Back when when every freshman at Keene State College used to have to take Essay Writing (our brand of freshman composition), I taught English 101 in the Arts and Humanities division of Keene State College.  This is the page I maintained to provide information and resources to students and other instructors about the course.

I now teach Thinking and Writing, the new interdisplinary integrative studies course that has replaced English 101 at Keene State. The ITW 101 course I teach is called "A Blog of One's Own: Women and Authorship in the Digital Revolution," and you can learn more about it at my main Keene State academic web page http://academics.keene.edu/tmendham/KSC.htm, or at my blog, Tracy's Office at http://itw101.blogspot.com.

If you'd like a glimpse at how I used Blackboard course delivery software in an English 101 class, take a look at the Flash slide show: English 101--A Glimpse Sp 05  (or click on the thumbnail below to advance through a preview).

links

The resources below may be useful to students taking English 101.

Blackboard for Keene State College: Access your grades for the course, and more.

Writer's Reference Online resources at DianaHacker.com to accompany your handbook, A Writer's Reference, by Diana Hacker. Information, sample papers, and best of all, lots of online tutorials and quizzes, most of which offer instant feedback.

The Conscious Reader Online student resources to accompany your text, The Conscious Reader, 10th Edition: there are links to websites related to the readings for each section of the book, and online forms for completing writing exercises and brainstorming activities.

"They Say/I Say" The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing Didn't get the book in time for the first week of class? The publisher's website for the text includes the Introduction chapter, available as a PDF file: Entering the Conversation.

"Letter from the Birmingham Jail" by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Watching TV Makes You Smarter" by Steven Johnson

"How It Feels to Be Colored Me" by Zora Neale Hurston

"The Angel in the House" by Coventry Patmore

"A Homemade Education" by Malcom X

"The God Who Loves You" by Carl Dennis

"The Merits of Meritocracy" by Kevin Finnernan

"Somebody's Baby" by Barbara Kingsolver

"You've Got Blog" by Rebecca Mead

"I Have a Dream" by Martin Luther King (link to mp3 audio as well as text)

"I'm Like a Bird" by Nelly Furtado (Quicktime video)

expert advice

The unedited final words of former English 101 students:

• Letter To Next Year's Class
• Dear Victims of Next Year
• Good Luck!

free software

You're a student! Of course you can't afford to buy Microsoft Office. But that doesn't  mean I can open those Works and WordPerfect files you're trying to send me, either.

Open Office is a free, open source productivity suite like Microsoft Office. I use it and recommend it.

Mozilla Firefox is a free Web browser that protects you from pop-ups, and--they claim--spyware and viruses. I use it and recommend it.

Go and spend money on anti-virus software. Really. It's not worth your while to try and save a few bucks here. Supplement your virus protection by running a spyware detection program on your computer once a week.  I use the free Spybot Search and Destroy. (Download the updates each week before you run the search.) I also use AdAware to protect against "data mining."

Get the free Microsoft Word Viewer 2003 if you have trouble opening my handouts or any other Word, WordPerfect, or Works documents.