My schedule this week. On Thursday and Friday this week I am out of town, with limited email access at best. I've replied to all the Storybooks that were turned in before noon on Tuesday. You can still turn in a Week 11 Storybook assignment late for partial credit until noon on Thursday as usual, but I won't be able to get comments back to you about those assignments until Monday when I'll be back in the office again. If you have questions about anything that comes up, definitely send me an email - and if I am not able to reply to you right away, I'll get back to you on Monday for sure. You can see what was in the Storybook stack as of Wednesday night; I'll update the stack when I get back on Monday morning.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Sunday IT Maintenance. On the third Sunday of every month, IT does maintenance on its servers. There will be a maintenance window this Sunday, April 19. This often causes service outages, which may affect email, web publishing, and other OU IT services. The maintenance window is in the morning, and the maintenance should be completed before noon on Sunday. For specific information and updates, see the IT Alerts page at alerts.ou.edu (this is also a good page to check if you are experiencing problems with Desire2Learn, email, or other IT services).
Overview of Week 12 and Week 13 Internet assignments. In Week 12, you will have your last assignment commenting on other people's Storybooks - it will be all free choice this time! That will be available for you tomorrow, Tuesday, when Week 12 starts. Then, for the Week 13 assignment (available on Tuesday, April 21), you will be voting on your favorite Storybooks for the semester. After you turn in your nominations, I'll set up a ballot so everybody can vote for the best Storybooks - it's not for a grade or anything, it's just for fun, and it gives the folks who have done really excellent work on their Storybooks a chance to get some well deserved recognition.
Overview of remaining Storybook assignments. For Week 12, you are adding your final new story, and the Week 13 assignment consists of revising that final story. The Week 14 assignment is to do a final revision of your Introduction. The Week 15 assignment involves revisions to your bibliography and image information for each story, making sure they are all complete. (Some of you may be on a different schedule if you missed assignments earlier in the semester; check with me if you are not sure about this.) If you want, you can skip the Week 12 and Week 13 assignments, stopping with just three stories in your Storybook, and proceed directly to Week 14 and Week 15 if you want. Be careful: if you take this option, you cannot go back and add a new story later - but if you are close to finishing, and do not need the points from the Week 12 and Week 13 Storybook assignments, feel free to proceed directly to Week 14!
April 16: Aphra Behn. Thursday, April 16, marks the death in the year 1689 of Aphra Behn, one of the first professional women writers in the English literary tradition. You can read more about her life and career in this Wikipedia article. In addition to her literary pursuits, she even worked as a spy for King Charles II, under the code name "Astrea." She is buried, along with many other famous English writers, in Westminster Abbey, and her tombstone reads: Here lies a Proof that Wit can never be / Defence enough against Mortality. You can see the inscription on the tombstone below, along with a portrait of Aphra Behn in life:
