Reading assignment for Friday

For Friday, please one or more letters from:

http://library.uml.edu/clh/All/alet.htm

Try to pick some from different points on the page, so everyone does not cover the same material. Post to the list a short response, explaining what can be learned about life at this mill from the letters of the people who worked there. Print your letter, your paragraph, and bring both to class.

WWI at Ft Lee

There will be a presentation on WWI at Ft Lee on Nov 11th. I will offer extra credit if anyone wishes to go and report on it. See info attached:

Training Trench Tour: 1. Amy Wood, FT Lee, Archeological office

WWI Demonstration in miniatures:

1. Joe Brimer, USAF Ret, Military Historian: Trench Warfare 1914-19182. John Wright, USAF Ret, USAF Historian: Aerial Warfare 1914-1918WWI Living History Interpreters-

Displays:

1. "Gunny" Phil Gibbons, WWI USA Quartermaster NCO
2. Charles Bonnell, WWI USA Officer
3. Andrea Wilson, WWI Red Cross Worker
4. Rick Potter, USA Pilot, Lafayette Escadrille
5. Joy DeMatteis, Salvation Army worker
6. Brian Petruskie, US Cav soldier

Guest Lecturers and Programs:
1. Dr. Steve Anders, OQMS, Lecture History of FT Lee 1917-1919
2. Prof. Ed Lengel, UVA, Author, Lecture on his book about Meuse-Argonne 1918
3. Prof. Malcolm Muir, VMI, Lecture on US navy in WWI
4. Prof Rockenbach, VSU, Lecture on "The Military Melting Pot: Race and Ethnicity in the A.E.F."
5. Francoise Bonnell, USAWM Ed Spec, Lecture on Women in WWI
6. Prof Thomas Barnes, UC Berkley, Lecture on no subject provided yet
7. Prof Paul Alkebulan, VSU, Lecture on "Black Americans on the Home Front

Veteran Celebration:

1. COL Gwen Bingham, CASCOM

Evidence: "Not All Evidence is Created Equal."

Assignment for 111.

We've spoken in class about how, at least in academic writing, one uses evidence to support claims and opinions. As a way of helping you "get" how evidence works in the relationship between opinion and support, I thought I might ask you to explore this site:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/evidence/index.html

In particular, I want you to look at the link "Can you believe it?" Note the various questions scientists ask of scientific articles to find out if the evidence is worth anything.

Steve

Who are you?

After talking to a couple of students recently, I'm reminded of something I had forgotten - a lot of students don't really know who they are or where they're going. So, a lot of you haven't declared a major, and many more of you are likely to change your major. That's ok. The whole point of college is to find out who you are and how to get there. That's one of the reasons behind the SDV class that you're required to take. As a part of the class, you complete the Career Assignment to help you select a major. You get advised on what classes to take for that major. And, you even go through some activities to figure out what type of learner you are or what type of personality you have. But, there's a lot more to who you are than just what you can get in one short class. Everyone should have at least a basic idea of what's important to them and some sort of moral code. It's important to take some time and think about things like this - ponder, ponder, ponder. After all, how can you figure out where you're going if you don't even know who you are?

Well, after some serious soul-searching of my own this past weekend and thirty-something odd years of trials and experiences, I think I've finally figured out some things of my own. I've come up with a list of "rules" for myself. Now, you can take them as your own, or leave them. It matters not to me. I just thought you may find it useful to see what someone else has come up with - and, just how many years/how long it's taken them. And, bear in mind - these are subject to change. I'm not saying any of my own little "rules" are perfect or won't get outdated (- or that they'll even work for someone else). So, keep in mind that you will need to periodically sit down and ponder through all of this again. And, remember - "Not all who wander are lost." Some of the greatest bits of knowledge and insights come from the process and pondering. That's one of the fun parts of life and of college. It should be an adventure - both fun and scary - but, still an adventure. Anyway, here's my list. Good luck on creating your own!

1. Any problem can be solved with some thought and a good glass of wine. (And - of course - I am NOT advocating that you drink. Alcohol is optional and should be consumed in moderation by those of legal drinking age. 'nuf said!)
2. Breathe. Oxygen is a good thing.
3. Follow your heart - until it's time to follow your head.
4. Look for alternatives.
5. Trust your instincts - even if they don't seem justified.
6. Things will go wrong. You will screw up. Do the best you can and learn from your mistakes.
7. You can always improve.
8. Never stop learning.
9. Appreciate good friends. They are few and far between.
10. Try not to make excuses. Be honest to yourself at least.
11. "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." (Emerson) Don't be afraid to change.
12. "To be great is to be misunderstood." (Emerson) Get over it.
13. You are stronger than you think. Test your limits. Try new things.
14. Don't forget the importance of taking care of yourself sometimes.
15. The little things are important. "Details Matter." (Alberti)
16. Allow people to give you what you need.
17. It's painful, but it's only a growth spurt. This too shall pass.
18. Quit trying to be everything to everyone else. Just be yourself. They can take it or leave it.
19. You do not need to explain yourself to anyone.
20. It can always be worse.

-Prof M

I agree with Prof M. College is about coming to know yourself, what you want to do, and preparing for the future; and, it's about realizing this process is part of the life you lead, not something which happens and ends. I like teaching freshmen because it is in the freshman year where much of the work of finding one's self, learning how to learn, and learning what one wants to live for happens. It is a time when many folks make the transition into being real adults, capable of helping them selves and others.

There isn't a set schedule for this process, and most students--including myself--grope and stumble through much of the first couple of years of college. This is one reason I delay giving grades. There's a lot of growing going on in the first semester, and the student the at the end of the semester is sometimes hardly recognizable when compared to the student who walked into my class. Before I judge a student's work, I want to give them a chance for as much of the growth to happen as possible.

Many of my core values I learned in the thought and reading and work which came from going to college. On reason I ended up getting a degree in English was because it offered a chance to come to know myself and the world through reading and thinking about the best which has been said and thought. In fact, I keep a file of key quotes which inform how and why I live.

