Fletcher wants you to read this

Greetings, young Bloggers.

Here's some practice in looking at data and making inferences.

Last year, the bloggers were offered extra credit for early starts.  I didn't make that offer this year, and this is the consequence of that small policy change:  In June of 2011 there were 58 posts; this year, there were 17.  In July 2011, there were 67 posts; in 2012, 50.  The most telling number: in August of 2011, there were 174 posts.  I have no idea how many posts there will be in August, but I know that I continue to receive requests every day for blog clearance, so I am anticipating a huge increase in August.  In other words, I am about to get clobbered.

That's unfortunate for me.  I worked all through July teaching summer school, and was in "work-mode"; I had hoped to take three weeks off in August before I collect summer homework (3 weeks from today.  Three weeks.  Stop procrastinating!)  But it appears that many of you are on the opposite schedule: you took June and July off, and will start to work in August.

Nevertheless, there will be days in August that I do not look at the blog or at my email at all.  If you are trying to get on the blog, and do not hear from me, well...I am busy goofing off and reading for leisure.  I'll be back within 48 hours.  However, please know that there are approximately 25 days a year that I don't have papers to grade, and I am basking in that golden window right now.

More news:  there are three people on the blog as "Unknown."  Of course, I could run through everybody's email addresses and try to figure out who these unknown people are -- sometimes an email address makes it obvious -- but I do not appreciate having to take that extra step when it is your responsibility to identify yourself.  If I don't know who you are, I don't read your work.  Period.

I know that may seem a little snarky and mean.  After all, I could figure it out with a little detective work, but when you are dealing with the volume of work that I deal with, that extra step required of me due to student carelessness is a step I do not take.  Sorry.

Even more news:  Early in this process, when there were perhaps 50 people on the blog, I shared the Google doc I am using to keep track of your posts.  I have no record of who the people are that I shared this with...it was late one night, and I just grabbed up everybody's email address, converted it to a word document, plopped it in the share box, and sent it along.  So, if you are less than 3 weeks old on the blog, you don't have access to that document.  It isn't really very interesting, but it does show who has posted, who has commented, and who has not.  If you really want to see it, I'll send out another invitation closer to the due date.  Remember, the blog closes at midnight, August 24.

Right now, as I study the list, I have ONE section of AP English; fewer than 35 students are posting regularly.

There are MANY silent people on the blog:  people who have registered, but who have not posted one thing yet.  In a week or two, I may start deleting those people to make room for new people.  There is a limit of 100, and we are creeping ever closer to that number.  So if you are just sitting there and not writing, when (and if) I run out of room, I will drop you.

There are also 15 people who have requested access to the blog, and who have received invitations, but who have not responded to the invite.  Those invites DO expire after a while, and several of you have had to request a second invitation.

There is no shame or problem with telling me that you intend to drop the class.  If you have already decided not to complete the homework, shoot me an email, and let me know.

FINALLY, please READ the blog.  READ what your colleagues and classmates have discussed.  When there is a detailed discussion of how Ford appears to be the State religion, and lots of commentary back and forth between readers, it is just a tiny bit annoying when someone comes along a week later and says, "Hey! Guess what?  Ford appears to be the State religion!  Wow, did anybody else get that?"  Uh, yes.

Remember it is not your responsibility to figure out all of this, or to sound like a professor, or to read the Spark Notes and then post what you've learned by reading Spark Notes here on the blog.  You are an inquiring mind.  Do authentic work.  Don't fake it; I can see the difference pretty quickly, and it is both tiresome and disappointing to slog through the pontifications of a pedantic adolescent writer.  Be your fresh young curious self...don't try to be the jowly guy in the tweed jacket with leather patches on the elbows.

Finally finally, and this really is the final thing--as Postman and Carr both point out, I've probably lost you already due to attention span problems--there are sentences in that gaming piece that just make me happy.  That is a well-styled piece of writing.  I love a really tight, beautiful sentence, don't you?