Gentles,

We're coming down to the wire, so I just want to preview our final week, remind you of what you have due this week, and give you an extension to a due date if you want it.

You've got just three modules this week, and two of them are on Wole Soynika's Death and the King's Horseman. It's not particularly long, as plays go, but reading drama sometimes takes longer than reading fiction, so I split it up into two days, Monday and Tuesday.

On Tuesday your secondary responses to the third discussion forum are due.

Wednesday brings more poetry, from Seamus Heaney, who, while he was alive, was the most popular poet in the world. His work is very moving, and his range extends from making connections between Neolithic bodies dug up from bogs and the political situation in Northern Ireland in the 60s, 70s, and 80s ("The Troubles," as the Irish call that time) to plumbing memories of his childhood in order to create poems that are so particular they're universal.

Your second exam will be available on Thursday. The process for taking it is the same as for the first exam, except you'll have a full two hours to complete this one. Once you log in to it, your two-hour time limit will start. 

Now here's the offer of an extension: your second paper was originally due at midnight on Wednesday, which would mean you could clear the decks for this class in order to study for your exam. But I'm willing to push that deadline to midnight on Thursday. I hope the extra day gives you time to edit and proofread your work more closely.

I'll change that due date in Folio as soon as I post this email. Of course, if you still want to turn in your paper on Wednesday, that’s fine by me.

Since final grades are probably due on Saturday (I've asked three people, and got two different answers for this, but it makes sense that they would be due on Saturday), I won't mark your papers in the TurnItIn grading suite unless there's a problem with academic integrity (plagiarism, etc.). As you're well aware from your first papers, I read them very closely, assuming that every sentence is written exactly as you mean it to be. Of course, I'll be reading this second paper just as closely as I read your first one, but I won't be commenting on any errors, because I just don't have 30 hours to put all those marks on them (30 hours is just under what it took me to mark your first papers). However, if you have any questions about your grade for this paper, let me know once I've posted the grades, and I will be able to give you some detailed feedback about your paper.

Here's everything in a nutshell:

Monday:
     Soyinka - Module 23, part 1

Tuesday:
     Soyinka - Modules 23, part 2
     Secondary posts for Discussion Forum 3

Wednesday:
     Heaney: Module 24

Thursday:
     Exam 2
     Paper #2

Dr. P