When folks visit my and Jena's office, they are sometimes surprised to see a rather large poster of Walt Whitman on a pink background. My wife gave it to me when I went back to graduate school. It isn't my favorite picture of Walt, but the poster does have my favorite quote. Over the years, it has served me much as have Jena's rules for living. Here it is,

...this is what you shall do: love the earth and sun and animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at church or school or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body. (From the "Preface" to the 1855 edition of _Leaves of Grass_)

Couple Whitman's advice with Thomas Jefferson's, "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." and "Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits."

Throw in Henry David Thoreau's, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." and his advice to "Simplify! Simplify!," and you have the essential cornerstones of what I believe makes life worth living, especially a modern American life.

Finally, add in William Morris's "Give me love and work - these two only."and "No man is good enough to be another's master." and "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

Mix them all together and you have a summary of why I live and what I hope to accomplish in this world. I strive to live deliberately and simply, to know myself, to devote myself to others, to stand up to tyranny where ever I find it, to seek to be the master of no one but myself, to work and enjoy my work and duty knowing they help others and myself and create useful beauty, and--finally and most importantly--to love others and be worthy of being loved.

Prof. Steve

Tom???

Update on Field Trips.

We just received word the Reynold's van we were to use for transportation on the Creepy Hollow and Tuckahoe Plantation field trips is down for repair; so, it won't be available either Thursday or Friday as planned.

Rather than cancel the field trips, we thought we might ask if folks are willing to carpool or transport themselves on a strictly voluntary basis. We need to make clear that: 1) attendance on both field trips is voluntary [but fun and educational]; 2) the college can assume no liability when you take personal transportation; and, 3) while guests are welcome, the college can't pay for their entrance fees, etc. Anyone--student or guest--who plans to attend must have signed a release form prior to leaving campus, both for you and any guests. For anyone needing to sign a release form, we'll have extras with us when we meet at the at the Flagpoles.

Here is when to meet at the Flagpoles for each field trip:

* For Creepy Hollow, meet Thursday, 23 Oct., 6:45 PM.
* For Tuckahoe Plantation, meet Friday, 24 Oct, 8:30 AM.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow and Friday,

Jena, Tom, and Steve

FYI: Four Year College Transfer Days

J. Sargeant Reynolds
Community College
4 Year College
Transfer Days

Tuesday, Oct. 21st (Burnette Hall- PRC) & Thursday, Oct. 23 (1st Floor Lobby- DTC)
11am until 1pm
Meet with Admissions Representatives
Learn about Guaranteed Admission Agreements
and Transferability of Classes

Randolph-Macon UVA
Bluefield College VA State University
Hampton University VCU
ODU Virginia Tech
JMU Mary Washington
NC State University Radford University
University of Richmond
and many more!

An example of a good, solid rhetorical analysis.

A few students have asked I post an example of the kind of rhetorical analysis for which I am looking each week. Below is a good, solid example. It could be improved, but I am impressed with how the author has placed himself in the rhetorical place of the person he is analyzing. The author of the analysis does a good job of identifying his rhetor's audience, and looking at a specific problem the rhetor is facing and how the rhetor crafts his message to overcome these problems. There are even specific examples. I would prefer the author had taken a few extra minutes to proofread, but over all, I would give the following example an "A."

Here's the example:

Watching preist perform the mass is an excellent example of Rhetoric. His ethos is established by the clothes he wears, the logos can be simply achieved by backing up your statements with scripture, and pathos can easily be achieved when people come to church, looking and expecting to feel better about themselves. The audience is generally the same group of people. Old people who come from habit, young people who come because they're forced to, and people in the middle looking for answers about life. The message stays pretty consistent from week to week: live right, but if you can't you can be forgiven. The thing that makes their job difficult is keeping the attention of this audience week to week when you need to send the same general message. They try to do this by varying the stories and examples they use. I cannot imagine this is as easy to do as it sounds. The three groups I described which compose the congregation are very diverse. Many of the stories I can relate to do not apply to many of the near-deads who sit up front. Very frequently the situations they find humorous don't do anything for me. Our priest seems to have discovered the secret to making everyone pay attention. His Homilies often conist of you might be a redneck if jokes and comparisons to professional football. Everyone likes these.

Driving Directions to Jamestown

Here's a link to driving directions to Jamestown from Richmond:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&utm_campaign=en&utm_medium=ha&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-sk-dd&utm_term=road%20route

Google maps estimates a tad over one hour from downtown Richmond. I've never made it in less than one and a half hours, but I drive slowly.

If you want to map it yourself, the address is:

Jamestown Settlement, 2218 Jamestown Rd, Williamsburg, VA

See you tomorrow at 10:00.

Steve

Reading: Kaizen and Process, Take Two

Now you are getting your head around the basic elements of communications---the sender, the message, the receiver, noise, and feedback, it's time to talk some down and dirty about how to improve your writing. The basic notion of how to make improvements in any process (like writing), can be found in the industrial management philosophy of Kaizen.

If you do a quick google of "Kaizen," you'll learn it's the industrial management philosophy which led to Japan being the technological and industrial powerhouse it is. This way of approaching process brings together the best of Western ideas about motion study and efficiency and Japanese notions of how communities and individuals work. It's one of a handful of the most powerful ideas to emerge from the 20th C, and it came into being at the end of WWII.

The US wanted to build a working democracy out of the wreckage of Japan at the end of WWII. Japanese industry was geared up for war, and the US had learned from how it had handled Germany at the end of WWI that for democracy to work, you had to have a certain amount of wealth flowing through out a viable economy; so, the US sent in some of our best industrial engineers to help Japan to build a consumer industrial base.

These folks were well grounded in how to set up a factory to mass produce, but they didn't have a clue as to how Japanese culture functions. The upshot was they tried to impose the latest 1930s/'40s motion and process theory and failed miserably. Japanese culture sees work holistically. It tends to see the individual as part of a community, and the function of work not so much as a means of producing a product but as a means of maintaining the viability of the community and the pride and sense of status of the individual within the community. Luckily, the Japanese were able to work with the well intentioned Americans to come up with a theory of industrial process which combined the best of both ways of working.

From the US, they took the notion of process, that is, when you do something over and over (like writing a sentence, paragraph, or email), you tend to follow the same steps and tend to need the same stuff. If you break down such repeatable activities into set steps, you can focus on one aspect of the process at a time and work to improve its efficiency. You might, for instance, make sure the tools you need for a task are at your workstation instead of stored across the room, saving you the time needed to get up, loose your train of thought, and go across the room to get a pencil or keyboard. The idea is as you improve the efficiency of the individual steps, you improve the overall efficiency of the process and your ability to compete.

Now American thought tended to think of process efficiency as a means to an end. You get a factory up to a certain level of productivity per man hour, and you can compete. The Japanese had the brilliant insight---based on Zen notions of work based meditation--that one never reaches a perfect process; instead, one can just improve the process at hand; but, and this is a big but, you can make small, continuous improvements to whichever processes is in place. Literally, one's focus isn't on the end product, but on the doing or the work necessary to a task. You practice and perfect the doing of a task, not the product of the task. The upshot is they created the notion of continual small improvements to process or Kaizen. It's quite literally a continuous focus of improving how the task is done and assuming that a good process will produce a good product which can compete.

There are some additional flourishes. Kaizen rewards workers who come up with a means to improve how their task is done. It creates time in a production schedule to have regular meetings of the workers, management, and sales folks to discuss process and product. The idea is everyone needs to understand the big picture, so they can understand their part. In any event, small groups meet to make decisions about which improvements to process to implement and to judge if a change in process is an improvement or not. There's also the notion of low hanging fruit vs. high hanging fruit. That is, one always begins work on a process from the process already in place. This process already allows you to receive some gain or, to use the Kaizen metaphor, pick the lowest hanging fruit. As you make improvements, you add to your gains by being able to pick the lowest hanging fruit and some higher hanging fruit. The upshot is your return in the investment of improving process is always increased return.

Kaizen can be applied to any process, from coding to writing to your morning routine. Let's talk about writing. You currently use a series of processes when you write. As you write and revise your inventory of WPA Outcomes, think how you produce writing currently and give these processes your attention. Break writing down into the steps you follow as you produce. For instance, how do you proofread? How do you draft? Do you build in time for revision? We'll be discussing how composition and rhetoric has broken down the task of writing and making speeches, but my goal here is to just give you some language for thinking about the processes you use as you create and write. I encourage you to think about processes in the work you do or want to do. Once you begin noticing the steps you follow and can accept the notion of improving how you produce through making small, continuous changes in these processes, you'll be half-way to becoming a writer.

Here are the tricks of Kaizen:

1) Pat yourself on the back. Whatever process you are now using is picking the lowest hanging fruit.
2) Know your goals.
3) Take small steps toward your goals by improving the process.
4) Pat yourself on the back for picking higher hanging fruit and moving toward your goals.
5) If a step doesn't work out, figure out why and make another change. Use the loss as an opportunity to learn. You are still picking fruit.
7) Keep the pace of change slow but steady. Every few weeks, figure out your next change and keep implementing the change until it becomes habit and routine.
8) Take time to review. Know you are making progress and picking higher fruit than you were. As you review, reward yourself and internalized your success. It is only from success that you gain confidence.
9) Include others in your goals and work toward them. Listen to their insights. Often, from outside, they will see those things which you cannot from the inside. Let these others share in and celebrate your success. Again, you gain confidence from public acclimation.
10) Don't expect the moon; instead, move toward it. As change and improvements accumulate, you will eventually obtain the moon.
11) Usually, when you reach the moon, you find out it wasn't about being there; it was about the journey, the successes along the way, your own growth, and the confidence you have gained for the next project.

Write if you have questions, comments, or observations.

A New Perspective on the Election

The debates are finally behind us. It has been a contentious election. The character and competence of both candidates has been called into question. These one time colleagues have turned into the bitterest of enemies.

The candidates represent vastly different philosophies of government. Both are deeply concerned about foreign relations, and domestic concerns threaten to embroil us in foreign wars. A recession looms in the near future. One candidate believes in a strong central government--the only kind of government he believes can save us from war and keep the nation strong. The other is more liberal and argues the value of change and reducing the power of the federal government. He wants us out of foreign intrigues. There were times when it looked as if the candidates might cross the boundary of words and come to blows. It will be a wonder if the two men speak for a decade.

Sound familiar? This is a fairly accurate description of the election of 1800 and 2008. In 1800, the year John Adams, Arron Burr, Thomas Jefferson battled it out to become the nation's third president, the Federalists--those who favored a strong centralized government--had held office for a decade.

Today, we don't realize how remarkable a peaceful transfer of power is. We expect whomever "overthrows" Bush to do so with no violence. In 1800, there were worries about a civil war between the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans. Jefferson--a Democratic-Republican--won only after a constitutional crisis and the election was resolved by the House, not by a popular landslide. In the Electoral College, Jefferson tied for President with Arron Burr, the guy who ends up being Vice President and who kills Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson !!! won by the narrowest of margins.

The nation and the great experiment survived. I suspect it will survive McCain and Obama. There probably won't be a duel. If there is, my money is on Palin.

A Cherokee comic, Will Rogers, once said,

It’s a show that no American should miss. It’s entertainment, and it’s enlightening….as bad as we are, and as funny as we do things, we are better off than the other Countries, so bring on more conventions. The bigger, the noisier, the crazier, the better. No nation likes any ‘Hooey’ like we do. We are all cuckoo, but we are happy. (July 10, 1932)

Colonial Williamsburg, a place you might visit Saturday afternoon following our morning tour of Jamestown, recently published an "interview" with Jefferson concerning his own contentious election. Follow the link to read and understand that 2008 has more in common with 1800 than you ever might think:

An Interview with President-elect Thomas Jefferson on the Election of 1800

You might also listen to the podcast, "The Will of the People," on the election of 1800 and our inheritance of contentious politics. Find it here:

http://www.history.org/media/podcasts.cfm

Last but not least, you might read Jefferson's first inaugural address, the one where he pulls the nation back together by reminding us--regardless for whom we vote--we are all Americans. Ex-President Adams quietly leaves town rather than attending Jefferson's address. Can you imagine Bush not showing up for the inauguration of whomever wins? We've come a long way.

FYI: How to Obtain Free Credit Reports

I understand next week in SDV you'll be talking how to manage your finances. The Virginia Credit Union offers free financial advice to members. Here's what they have to say about obtaining your free annual credit reports:

Free Annual Credit Reports

An amendment to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requires each of the nationwide credit reporting companies to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months.

Three ways to request your free credit report

The three companies— Equifax, Experian and TransUnion— have set up one central service through which you can order your free annual report. You should not order free credit reports directly from the credit reporting agencies.

• Online at www.annualcreditreport.com (Cookies must be enabled on your browser). You will be able to access it immediately.
• Call toll-free (877) 322-8228. Your report will be processed and mailed to you within 15 days.
• Complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form (pdf) and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. Your request will be processed and mailed to you within 15 days of receipt.

When you order, you will be asked to provide your name, address, social security number and date of birth. To verify your identity, you may also need to provide some information that only you would know, like the amount of your monthly mortgage payment.

Report ordering tips

• When you order your reports, request that no more than the last four digits of your Social Security Number appear on copies of your credit report.
  
• While you may decide to do so, you are NOT required to purchase or subscribe to any other services from a credit reporting company in order to get a free credit report.
  
• Consider marking your calendar to request a report from a different company every few months, as a preventative measure against ID theft, rather than ordering all three at one time.
  
• Beware of e-mails, Internet ads and telemarketing calls that promise to obtain your "free annual credit report" on your behalf. In particular, e-mail messages or Internet ads claiming to be from www.annualcreditreport.com are likely to be scams.

The Constitution and Bill of Rights as a Set of National Goals

I was doing the reading for this week, and I realized how much in common the Constitution and the Bill of Rights has with you your goals, planning, and habits assignment (see posts below).

We are so used to living under the guidelines of a Constitution and Bill of Rights which is 200 plus years old, it is easy to forget these documents were once shiny, brand new, and radical. These documents represented the goals folks wanted to follow and a plan to get there, but folks still had to figure out what it meant to live lives in a a nation planned with the goal in mind of maximizing everyone's liberty. In short, at the point where the Constitution and Bill of Rights were written--1790 or so, the nation and individuals were learning the habits the nation needed to live as free men and women in a society of equally free men and women.

This sense of not having everything figured out is so important to your understanding early America and your selves.

In many cases, you are going through the same steps toward learning how to live a life which allows you to reach your goals and to maximize the benefits which come with freedom. Think about it. You have all these goals and the expectation of the liberty which comes from gaining adulthood and maturity. You have a sense of what you must do to pursue your idea of happiness, but you are still learning the knowledge, skills, and developing the habits it takes to be a happy, successful adult in a free--more or less--society. This is one of the things college does for you and for society; it gives new adults a space to figure out their dreams and prepare for the future.

Now think about a whole society going through the same growing pains, but they can't send the whole society to college to learn and figure itself out. Instead, they've got to live and go through a hard process of trail, much error, and strife to figure out what it means to live in a free society and keep it going.

Here's where society was in 1790:

Goals?...check...create a society which maximizes individual liberty
Plan?..check...see Constitution and Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence
Having the habits of respect, tolerance, being free, cussedness, and a developed willingness to work for the public good as well as one's own...not so much.

In 1790, these last still needed to be figured out. Otherwise, women would have had the vote, the slaves would have been freed, a free public education would have been built into the Constitution, etc. Just as you are now, America in 1790 still had to figure out itself, where it wanted to go, and develop the habits of thought and action needed to get there.

What habits are you going to have to learn to be a free adult and help keep the great experiment going?

Field Trip Info!

For the Jamestown Settlement (Saturday, October 18th - 10am!):

When: Everyone who wishes to attend will meet AT Jamestown in front of the building at 10am on Saturday, October 18th. This is optional, and you will need to provide your own transportation.

Where: Directions to the site can be found at http://www.historyisfun.org/General-Information.htm

Incentives: Extra credit will be offered in both Dr. DeMayo's and Dr. Brandon's class. It can also count as an Activity for Prof. Morrison's Activity Assignment.

What you Need: All students planning to attend must complete the attached Risk Assumption Form for the Jamestown Settlement. Completed forms need to be turned in to Prof. Morrison no later than Wednesday, October 15th.

Other Info: Dress warmly. The entire event is outside, and it got fairly windy last year. There is also a place on the site to sit and enjoy a meal at your own expense after the tour concludes. Yes - you can bring a friend or relative from the college or from outside of the college. However, the college will only pay for those visitors who are a student at JSRCC. And, ALL visitors must turn in a completed Risk Assumption Form. The cost for those not involved with JSRCC will be $13.50 per person (unless they happen to allow them at the Group Rate of $6).


For the Tuckahoe Plantation (Friday, October 24th - 8:30am!):

When: All LC students will need to meet in front of Burnette Hall by the flagpoles at 8:30am on Friday, October 24th

Where: Tuckahoe Plantation is located off Patterson Avenue. For more information, you can visit their website at http://www.historictuckahoe.com/

Incentives: No extra credit will be offered for this trip. Since the trip is being held during our normally scheduled class time, all students are expected to attend as per each class' attendance policy. (see syllabus!)

What you Need: All students planning to attend must complete the attached Risk Assumption Form for the Tuckahoe Plantation. Completed forms need to be turned in to Prof. Morrison no later than Wednesday, October 22nd.

Other Info: Dress warmly. The entire event does include some outside portions during the tour. This field trip is restricted to LC students as we will be providing a school van with limited seating.

Field trip to Creepy Hollow

It looks as if we'll be able to secure funding for the field trip to Creepy Hollow, but it won't take place tomorrow night. Instead, we've got it tentatively scheduled for Thursday, 23 October, the day before our field trip to the plantation.

Don't forget, this Saturday, we're going on the field trip to Jamestown. I'm looking forward to seeing each of you there.

Steve

Assignment ENG 111: Goals, Habits, Motivation, Kaizen, and Writing.

Over the past few weeks, we've been talking a lot about Kaizen, that is, making small, continuous high impact improvements as a way of moving toward your goals. You've brainstormed and written about your goals. You've identified a habit either to acquire or to shed. Now I'd like to bring together this assignment with some reading and further writing.

You will be tempted to skip the reading, and take what I've said in lecture as all you need to know about goals, habits, Kaizen, and writing. Many of you have managed to get by in school with doing little to no reading. Don't do it this time. Like rhetoric, Kaizen and using habits to become a better writer lays at the heart of this class, and it is one clear path to becoming a better writer. You know I have never BSed you. Read these articles. They are more than worth your time and effort. You won't find everything useful. Remember the 17% rule; but, you will gain some important perspective on how to achieve your goals or to find them. Why else are you attending college?

The only way to become a better writer is to make becoming a better writer a goal and then begin to acquire the skills, habits, and knowledge you need to craft and understand effective writing and speaking. Combine this work with practice and thought, and --over time--you'll become as good a writer as you want. Why go to the trouble? Well, you have to to pass the class. However, one of my favorite writers boils it down to a simple truth, "Good writing pays more than bad."

To help you get a handle on how the process of moving from goal to habit to achievement works, below I've brought together a few of my favorite posts on setting goals, how to move from goals to habits, some tips on ways to acquire habits, and some tips on how to stay motivated. You need to read these.

Print out each article, put them in your habit's project file and bring your file to class. I will be checking. You have until Friday, 24 October to complete this reading. This will have you reading and re-reading one of the articles per day, taking notes, taking some time to think about what you've read, and then writing about it and discussing what you've learned. This writing and discussion can take place either within your group (using a google doc) or with the whole class (using the class discussion list). Your choice.

As you read each article, take notes, and read actively. After you finish each article, take a fem moments to summarize what you thought were its major points and what part of its advice resonates with you (or didn't). As you write about the advice or resources you find, use your habit and your work on it as a focus for your discussion. Talk about the advice you find particularly helpful, and how it might change or alter your goals or your work on your habit. Finally, read what others have to say. Help them get a handle on the reading. Comment on what they say. Discuss. I'll be paying particular attention to this set of linked assignments when I decide on your class participation grade.

Here's the reading:

Setting Goals:

Written Goals for Skeptics

Simple Goal Setting

Lifetick: Goal-setting software that actually helps you achieve your goals

Habits:

Achievement: How to Turn Your Goals into Habits

How to Establish New Habits the No Sweat Way

Things to Avoid When Changing Habits


Finding Motivation:

Ultimate Guide to Motivation

Work for Wednesday, 15 October

My back spasmed again this morning getting out of the shower, so I'll not be able to make it in to teach or for office hours; instead, I'll be alternating hot and cold packs and be on my back--again. This doesn't mean you can't be learning and making progress.

Over the weekend, you finished a draft of the section of your reflective essay dealing with what you have learned to date. Also, you wrote a paragraph in which you let me know what I could do to help you learn better, and you completed a prewriting exercise on a section of the reflective essay in which you discussed your performance in the class.

For Friday, I would like you to bring all your work together by producing a unified draft of the entire reflection essay which includes all three sections, that is,

1) A discussion of your performance;
2) a discussion of what you have learned;
3) some ideas on what I could do to help you learn more or better.

Share this draft with your group and with me using google documents and bring two hard copies to class on Friday. The reflective essay is meant to help you develop something called a metadiscouse--an ability to reflect on and think objectively and systematically about your learning and your writing, what you are doing well, and what you can improve. Much of college is learning how to learn on your own, and developing a metadiscouse is essential to developing this skill.

When completing your draft, make sure to make clear claims, explain your claims, and then back them up using examples, quotations from what you have written, the work you have done, and analysis of each. Remember, your goal isn't to just tell me about your performance or what you have learned. Your goal is to show me what you have learned and to show me what you say about your performance is true. Use examples and analysis to show, not just tell.

Second, you should have read Peter Elbow's "Writing for Teachers" over the weekend. Be prepared to discuss the article. When thinking about it, you might remember your primary audience for your reflective essay is me, your teacher. Think about how the reflective essay is like and differs from the examples described by Elbow. We'll discuss this question in class on Friday.

Steve

FYI: Proofreading/reading tool

Proofreading is easier the more distance you can get from your work. One way to do this is to get someone else to help you proofread by reading your work out loud. This proofreading method works best when both you and your reader have a copy of your work; this way, whenever something sounds odd or off, you can put a check off to the side and use these checks as an index to things in your paper you want to check. Asking questions of your reader, like, "What was the main point of my paper?," "What would you improve?," or "Did I stay on topic?, is also a good way to get cheap feedback on your writing.

What do you do, however, if you can't get another reader to read your paper out loud? There's tech. While a computer reader won't be able to answer questions about your writing--at least, not yet. It will read you back your words EXACTLY as you wrote them. Add in a hard copy and a pen with which to put check marks off to the side, and you have a workable part of a decent proofreading system.

Check out this free text-to-speech web based converter:

http://readthewords.com/

Readings for Weds10/15

For Wednesday, please read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights printed in the back of Give Me Liberty. Bring Give Me Liberty to class on Wednesday.

Goal Setting & Time Management

For those of you looking for some ways to change your habits and make better use of your time, here are a couple of helpful links.

http://www.studygs.net/schedule/Weekly.html
This site can help you figure out where you're spending all of your time. It's also good for setting up a schedule on how to spend your time in the future and creating a To Do List (see the links at the top of the page above the scheduling tool.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People
This site gives a brief description of Covey's book. Each of the 7 habits is described, and all are a great way to make progress in anything that you do.

http://zenhabits.net/2008/10/10-simple-ways-to-live-a-less-stressful-life/#more-1437
Finally, check out one of Zen Habit's latest articles on how to live a less stressful life. The whole point of time management is so that you can have more free time, less stress, and some sanity!

Catch up on missed election speeches and debates.

Going for the extra credit for discussing the election with your classmates? Looking for a subject for this week's rhetorical analysis? Tired of not knowing about the speech about which everyone is talking?

Follow the following link to legit online access to tonight's debate, past speeches, etc.:

http://lifehacker.com/5059937/catch-tonights-presidential-debate-on-hulu

FYI: Real World Advice on Acquiring Better Study Habits

One of my favorite blogs, AskMetafilter, does nothing more than act as a place where folks can write in with a question and get good suggestions on how to answer it.

Recently, a graduate student wrote in asking how to acquire better study habits than those which got him his initial degree, and he got some good advice--advice I wish I had heard long before graduate school.

Please note: the question was posed by a graduate student, who was suddenly looking at the task of preparing for comprehensive exams. Think of all the classes you've ever taken and an exam where any question from any class is fair game, and you have a good idea of what comps are like. One reason folks with a masters or a doctorate know how to study is most of us had to sweat comprehensives at one time or another, but the skills I had to learn then would sure have made my life as an freshman much, much easier.

Here's the link:

http://ask.metafilter.com/103544/Help-Ive-fallen-and-I-cant-get-up

FYI: Apostrophes

Apostrophes are the bug-a-bear of many writers, not just students learning the ropes. If apostrophes give you fits, you might follow this link:

English Apostrophe Society

The society is dedicated to stamping out the over use and misuse of apostrophes in English. They have some truly funny pictures of places where folks used an apostrophe or six where they shouldn't have. More important, they have some easy to follow rules for when and when not to use apostrophes in your writing.

Today's post is thanks to Instructify.

Steve

Notes on Proofreading.

Below you'll find my notes on various tips and tricks to help you proofread better. Over the rest of the semester, try out as many of the techniques I discuss as you can. Not every technique will work for every writer, but I'm confident you will find three or four which will help you catch surface level issues you are now missing.

Remember, proofreading differs from revision. When you proofread, you're looking at the surface level and polishing grammar, spelling and usage. When you revise, you're concerned with clarifying what you say, perfecting the organization, adding to your text, and cutting. In short, in revision, you want to deal with meaning and deep level issues. You proofread *after* you revise; otherwise, the effort you put into proofreading may well be wasted. One last note: one difference between editing and proofreading is that one edits another's text while one proofreads one's own.

On texts of some length, proofreading/editing is often the final step in the writing process prior to publishing your text. Proofreading usually takes place nearer the end of the revision process than at the beginning. Why? Because it doesn't make sense put in the effort to proofread every sentence and word level issue until your draft is fairly solid. In other words, why proofread and edit sentences and words which might still be cut or changed?

You can also waste time proofreading haphazardly. Once you've learned how to proofread systematically, your prose will be more successful and polished, and you'll save effort and time over haphazard, disorganized means you may currently be using.

In any event, here are my own notes on proofreading. You can now update your writing inventory on learning various techniques involved with different stages of the writing process.

Those notes just below are the main ones to remember:

It's nearly impossible to effectively proofread your own work. You know what you mean to say. When you read your own work, you often read over mistakes. My best piece of advice is to get others to proofread your work. Try to get at least three people to look at your work prior to turning it in. If necessary, hire someone or create a writer's group to help you with proofreading.

EVERYONE makes mistakes. Don't kick yourself for your mistakes, learn to recognize them and how to fix them. Even then, you'll still make mistakes.

I once worked for an academic journal. Four sets of eyes proofed each article--the professor who wrote it, myself, the departmental secretary, and the editor. Still, EVERY time we got the journal back from the printers, I opened it to a random page and found at least one mistake. EVERYONE, even professionals, make mistakes. I know, for instance, there are more than a few errors in these notes.

When you proofread, you're trying to do something called breaking set. This means you want to change the set or usual way you read, so you don't read over mistakes. Most of the proofreading tricks I list below have to do with changing how you read, so you can see what you've written.

1. Give yourself time to proofread. It's easy to find yourself adding the last sentence to a text at the last possible minute. As we finish drafting, the last thing we want to do is acknowledge there's yet more work to do. We want to be done. Resist the temptation. Give yourself time to proofread. Your final product will be better for the time. To give yourself time, set your deadline for finishing your draft in time to revise the draft for content and structure and to still have time to proofread.

2) Read backwards from the last sentence to the first. When proofreading for spelling, read backwards one word at a time. Learn to isolate each word, even those which have been passed by the spell check. It doesn't catch every misspelling. When proofreading for sentence issues, read backwards one sentence at a time.

3) Read slowly and out loud. You'll be surprised how reading something out loud, as opposed to silently, will let you hear errors you'd otherwise overlook.

4) Read to someone else. Reading your paper to someone else forces you to take an audience into account. Not only can the person you're reading to ask questions about content, they can mark places in a copy of your paper where they're confused or they hear an error as you read. When you hear a mistake or a piece of awkward phrasing, you can mark it and come back later to fix it.

5) Print out your text. If you usually read your papers on the screen, make a hard copy. As you find errors, mark them, and later revise your electronic copy. When we're drafting and hit the creative zone, we often work quickly and have a hard mental focus on meaning. These habits of reading quickly and thinking in terms of meaning and adding or cutting content can track over into efforts to proofread on the screen. Remember, when you're proofreading, you're not so much worried about content or organization (hopefully, each of these elements was polished earlier in the writing process), when proofreading you're looking at mechanics, usage, spelling, and grammar and only at mechanics, usage, spelling, and grammar.

6) Get someone else to read your work to you. Print out two hard copies. Get a friend to read your work to you. Both of you mark places which don't make sense or appear to be problematic. Use both copies as an index when fixing your text. Go back and look at each place which was marked and try to figure out what caused the area to get marked.

7) Have the computer read the text two you. Make a hard copy and set up the computer to read the text out loud. It will read what's there. Every time you hear an error, mark your hard copy. Use your marked copy as an index to what needs to be fixed. You can find many free text to speech readers by just googling.

8) Give yourself time. Breaking set isn't just about reading backwards or reading out loud. You get close to a text when you draft it and work on content and structural revision. If you try to proofread after working this closely with the text, you'll find yourself seeing what you meant to say rather than what you're actually saying. Horace, a Roman rhetorician, recommended putting what you write away for nine years, that is, until it reads as if someone else wrote it. We don't have such luxury, but giving yourself a day or two to let the text set, even just doing something else between finishing your content revisions and proofreading, gives distance enough so you're can bring fresh eyes back to your text. So, finish your draft and reward yourself with a night's sleep, a night out, or a workout prior to proofreading.

9) Give yourself time to proofread. Slow down. You're not in a race to get through, you're trying to look closely at multiple things, and the process takes time. Slow down. Read slowly. Take the time it takes to truly see and truly edit every sentence and word.

10) Physically touch every word. Talk about breaking set! Read backwards. Read out loud, and touch every word to make sure you're seeing and proofreading each and every word and sentence.

11) Use the grammar and spell checker. The state of the art in grammar and spell checkers isn't quite there yet, but they can help you see some errors. Just don't their word as law. Use them for the things at which they're effective. They can isolate "to be" verb constructions and give you an index to possible passive voice constructions. They can show you long sentences. They can usually recognize subject verb disagreements. They can sometimes help with punctuation. The real trick with using grammar and spell checkers is to learn their weaknesses and to learn how to customize them to the style of writing you want to reproduce.

