Storybook Stack. I'm still making my way through the stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in an assignment on Sunday, you should have comments back from me. If you turned in an assignment on Monday or Tuesday, it is probably still in the stack. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. Remember: save the emails I send you back about your Storybook assignments. My comments are marked with ==> in the body of the email, and you will need those comments when you go on to the next week's assignment. I promise to reply to everybody by the end of the week - but when you turn in an assignment on Sunday or later, the stack is very big, and it takes me all week sometimes to get through it.
Extra Credit: Grammar Quizzes. In addition to working ahead now at the beginning of the semester, before things get busy in your other classes, this is also a good time to do some of the Grammar Quizzes. They can help you to build up a cushion of extra credit in case you miss some assignments later on, and they can also help you review some aspects of English writing before you begin turning in your Storybook story pages. You will be expected to write correctly spelled and punctuated English for your Storybook, and this is something almost all students have trouble with. The grammar quizzes focus on common spelling and punctuation problems, based on what I have seen in student writing over the past ten years. So, if you have a few minutes, take some time to review things like Comma Rules and Apostrophe Rules and take an extra credit quiz to test your knowledge. Here is more information about the Grammar Quizzes.
Tech Tip emails. (repeat announcement) Until I get through the Storybook stack, I won't be responding to all the Tech Tip emails, but I'll get to that later in the week, I promise. Meanwhile, please feel free to go ahead and do more Tech Tips if you want. You certainly don't need to wait on my reply to your latest Tech Tip email for you to go ahead and do more of the Tech Tips.
September 1: Edgar Rice Burroughs. Today marks the birthday in 1875 of the American author Edgar Rice Burroughs, who is best known for having invented the story of Tarzan. You can read more about Burroughs's life and career in this Wikipedia article, and you can read many of his books online as they are in the public domain. Here is an inventory of Burroughs books online, including the Tarzan books - over 20 of them! There are even Tarzan audiobooks available for free download from LibriVox. So, get in touch with your inner ape and spend some time today with Tarzan if you are so inclined! The following image is for the LibriVox edition of Tarzan of the Apes:
