Final exam prep, finally

Lecture 5-7
1051

Prep for final exam.

The final exam will cover mechanical issues: grammar, sentence structure, pronouns, etc.
The things we have talked about in class.

For instance, does a compound sentence have two independent clauses or two dependent clauses?

Let’s go over a few things and then try a quick quiz:

Dan’s three favorite sentence problems:

Run-on sentence:
Two independent clauses that are joined with no punctuation or incorrect punctuation.
Example:
I went to the store.
I bought a Coke.
Incorrect: I went to the store, I bought a Coke.
Incorrect: I went to the store I bought a Coke.

Correct: I went to the store, and I bought a Coke. (comma and conjunction “and”)
I went to the store; I bought a Coke. (semicolon)
I went to the store. I bought a Coke. (two separate sentences)
Having gone to the store, I bought a Coke. (make one clause dependent)

Sentence fragment (usually tied to another sentence):
I went to the store. Which sold Coke.
Fragments don’t have to be short:
Whenever the climber hiked up to the top of the mountain where he lost his girlfriend one year ago.

Mixed constructions: (using prepositional or other phrases incorrectly as subjects)
By living in America is the way an immigrant can earn a good living.

Robert Duvall playing Bull Meechum is the reason “The Great Santini” was such a popular movie.

The best actor in the movie “Rio Bravo” is the role played by John Wayne.

Commonly confused words:

There/their/they’re

They’re not clapping their hands.
Their not clapping there hands.
They’re not clapping there hands.
Their not clapping they’re hands.

Remember: there=where
their=something belonging to ‘them’
they’re=they are

It’s caught in its own spider web.
Its caught in it’s own spider web.
Remember: If you can say “it is,” use the apostrophe.
If not, it is a possessive pronoun.

Then/than

I am older then my brother.
I am older than my brother.
Remember: then=time (when)
than=comparison

to/too/two
to either means
direction (California to New York)
infinitive (to do, to make, to see)
too either means
also (I want one, too.)
more than necessary (Don’t push too hard.)
two is always the number.

everyday/every day
everyday = commonplace (my everyday dishes)
every day = every single day (if you can use “single,” it’s two words)

Their with a singular subject (the following are all wrong)
The student went home to their parents’ house.
Somebody left their backpack on the floor.
The baseball team won their game against Castleton.


Verb-subject agreement:

If anyone else is interested and want to volunteer, please let me know.

Best essay ever

David Segal argues in a New York Times article that the economic crisis will put the brakes on the American way of life, whether we like it or not. He seems to think that it is a good thing but says ending the “American urge” to upgrade will be difficult because flagrant spending “is so neatly woven into the double helix of our DNA that we hardly notice it.” Segal is right. Buying bigger and better things stops us from being financially responsible.

Greed is the primary reason we’re in this economic mess today. People kept buying things because they wanted more. They put it on credit and went into debt. Heavy debt hurt people financially. Many people have lost those bigger and better homes that they bought but could not afford. You can only upgrade so much. Eventually, the upgrades have to end. That’s economic gravity – what goes up must come down.

The end of the upgrading frenzy will teach people what is necessary. They will be forced to live within their means. For example, a woman might really like an Acura but the payments say she can really only afford a G6 – and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Constant upgrading is wasteful. We keep buying brand new things over and over while people around the world cannot afford the basics.

If we end the constant upgrading, we will stop sending our money to other countries. A majority of our “stuff” is made in other countries. If we spent our money at home, we would create more jobs in America.

Some might argue that our economy should not be controlled and that it needs to flourish. It is true that spending money on newer and more expensive products creates jobs. But those jobs aren’t always American jobs. If I buy a Mercedes 500S, who benefits? A German.

Conclusion goes here.

Assignment for Thursday, April 23 -- updated

The class won't meet on Thursday, April 23.
Instead, find two sources that you plan to use for your torture essay and enter them here on the blog in APA style as reference list citations. Here's an example:
Kantor, J. (2008, April 6). Vocal on war, silent on son’s service. The New York Times. Pp. A1, A18.
(note the second line should be indented but Blogger won't let me.)

Another (from a searchable database):
Name, Initial. (Year). Title of the article; only capitalize first word. Title of the Journal in italics, 26(8), 110-112. Retrieved April 22, 2008, from Academic Search Premiere database.

Updated Error-Catching Honor Roll

Be the first to point out an error the professor makes, and turn a quiz grade into an A.

Ashley A., Kevin, Mike, Brandi, Sammy, Brittany, Lindsey, Elaine, Jimmy, Mary, James, Brian: April 21 (Caught in-text citation error)
Brian: April 21 (Caught missing attachment on e-mail)
Elaine: April 21 (Caught misspelling of Premiere)
Mary: April 11 (Discovered that the Blackboard site for uploading Essay 4 wasn't activated)
Treg: March 10 (Caught "lift/life" error in PowerPoint)
Neil: March 5 (Name is Neil, not Nick!)
Elaine: March 5 (Revision is due March 10, not March 11)
Brittany: March 5 (Bobby, not Barry Henderson)
Brittany: March 3 (the exact error escapes me)
Ashley M.: Feb. 17 (caught Friday-Thursday mistake)
Elaine: Feb. 16 (caught wrong page number for Langston Hughes reading)
Mary: Feb. 6 (caught a missing question mark in my lecture notes)
Lindsey: Feb. 3 (I called her by the wrong name -- twice!)
Jimmy: Jan. 29 (caught misspelling of friend's son's name)
Elaine: Jan. 28 (caught spelling error in lecture notes on Blackboard)
Elaine: Jan. 24 (David Sedaris story listed twice in class schedule)
Brian: Jan. 22 (LIttleton -- errant capital I)
Brittany: Jan. 21 (pointed out time-zone error on blog)
Moriah: Jan. 20 (18 students instead of 16)

More Torture News

The Daily Telegraph (a British paper) writes about the release of the "torture" documents, and includes a video portraying one of the interrogation methods:

Torture news, from CNN

Here's a story about a Bush-era torture memo that just became public.

Torture debate winners!

Meet the winners of the ENG 1051 Torture Debate: The Negative Team.
Mary, Elaine, Lindsey, James, Brandi, Neil, Brittany, and Treg.
As JJ points out (in the comments below), the Affirmative and Negative teams tied and settled the debate with an honorable Rock-Paper-Scissors duel.

Torture debate

A professor and a journalist debate torture on NPR.

Updated Error-Catching Honor Roll

Be the first to point out an error the professor makes, and turn a quiz grade into an A.

Mary: April 11 (Discovered that the Blackboard site for uploading Essay 4 wasn't activated)
Treg: March 10 (Caught "lift/life" error in PowerPoint)
Neil: March 5 (Name is Neil, not Nick!)
Elaine: March 5 (Revision is due March 10, not March 11)
Brittany: March 5 (Bobby, not Barry Henderson)
Brittany: March 3 (the exact error escapes me)
Ashley M.: Feb. 17 (caught Friday-Thursday mistake)
Elaine: Feb. 16 (caught wrong page number for Langston Hughes reading)
Mary: Feb. 6 (caught a missing question mark in my lecture notes)
Lindsey: Feb. 3 (I called her by the wrong name -- twice!)
Jimmy: Jan. 29 (caught misspelling of friend's son's name)
Elaine: Jan. 28 (caught spelling error in lecture notes on Blackboard)
Elaine: Jan. 24 (David Sedaris story listed twice in class schedule)
Brian: Jan. 22 (LIttleton -- errant capital I)
Brittany: Jan. 21 (pointed out time-zone error on blog)
Moriah: Jan. 20 (18 students instead of 16)

Torture!

Nice, light reading for your Spring Break:
Jane Mayer: "Whatever It Takes" ("Presence", pg. 252);
John Yoo: "With 'All Necessary and Appropriate Force'" ("Presence", pg. 275); and this article from the March 30 Washington Post suggesting that torture in one famous case did not yield any important results.

Divorce American Style

In Barbara Dafoe Whitehead's "The Making of a Divorce Culture," the author makes an interesting statement:
"Just as no patient would have designed today's system of health care, so no child would have chosen today's culture of divorce."
Your task here: design a system of divorce that you consider fair.
For example, would you make it more difficult or easier to end a marriage? Start a marriage?
Would you build in any protections for children? The spouse who earns less? The spouse who earns more?
Blog away.

