas or wonder if you're being rhetorical enough.

Blogs are also useful for:

• Getting more input from the class about concepts with which you are struggling
• Ranting and raving about class, assignments, or life in general
• Posting prompts of your own, just to see what happens
• Practicing your writing and rhetoric skills by bringing up and arguing what's important to you
• Advertising performances or campus events you're involved/interested in
• Recommending books or movies you've discovered
• Share what you've been writing, discussing, or thinking with the wider world . . . even people outside class

Only two rules: be on time with your required posts, and be polite.

Because technology is a fickle mistress, please respond to this post with a brief introduction so that I know that you can read and respond without your computer exploding.

Here's mine. I am your teacher, but also still a student myself, so I feel your pain. I have been studying writing and literature since I was three years old, and I love to teach the skills of productive, useful argument . . . not just 'winning.' I served a mission in Busan, South Korea, where the food is very spicy and the number 4 is taboo. I am a geek of the highest order. I'm working towards a master's degree in British Literature, focusing on literary social activism of the mid-Victorian period. 

This is me making my 'mean teacher' face, which is the face you will get if you turn your work in late. Also I will eat your soul.