NOTE: This document is an addendum to your course outline.

SHOULD YOU TAKE THIS COURSE?

For English 111 and 112, the College Catalog states that "College reading and writing competence are required." This means that your placement test indicates that you do not have to take Developmental Reading (English 05) or Developmental Writing (English 03).

Eng 111 and 112 should be taken before Eng 115 or 238. For English 241, 242 and 244, the College Catalog states that the prerequisite is English 112 or divisional approval.

However, to be successful in any cyber course, you must have the following attributes as well:

• The ability to read and follow directions.

• Selfreliance and persistence in using a computer and searching a web site for answers to questions e.g. "When is this paper due?" "How do I get my written work from my computer to the teacher?"

• The ability to work independently and to meet deadlines.

• Good grammar and editing skills. These cyber courses are not designed to meet the needs of developmental writing students. If your grammar and editing skills are weak, you should reconsider enrollment in these courses.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO TAKE THIS COURSE?

• Textbooks. The titles of required and suggested texts are given on the course outlines.

• Access to the Internet

• E-mail account

• A word processing program

• A current English handbook which includes MLA guidelines for documenting electronic sources. I will refer you to The Little Brown Handbook regarding editing, grammar, documentation, etc.

• It is desirable, but not mandatory, that you have a home page on the web. Space for a home page is usually made available by your Internet Service Provider. If not, you may get free space for a home page at a commercial site on the Internet such as Xoom or Geocities. These or similar sites also provide free E-mail.

• Implied by the items listed above is a minimal level of proficiency with computers. The "Serf" program that I use to deliver my courses is very user friendly and provided that you read and follow the directions for logging on, you should not have any problems. My responsibility is to see that the Serf program is available and that you have a functioning Serf name and password. Beyond that I cannot help you. But some technical problems with your computer hardware or software, your Internet connection or something else will inevitability occur, and you should be prepared to deal with them yourself or have someone to call on.

1. Send me an email message so that I can communicate with you. Tell me which course you are registered for and include your social security number so that I can create a student account for you on Serf.

2. Read the document "How to Log on to Serf" and follow the directions.

3. Get yourself oriented to Serf and the course materials. Serf is very reliable and easy to navigate, but because it is new, it will take some getting used to. So as a first step, explore the Serf Syllabus and the Discussion Forums. Read the screens to see what your options are at every point. Read the course outline and look at all of the documents related to the course. The Links Index gives access to all course documents.

4. Read the instructions for the autobiographical sketch. Write you sketch and submit it to the proper forum. This exercise will familiarize you with the procedure for copying and pasting your work into Serf.

Relax. Creating cyber courses and constantly revising a web site is complex, and I am sure I have made some mistakes. Just report them to me by email. You will not run into any problem which cannot be fixed, and I will always try to correct errors and reconcile conflicting directions to your advantage. Immediately report any broken links or links that take you to the wrong document.

WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I SUBMIT MY WORK
TO THE WRONG FORUM?

If you submit your work to the wrong forum, go back and submit it to the proper forum. Work which is submitted to the wrong forum does no real harm other then to clutter things up. However, if you are careful, you should not make this mistake. Work which is submitted to the wrong forum or which is submitted to the forum after the deadline has past will not be given credit. Keeping track of all of the incoming work and giving proper credit is a big job and I will not have time to search the discussion forums for late or misplaced work.

USING EMAIL

• Your name

• The class you are registered for (e.g. Eng 111 or Eng 241)

• The subject of the message (e. g. Assignment One)

• Your name

• The class you are registered for (e.g. Eng 112 or Eng 244)

• The number and the name of the assignment (e.g. Assignment One -- Irony or Assignment Two -- The Victorian Period)

• When you are responding to a writing assignment, it is also important to paste the question you are responding to at the top of the page before you begin your answer. This reminds me exacltly what I wanted you to do in the assignment.

• Your initials

• The number of the assignment

• The file extension appropriate for your word processing program. This would either be "doc" for a Microsoft Word file, or "wpd" for a WordPerfect file.

What Happens When You Don't Follow Directions?

Your grade will be affected whenever I have to do a clerical task for you. Sometimes I will announce it, but usually I will not because even typing the reminder "Please remember to name your files following the convention I asked for" is a chore. So rather than wasting time by both renaming your file and then writing you a note about it, I will just do the work and reduce your grade.