"The Great Santini"

Chapter 2 of Pat Conroy's novel, "The Great Santini," opens with the Meecham family waiting for their father to return from a long deployment overseas. The movie includes the scene, too.
Pick out one difference between the movie version of the scene and the book version. Which do you prefer and why?
Here's mine: In the book, Mrs. Meecham has "dark, luxuriant red" hair "half covering her right eye." She's meant to seem sexy in the book. That doesn't come across nearly as well in the movie -- she doesn't even have red hair -- perhaps because the director needs to keep the focus on the colonel. But I liked the book's Mrs. Meecham better.

"The Way We Wish We Were"

It's funny how we assume certain things.
When I ask students if the crime rate in the United States is rising or falling, they invariably say it is on the increase.
But it's not.
If you watch television news, however, you get the impression that crime is ever-present.
Stephanie Coontz does a really good job using statistics to destroy some cherished assumptions about family life in the United States -- especially the belief that things were so much better "back in the good old days."
After reading her article, cite one statistic Coontz uses to contradict an assumption. Find its footnote, and explain where she got her information.
Avoid using the same statistic as a classmate.
This is due Tuesday, March 24.

Grammar Girl

Quick and Dirty tips on writing right.
Free podcast.
Aren't we hip?

For Thursday, March 19: "Cyclops"

You've heard the warnings before: "Bundle up or you'll catch your death of cold." "Put that down before you poke out your eye." After reading "Cyclops" by David Sedaris (the handout in the holder on my office door), tell us an oddball warning you've heard an adult tell a child.
My favorite is one my wife used to tell our children when they pouted: "If a cold wind blows, your face will freeze like that." They actually believed it until they were older.

For Tuesday, March 17: Your Inner Guy

Please read Dave Barry's "Guys vs. Men" on page 405 in "Presence."
Come up with your own "Guy" invention.
Here's mine: A gun that shoots spices into meat. You'd use it before throwing a steak on the grill.
Nowadays, you can buy injectors, which are huge hypodermic needles that inject liquid into meats.
But a gun is so much cooler.

A Letter to America

Read Margaret Atwood's letter (Presence, pp 510-512) and respond this way:
Angrily rebut her argument. Act incensed. Get on your high horse and blast away at her.
P.S. It doesn't matter whether you agree or disagree with her yourself; I just want you to take up the opposite side. Have fun.

The New Fundamentalism

Read the Gregg Easterbrook piece on pages 343-346 of "Presence" and respond by writing whether you agree or disagree with the solution he mentions at the end -- "to teach the controversy." How do you think that strategy would work in a Lyndon State biology class?

He or she? They? Ip?

My pet peeve makes cnn.com!

Updated Error-Catching Honor Roll

Be the first to point out an error the professor makes, and turn a quiz grade into an A.

Treg: March 10 (Caught "lift/life" error in PowerPoint)
Neil: March 5 (Name is Neil, not Nick!)
Elaine: March 5 (Revision is due March 10, not March 11)
Brittany: March 5 (Bobby, not Barry Henderson)
Brittany: March 3 (the exact error escapes me)
Ashley M.: Feb. 17 (caught Friday-Thursday mistake)
Elaine: Feb. 16 (caught wrong page number for Langston Hughes reading)
Mary: Feb. 6 (caught a missing question mark in my lecture notes)
Lindsey: Feb. 3 (I called her by the wrong name -- twice!)
Jimmy: Jan. 29 (caught misspelling of friend's son's name)
Elaine: Jan. 28 (caught spelling error in lecture notes on Blackboard)
Elaine: Jan. 24 (David Sedaris story listed twice in class schedule)
Brian: Jan. 22 (LIttleton -- errant capital I)
Brittany: Jan. 21 (pointed out time-zone error on blog)
Moriah: Jan. 20 (18 students instead of 16)

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Bobby Henderson's e-mail to the Kansas School Board is not exactly a letter to the editor, but it served a similar purpose. It drew attention to the School Board's assault on evolution and helped generate widespread derision. The board members eventually were voted out of office.
A visit to his Web site is eye-opening. Four years after he wrote the e-mail, he still gets hate mail.
After reading "Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster" (Presence, pg. 348), tell us about a particularly effective bit of satire that you've read, heard, or seen (on television perhaps). What made it effective?
This response is due on Thursday, March 5.

Dan's Essay 2: Ice Fishing

Dan Williams
Essay 2
Feb. 18, 2009


Ice Fishing Anyone?

Son Martin needs a fishing license. That means the first stop is the Village Sports Shop in Lyndonville. He lives in Boston, but says he’ll come to Vermont often enough to justify an annual licence. Cost: $41.
The temperature is in the teens but the forecast promises a warm day with highs in the 30s. It’s quite a trek to Island Pond, but enjoyable. Head out Route 114 toward East Burke and keep going past East Haven and a tiny place called Lost Nation. Take a right at Route 105; Island Pond is just down the road a piece. There is always the chance for a moose-sighting, but not this day.
Martin talks about his new job in Boston at a company that makes medical sensors. He is thinking about going overseas for the United Nations or some other organization and working with disadvantaged communities. Younger son Jimmy, 15, sleeps in the back seat. He doesn’t quite snore, but his head is thrown back and his mouth gapes. This is very early for him to get under way on a Saturday.
Island Pond is a small town huddled on the shore of the lake by the same name. The note from Ross Stevens with the NorthWoods Stewardship Center (sponsor of today’s ice-fishing lesson) said to meet in front of the town hall. Google Maps put the building on Main Street. Just turn right off Cross Street and the town hall should be on the right.
But Main Street dead-ends at a retirement home, so the car has to turn around. That’s when the town hall becomes visible – the entrance is on the side of a block of buildings. People coming from the other direction probably miss it all the time.
But nobody is there. A short distance away, men are getting ready to play broomball. Martin tells a story about a student playing intramural broomball at Boston University who impaled himself on his stick – it went right through his side, but didn’t hit any important organs. He was back out on the ice later that day.
Ross arrives a short time later with a Fish and Wildlife ranger. A couple of other people show up and Ross leads the group out onto the ice. Snowmobiles zoom onto the lake from a nearby gas station. They sport all kinds of colors. The riders all wear helmets. Smart.
The wind picks up as the group heads for the ice-fishing spot Ross has picked out. The chill and the wind turn tears to painful needles. Ross heads toward a pickup truck parked on the ice. Two men join the group. One has no gloves. The other does, but he looks like an outdoor type who has done his share of ice fishing. It’s not clear if he’s there to learn or teach.

Ross asks, “Does everybody have a fishing license? I don’t care, but I’ve got to ask.” Everyone nods. He starts dragging things out of the back of the truck: a pail with shiners for bait, tip-ups, short rods, an ice skimmer, and a big auger. He loads the gear on a large plastic sled and drags it to a spot about 100 feet from shore. In this general area, he says, is an inflow from a river – or outflow, depending on how full the lake is – and it should be a good fishing spot.
Ross starts yanking the crank of the auger. “This is the hardest part of ice fishing,” he says, “getting the engine started.”
The bit is four feet long and the blade is a good eight inches wide. He starts it up, controlling the speed with a lever he operates with his thumb while holding the two handles. The auger bites into the ice and quickly chews its way down toward the water – one foot, two feet – how thick is this ice? – three feet. No wonder it can support a truck. The bit churns up a mound of ice around the hole, which Ross kicks away with his feet.
He strikes water, which gushes up a good foot out of the hole and soaks his pants and boots. He cleans slush from the edge of the hole and prepares a tip-up. The device is hard to describe. Two lengths of wood form an X that lies flat on the ice over the hole. A line attaches to a reel on another length of wood rising up from the X. A hook and leader are on the line. Ross baits the contraption by hooking a shiner under its dorsal fin—to keep it alive. He tells the group that baitfish must now come from the lake in which they are used, to prevent the spread of disease. A flexible metal whip is attached to the vertical length of wood. Ross folds it over and snaps it into place. It is designed to pop up when a fish takes the hook.
Another hole is drilled, this time closer to shore. By now a group of dorm students from Lyndon Institute have arrived. Most of them are from Taiwan, and it is clear that none of them has ever gone ice fishing before. They huddle together on the ice. Some are dressed in sweatpants, hopping up and down in the cold. They smile a lot and talk among themselves. Two girls wander off toward an ice shanty, looking for warmth. The owner of one shanty yells from the shore that they can go inside.
Jimmy and Martin briefly try their luck ice fishing. They use a short rod, but the line tangles as it is lowered into the water. The hooked shiner sinks just out of sight. It is probably about three feet down. “Bob it up and down a bit,” Ross says. After he leaves to cut another hole, Jimmy and Martin say their feet are cold. They had not dressed for the teens. A thin coat of ice forms over the water in the hole. By stirring with the end of the rod, they can break it up. But it keeps forming.
Where is the 30-degree weather promised in the forecast? It is cold and no fish are biting. Pancakes and omelettes sound better and better as the minutes pass. Finally, Jimmy and Martin can stand it no longer. They return the rod to Ross and apologize for tangling the line.
“Giving up already?” he asks.
“Yeah,” Martin says, thinking of the nice hot cup of coffee he plans to order at the diner up the street.