12) Boo-boo or demon words. You know these words. They're the ones which sneak through the spell checker. Usually they're jargon or proper names you misspell or forget to capitalize. You can customize autocorrect to make corrections for your most typical boo-boo words.

13) Use a ruler or a piece of paper to isolate the sentences you're proofreading. This practice forces you to look at the sentence you're proofing, not the next sentence, not the previous sentence, the sentence you're supposed to be looking at.

14) Learn your problem areas. Everyone is prone to making different mistakes. If you or someone else sees a pattern in your mistakes, put it on a personal "list of things I have to look at when proofreading." (This is why it's a good idea to read the papers you get back from teachers and proofreaders. Often your professor will mark errors. Use their work to help develop your list of "things at which I have to look.") By learning to recognize the problems you're prone to introducing into the text and how these errors can be fixed, you'll soon find yourself making fewer errors. Every once in a while, take your copy of "things at which I have to look" and find your worse error. Spend some time researching how to recognize and fix your worse error. Eventually, you'll find your list of common errors getting shorter and your sentence level writing improving in proportion.

Adding Collaborators Seems to be Fixed

Reports from most students say the problem with adding collaborators seems to be fixed. Here's what to do if you have trouble:

1. Clear your browser's catch of cookies and temporary files.

If step one doesn't allow you to add collaborators, try:

2. Add collaborators one at a time.

When you share your google doc with a group of collaborators (Shart tab ===> Share with Others ====> Add collaborators window), you have two choices, adding folks as full collaborators or adding folks as viewers. Add your group and me as a full collaborator. This will allow us not only to read and view your document, but it will allow us to leave comments, suggestions, etc. I've had some reports of students not being able to edit once they open a document shared with them, my best guess is that this is because they've been added as a viewer rather than a full collaborator.

Steve

Readings for Week of Oct 6

I have added 2 pdf files to the web site, titled "Rev as Soc Mov" and "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin." Please read, print and bring them for Friday.

Procrastination Hacks

Since so many of you are working on procrastination, I thought I might pass on some of my favorite ideas and helpful articles and notes.

Procrastination Hacks -- Here's a list of twenty habits and tricks you can try to help get things done.

Big Rocks First -- Learn how to schedule your hardest tasks first.

Motivation Hacks -- Are you under motivated? Try these ideas to help motivate yourself.

More to come...

Plagiarism

Well, I have found my first real case of plagiarism this semester. (Don't worry; I haven't graded your papers yet, so it's not from your section.) I thought this might be a good opportunity to discuss plagiarism from a teacher's perspective.
Right away, I want to say that I distinguish between different kinds of errors. I'm not gleefully waiting for a student to make an innocent mistake so I can kick them off the boat. Many errors (especially in Freshman classes) are based on misunderstandings of the norms of citation used in academia. I ask my students to distinguish between primary and secondary sources, quotation and paraphrase, and the norms of citing and the boundaries of the acceptable are slightly different for each one. Quotations require specific page citations. Paraphrases require page citation, too, but there's the additional issue of how of the wording can remain similar, and how often the citation needs to be made per paragraph. Many students are used to writing papers by rearranging material from the textbook -- this is unacceptable, but many students learn it in high school. So I realize that for many students the norms are changing rapidly from the high school they just left, and I don't expect them to get it completely right the first time. I give papers that only refer to materials we have used in class precisely so I can remove temptation and make the process more transparent.
I divide plagiarism errors into three categories. The first are simple misunderstandings and minor errors. I usually note them in my comments and ask students to modify them in revision. I may lower the grade slightly, within normal mechanisms for evaluating their style and substance. If I continue to see them, I increase the severity of the response. Next there are cases in which the student actively copies large portions of the paper from a web site and doesn't cite it. I assume these cases are done with the _intention_ to cheat. I then speak to the student and if they are sufficiently contrite, I usually fail the student for that assignment, and sometimes also make the student rewrite the paper to an acceptable level. I also give a note to Student Affairs. If you are tempted to just Google a web-site and use whole paragraphs as your own, without citation, don't. I can usually tell just by reading a sentence whether it was written by a Freshman or not. Professional writing is usually more fluid, more complex in structure, and has a larger vocabulary range than writing produced by undergraduates. Now, occasionally, I meet a student who writes that well, but it's rare enough that I usually know within a few weeks which students they are. When a student who has previously shown a poor mastery of English suddenly writes like a PhD candidate, it's rather, uhm, suspicious. I can also use Google, too. If you've gotta cheat, don't cheat stupid.
Then there's the nuclear level of plagiarism. If a student plagiarizes more than once, lies about it when confronted, or does something else really beyond the bounds, I will fail them for the course or seek some other level of severe sanction. (For example, I once had a student completely rewrite the paper to remove the evidence of plagiarism between when I asked her to speak to me but before I assigned a grade. She then tried to claim the new paper was the one she'd handed in. Of course, I had a xerox of the original one, and wasn't amused.) So I'm at my nastiest when a student intentionally cheats, lies about it, AND insults my intelligence.
So, as a teacher, I'm not out to demolish students for making honest errors, or to inflict disproportionate punishment even in cases of cheating. For the record, I wouldn't have thrown the students off the boat. (But I might have failed them for the paper or the course.)


Tom

Problems with adding collaborators in google docs.

After touting the wondrous simplicity and ease of use of using google docs to collaborate, Google has picked now to prove me wrong.

If you've tried to add several folks as collaborators, and you've received an error message to the effect, "The server encountered an error. Try again later." You are far from alone. It's a google issue and isn't limited to this class, but is happening all over the web. Here is what I know about the problem and what is being said online about it:

The problem with the server is not you or your machine. There is something else going on, as the same problem is happening with other students and on my machine. From what I've been able to gather, folks are often able to add one collaborator at a time, but trying to add more sometimes--not always--is giving the google servers fits. I've read reports online that faster connections are getting through better, so I suspect some folks are just being timed out by google. The good thing is that google knows of the problem, but it has been unusually slow in fixing it.

For right now, try the trick of adding one collaborator at a time.

