A Response to Trey

After I posted my last entry, I suspected I would hear from some people, and I'm not surprised that Trey was one of them. After reading his last blog and finding only two errors in the entire thing, I believe it would be fair to add Trey to the list of "Conventional Masters." In fact, after a second look, his writing is more clear in most cases than some of those I listed. There's no question that Trey is at the "top of the class" when it comes to writing and thinking skills. So, how did I overlook him?

I suspect that part of it is because Trey's involvement in this online course is such that I have quit looking at him as a student in many ways and see him rather as a colleague in this venture. Note his most recent blog in which he gives a much more expansive evaluation to some of his classmates' work than I ever have. (He also admits to reading this blog, which I'm guessing most of you don't do on a regular basis. Hey! Here's a thought! I'll do a survey. If you are in this class and you are reading this blog, click here as soon as you get to this part and send me an e-mail saying that you read it. Also tell me which other blogs you regularly read. I'll check the time and date of each message I receive to see how many of you are looking at blogs other than your own.) Back to Trey: look at how many posts he has on the discussion board! Fully a third of all posts on the discussion board belong to Trey and Mitchell. Throw in Katie's, RaeAnne's, and Brittnie's and you're up to half! These folks are "discussing" stuff not because it is an assignment, but because they enjoy it...or they're faking it really well. And if I'm not mistaken, they get frustrated by those of you who only post to the Honors discussion forum with the minimum requirement of one post a week. They'd like to hear what everyone has to say. (Yes, yes, we know you're busy and you don't like all this computer stuff anyway, but welcome to the 21st century!)

Finally, the thing I appreciate most about Trey is his willingness to share what he knows. After figuring out how to do it, he posted instructions for getting an avatar on the discussion board. Even by posting a comment to my blog asking what he did wrong was a courageous risk because if I actually reply (as I do below), everyone gets to see...and learn from his mistakes.

So, thanks Trey, for helping me make this class work! And everyone keep this in mind: Practice makes perfect. Your coaches and piano teachers tell you that all the time, but the same is true of writing. You become competent writers by writing a lot. These blogs are a form of practice, but because they are interactive, they can be a lot more fun than writing essays only a teacher will read.

MRT

P.S. Here is the first error:

This means over the years him and I have developed a certain skill in debating from our arguments.

(Do you know what is wrong with the sentence? Hint: It has to do with the subjective case vs. the objective case. There is a simple way to find the error. Anybody know what it is?)

The second error was probably a typo: he didn't capitalize the word English. Some of you do this all the time. Are you doing it on purpose? Grrr!