Nava-Postrel Smackdown!

Based solely on the descriptions in "Gardenland" and "In Praise of Chain Stores," where would you rather live -- the colorful but poor part of Sacramento where Michael Nava grew up or Chandler, Arizona, the town at the center of Virginia Postrel's story? Cite something from the stories to help you explain why.
I'm going with Nava because of his description of his meals: "beans, lettuce and tomato salad, stewed or fried meat, tortillas, salsa." I got a quesadilla machine for Christmas and love it.

Links to Hughes, Hurston

In case you don't have the book...
Here's a link to the Langston Hughes piece.
And here is "How it Feels to Be Colored Me."

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes writes in "Theme for English B":
"I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.
I went to school there, then Durham, then here
to this college on the hill above Harlem."
Compare his short piece to Zora Neale Hurston's "How it Feels to Be Colored Me."
How do Hughes and Hurston differ in their approaches to their own racial identity?

Amitai Etzioni blogs, too!

The guy who wrote "The Monochrome Society" is just as hip as you.
Here's the link.

Hornets' Nest Observed

Here's my write-up of the Hornets' Nest observation. Note there's nothing like a "normal" introduction or conclusion. It just starts at one point and ends at another. It doesn't include everything I observed, either.
(Please upload your own observations to Blackboard rather than the blog -- thanks)

Dan Williams
Feb. 6, 2009
ENG 1051
Hornets’ Nest observation

Sammy is finishing something that left small yellow crumbs on the paper towel in front of her, along with a grease stain. She is in the Hornets’ Nest, the snack bar at Lyndon State College, sitting at a round table near the food-service area.
Sammy is wearing a yellow T-shirt with a tassled scarf. The dominant color is turquoise but it is shot through with gold designs. She has a lemonade.
She falls into conversation with Jim and Lindsey. All three talk about a vacation spot in Maine, Old Orchard Beach.
“Were you there when the whale washed up on shore?” Sammy asks. Lindsey says she wasn’t there but her parents were.
Sammy says, “It smelled wicked bad. They took if offshore and weighted it and sank it but it washed up again. It was raunchy.”
Jim is eating tater tots and a breakfast sandwich and washing them down with orange juice. A bottle of water stands in front of him in the booth as well. He is wearing a dark v-neck sweatshirt with a gray stripe down the sides. Underneath, he has on a gray T-shirt. His khakis are light, almost white. He’s wearing sneakers.
He tells a story about fishing at Old Orchard Beach, at the north end. He reeled in a mackerel but it weighed too much to be a mackerel. When he pulled it out of the water, he saw why: a lobster was attached.
Sammy, Lindsey and Jim share stories about rip currents and piers and wall-to-wall tourists, many from Quebec – “Quebeckians,” Sammy calls them.
Half of the students sit in the Hornets’ Nest and the other half in the Student Center. The Hornets’ Nest, with its booths and tables, encourages people to sit in groups. Most of the students in the Student Center sit separately. Mike and Ashley are in a booth – Mike checking his phone while talking to a friend in an orange knitted hat and Ashley writing – but Shelby is across the room sprawled on the couch, talking on the phone while writing notes on the Unit 2 handout.
Brittany is in another cushioned chair, checking something on her phone or perhaps texting.
A low rumble of conversation fills the room. The television is tuned to SportsCenter. Brian, Neil and Jimmy sit, apart, watching.
Brian describes a fight he saw – one kid threw something and the other guy pushed him. He’s talking to Neil, who sits in front of him.
Back in the Hornets’ Nest, Moriah, Heather and Ashley sit together.
Elaine and Mary sit at a booth across from one another. Elaine gets up four times to walk around and make observations. Mary gets up, too, and walks around.
Treg sits in a booth by himself, writing observations. He gets up and soon returns with a Pepsi Max. He twists off the cap, takes a gulp, and returns to writing.

