Hello from Holden Beach

Dear class,

I am writing to let you know that I am at Holden Beach, NC this week, sharing a cottage with my wife's parents, brothers, and their families. I had been told that the cottage had internet access, but that has turned out not to be the case. I have been able to mooch off the neighbors' wireless networks at times, but the connection is slow and intermittent. Holden Beach is pretty undeveloped, which is really nice unless you need to find dependable internet access!

I will try to read and reply to your blog posts this week, and attempt to join our chat session on Thursday. I am not fully confident that I will be able to join or stay in the chat, however. Please plan to participate in the chat session, and be ready to share your own ideas about the readings (in case I cannot share mine). I have confidence in your ability to talk about the readings, after having read your blogs! I am sorry for any inconvenience my slow or failing connection may cause.

I will send this announcement out via email, and I hope that everyone will receive it before Thursday.

I have enjoyed reading your blog posts on the reading assignments! Many of you are doing a very good job of focusing on a specific text, quoting and exploring specific passages from it, and speculating on what the passages mean and how they relate to other texts we have read. Remember, as a general rule, to "say more about less" in your posts. Think about how to dig deeper into a more narrow topic, rather than making broader, sweeping generalizations.

I am concerned, however, about the rate at which you are posting. Several of you have yet to post on the readings, and few of you are on track to complete 20 posts by the original assigned date of Friday, June 26. Therefore, as we discussed at our last chat session, I am extending the deadline for the posts until Monday, June 29. I hope this extension will help those of you taking other Summer Session I courses to complete the posts after that session is finished. I do not intend to extend the deadline for the comments or the research paper, however.