Resource Post: Punctuation Made Simple.

Follow the link to an approachable discussion of punctuation:

"Punctuation Made Simple."

FYI: A Method to Learn New Vocabulary

Since Tom's test is coming up soon, and you'll be studying new terms, here is a method I use with developmental students to help them learn new vocabulary. By the way, this is a good method to improve your own vocabulary.

Expressways--a writing textbook--suggests you use mindmaping to learn new words. You can use online tools to make mind maps. Here is a link to two of my favorite online mind mapping tools:

* Bubbl.us
* MindMeister

If you don't know what a mindmap is, here's a link to explain:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map


Here is Expressways' advice on how to use a mind map to learn a new word:

Using Word Mapping

Word mapping is a visual method of expanding your vocabulary. It involves examining a word in detail by considering its meanings, synonyms (words similar in meaning), antonyms (words opposite in meaning), part(s) of speech, word parts, and usages. A word map is a form of word study. By the time you have completed the map, you will find that you have learned the word and are ready to use it in your speech and writing.

Set up a mind map with the word you want to learn at the center.

Your mindmap will contain the following nodes:

• Primary Meaning--include the part of speech in this node along with the meaning.
• Secondary Meaning--if the word has more than one meaning, include it here.
  
• Synonyms--use a thesaurus to find these.
  
• Sentences--write two sentences using the word.
  
• Word Parts--break the word down into its root and any prefixes and suffixes.
  
• Other--this is good place to find and put antonyms
  

Use the following steps in completing a word map:

1. Write a sentence in which the word appeared at the top of the map. Figure out which meaning fits the context and write it in the box labeled “Meaning (as used in reading).” Fill in the word’s part of speech as used in this context.
2. Study the dictionary entry to discover other meanings of the word. Fill those in on the map in the box labeled “Other Meanings.”
3. Find or think of two synonyms (words similar in meaning). You might need to use a thesaurus for this.
4. Write two sentences using the word.
5. Analyze the word’s parts. Identify any prefixes, roots, and suffixes.
Write the word part and its meaning in the box labeled “Word Parts.”
6. In the box labeled “Other,” include any other interesting information about the word. You might include antonyms, restrictive meanings, or the word’s history or derivation).

As you create a word map, here are some resources you might find helpful:

Links to online dictionaries taken from this useful post from studenthacks,

"101+ Web Resources for Students":

Dictionaries

• Acronym Finder
• American Heritage Dictionary
• British National Corpus
• Encarta World English Dictionary
• Idiom Connection
• Lexicool
• Oxford English Dictionary
• Roget’s Thesaurus
• Rhyming Dictionary
• Synonym Dictionary

If you want some terms on which to practice, here's a list of the most used words in Academic Writing. At least one study has shown around a 10% improvement in student comprehension of academic texts just by learning these sixty words.

The most used words in Academic Writing

analyze
approach
area
assess
assume
authority
available
benefit
concept
consist
constitute
context
contract
create
data
define
derive
distribute
economy
environment
establish
estimate
evident
export
factor
finance
formula
function
identify
income
indicate
individual
interpret
involve
issue
labor
legal
legislate
major
method
occur
percent
period
policy
principle
proceed
process
require
research
respond
role
section
sector
significant
similar
source
specific
structure
theory
vary

SCIENCE NIGHT AT THE COLLEGE

The Fifth Annual J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College “Science Night at the College” will be held on Wednesday, October 8 in the Massey Library Technology Center’s Lipman Auditorium located at 1651 East Parham Road from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Program:

“Fire & Ice” by Associate Professor David Walz.

Iceland sits atop the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where the North American Plate and the European Plate separate. This highly tectonic island is very young geologically and its landscape features active volcanoes, lava fields, hot springs and geysers. Professor Walz will discuss how Iceland’s cultural history began with the settlement of Vikings from mainland Europe and how its modern technology is supported by an unlimited supply of geothermal energy and hot water.

Detoxifying Cigarette Smoke” presented by Dr. Dory Snow.

The presentation will examine toxins found in cigarette smoke and will explain how the human body rids itself of them. Dr. Snow will cover how certain enzymes may be the key to why some people get sick from cigarette smoke.

“Heart Failure” presented by Dr. Ramzi Ockaili.

The presentation will cover the basic definition of "Heart Failure,” stages and causes of the disease. Dr. Ockaili will discuss the biological and physical manifestations of the disease and some of the clinical challenges. He will finally touch on the clinical signs and symptoms and on the various strategies that will maximize the quality of care for the patient.

A SIGN-IN SHEET WILL RECORD STUDENTS WHO ATTEND AND SUCH WILL BE AVAILABLE.

For more information contact Richard Groover, 523-5594.

There will be no Jamestown fieldtrip this weekend.

To give you extra time to plan and to ask for time off, we are going to delay the Jamestown field trip until Saturday, the 18th of October.

The Jamestown field trip on the 18th will count as an college activity for Jena's SDV, and it can be used for extra credit in Tom's History class. Tom will give you one point on your final grade just for attending, and up to two addtional points if you write up what you learned. If you post your reflection on what you learn to the class discussion list, I will offer two points extra credit in ENG 111.

FYI: Atlanta, 1864...mud, mud, mud...

Atlanta, 1864. Sherman, the Northern General, is about the burn the city. He's attacked Atlanta because Atlanta is the main transportation point for the South. It has a number of railroads coming through. Northern soldiers, who have fought their way form Chattanooga to Atlanta, leaving behind a *long* and vulnerable supply line, will strip the town of supplies. At this point in history, the southern defenders have deserted the town. Sherman has entered and will burn the town when he leaves. Sherman will then begin his March to the Sea, where he will burn and destroy some of the South's most productive farming. His march signals the beginning of the end for the South. Sherman will prove the North can move at will through the south and destroy the economy at will.

Finally, notice the dirt roads and mud. When Sherman leaves Atlanta, the Fall and Winter rains will begin. All those wagons you see in the picture, filled with with supplies stripped from Atlanta, will follow the men and cavalry, creating muddy roads of legendary proportions. At some points, the horses will be mired up to their chests in mud. The men will then be drafted to drag the wagons.

If you've ever seen Gone with the Wind, the burning of Atlanta is the background.

Steve