Blixie

Read Tyina Steptoe's "Ode to Country Music from a Black Dixie Chick" in "Presence" and describe a situation in which you took on an identity that was at odds with what others expected of you.
For instance...
I am not a very good singer, but I get a rush from doing the vocals in "Rock Band."
Imagine me screaming the lyrics to "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World:
"It just takes some time, little girl you're in the middle of the ride, everything, everything will be all right, everything everything will be all right, all right"!
Dude.
P.S. Can you find music by Blixie?
What do you think of it?

Goatblog travels

Click a pushpin and see where your classmates want to study.

View Larger Map

One way to skin a cat, or introduce an essay

Dan’s Essay 1 introduction draft:
Possible outline:
Reason 1:
The weather.
Reason 2:
The landscape
Reason 3:
The house.
Reason 4:
The job

I am a displaced person. As the years pass and I become more and more used to New England and Vermont, I become less and less displaced. However, I often still feel like a stranger here. The weather is much colder than the weather I left behind in Georgia three years ago. The landscape is much more rustic and wild than the carefully tended neighborhood we lived in outside Atlanta. Our “new” house is more than a century old, and I am finding it more of a challenge than I thought it would be when we moved here. And teaching in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom is far different than teaching in the South.

Hit the road, Jack

Please read K. Anthony Appiah's piece, "Learn Statistics. Go Abroad." It is on page 124 in "Presence," but you can also read it here in Slate.
List one of the reasons he gives for studying outside the United States. Then answer the following question: If you could spend a semester or a year at a foreign university, where would you go and why?

Zora Neale Hurston

My favorite passage in "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" is this:
"Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me." What strikes me is the tone. Many victims of oppression dwell on the pain they feel. Here, Hurston turns the tables. She practically feels sorry for the people doing the discriminating. How refreshing.
What is your favorite passage from the piece, and why?

Liminality?

Here's one way to look at Lynda Barry's graphic story:
"Liminality and mestiza consciousness in Lynda Barry’s One Hundred Demons” by Melinda de Jesus
A professor at Tufts uses "Common Scents" in an English class called Asian American Experience.

Fun way to find the right word

Check out the Visuwords Web site for an unusual -- and very visual -- thesaurus.

Lynda Barry

In "Common Scents," Lynda Barry writes about the different smells at friends' houses.
Describe your favorite place to visit because of its smell.
Mine is Chutters in LIttleton. Gourmet malted milk balls. Mmmm.

Error-catching Honor Roll

Be the first to point out an error the professor makes, and turn a quiz grade into an A.

Ashley M.: Feb. 17 (caught Friday-Thursday mistake)
Elaine: Feb. 16 (caught wrong page number for Langston Hughes reading)
Mary: Feb. 6 (caught a missing question mark in my lecture notes)
Lindsey: Feb. 3 (I called her by the wrong name -- twice!)
Jimmy: Jan. 29 (caught misspelling of friend's son's name)
Elaine: Jan. 28 (caught spelling error in lecture notes on Blackboard)
Elaine: Jan. 24 (David Sedaris story listed twice in class schedule)
Brian: Jan. 22 (LIttleton -- errant capital I)
Brittany: Jan. 21 (pointed out time-zone error on blog)
Moriah: Jan. 20 (18 students instead of 16)

Gummi Groups

Orange:
Ashley Adler
Mike Baribault
Samantha Dolloff
Neil Richardson

White/Clear:
Brandi Before
Mike Boisvert
Brittany Eldred
James Sinko

Green:
Shelby Budziak
Treg Butler
Jim Gaskell
Ashley Meunier
Heather Rego

Red:
Lindsey Fitch
Elaine Fournier
Mary Paquin
Moriah Pratt
Brian Taylor

Alice Walker response

The theme of our first essay is displacement -- how different (or not) college life is compared to your pre-college days. Read Alice Walker's "The Place Where I Was Born" and post a comment in which you imagine how displaced Barack Obama and his family will feel on their first night in the White House.

Welcome to The Goat Blog

This is a blog created for an English class at Lyndon State College in Lyndonville, Vermont.