English 1108--Comp I

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Eng 1108 HOME PAGE Welcome to Eng 1108--Fantasy and Myth!  I am glad to be working with you in this introduction to college writing.  In this particular section of 1108, you'll be choosing from among some of the most outstanding recent fantasy books to read, and then writing about them. Check out all three columns on this page to get started. Then read or thoroughly skim the other pages of this website: they are listed on bar right under the title of the page, above, and also (repeated) at the beginning of the left-hand column on every page.  If you have questions, let me know!  You can always contact me by clicking on "Contact Richard" in the upper-right corner of each of these web pages. How does this website work? This website: It has about a dozen web pages.  The main ones are above or on the left--just click on what you want.  This middle column: This middle section on each page is different. It always has the main new content that you should read. The left column: It always is exactly the same on every web page in this web site.  It lists the main pages (just like the top bar does), and it also has other especially important pages and links. The right column: It is different on each page.  It has useful links and also helpful tips for taking the course. -------- What does Eng 1108 involve? As you may know, this course is the first college-level writing course - sometimes called "College Comp."  This course provides you with the basics of writing college essays and gives you a beginning introduction to research skills.  I plan to work you hard, but I also try to make class fun and the assignments interesting.  If you are willing to work hard, I can turn you into a much better writer.  So, please get ready for a hard but often interesting and sometimes fun ride on the roller coaster of writing.  By the time you are done--if you stick with the course and earn at least a "C"--you will be able to say that you have learned a lot and made all of the rest of your college writing easier.  For example, one of our other English professors, Nick Nownes, was talking with a former student of his who had gone on to a degree at the University of Minnesota.  According to Nick, the student "just finished a political science degree, and he was saying that his instructors would periodically drop big research papers on him--'I need eight to ten pages!'--sometimes a quarter of the way or even later in the semester, more or less without instructions,...just a topic and a due date.  (Sometimes the papers would be on the syllabus, and sometimes they wouldn't.)."  Nick's student was very glad that Inver Hills' two research writing courses had prepared him well. I, myself, have been teaching courses like this one for over thirty years, and I still very much enjoy teaching them.  In fact, composition happens to be my special field of English.  I have published several articles in academic journals and have made two or three dozen conference presentations about the teaching of writing.   I also have had over 100 publications of  popular-magazine articles and fiction stories, scholarly essays, photographs, and even a few poems in magazines and journals.  (Click here for my resume or a sample fiction story.)  As you can guess, I really love writing--and I love teaching writing--and working with writing students--too.  My reputation as an instructor is that I'm "tough but fair."  If you're willing to work hard for me, I can promise you that you will learn significant new writing skills. If you ever have any questions, just ask me before or after class, email me, come to my office, or call me at home.  I look forward to working with you! :-) Richard Where can you email me? Please don't email me at my school email, as I only check it once or twice a week.  Instead, email me at my professional email address, which I check almost every day: "richard at jewell dot net."  However, first convert it to regular email form: e.g., sue@smith.net.  (Why am I printing it this way?  There are software programs called "spiders" that automatically find email addresses on Web sites and sell them to junk-email advertisers. I'm already receiving several hundred junk emails per week. Thankfully, most of them are blocked. But I don't want more.! So, I print my email this way on a Web page. That keeps the automatic programs from finding my email.) Disabilities IHCC faculty and staff are glad to meet or exceed the legal requirements for helping people with disabilities. You can see a description of IHCC's disabilities services by Googling "IHCC Disabilities Services." In addition, my classes have no tests, so no accommodations for testing are needed. If you have any other questions, please let me know. Also, I'd like you to know that any disability you report to any faculty member will not be shared in any way with other students. I welcome your letting me know about your disabilities, as sometimes this helps me teach you better. Return to top.