I have a general question about whether there's a reason behind assigning readings by page numbers rather than by chapter numbers (when applicable).

Sometimes, page numbers are best. Sometimes there aren't chapters, or you're assigning only part of a chapter - I understand that.

But I'm looking at Week 20's assignment of Great Expectations. Why is this assigned by page number, rather than by chapters? I eventually figured out (from the Week 21 notes or SAP, don't remember) that this is through chapter 13. But it seems that it would have been just as easy to write "chapters 1-13," and it would have saved lots of questions. Similarly, in the notes and SAPs, when you refer to pages 60-61 it would be so easy to add "in chapter 9," and would render those references useful to everyone who doesn't have this exact copy.

I don't imagine that you are trying to sell more copies by being able to say "the page numbers won't match up." I figure that either there's a reason I don't know, or that you just (in the hurry of putting all this together) haven't given it much thought. But I would like to put in a request for giving this some thought - it seems like it would save you some trouble later, anyway, when the editions you recommend go out of print.

Thanks so much for all you do! The longer I use this program, the better I like the way everything comes together over time. This is the only program I've ever used where the longer I use it, the more I do it "by the book."

Hi Beth. :-) Let me try to answer you if I can.

1) Ordinarily I believe we do give chapter assignments for literature books wherever possible (with some exceptions), because we are aware that not everybody is working from the same edition. The omission in this case is, I would guess, most likely due to an oversight in the preparation of that page. Thank God, we can easily correct that in DE and even have time to correct it the Y3U3 proofs before going to print. :-D

2. The SAP's and TN's are different. In those cases it would actually take up a lot more room to be constantly referring to page numbers AND the particular chapter (or line number for poems; or line number and volume; or chapter, book, and volume). We fiddled around with that idea for a while, but it created so many extra lines (especially if you are trying to account for every different edition format out there) and seemed like it would confuse the eye so much when the teacher was trying to use the notes in class, that we gave up. So the page numbers in the TN's are intentional and are probably going to stay that way. :-/ Unfortunately this does mean that those who don't have our recommended edition are going to have to fumble a bit with page #'s. However, we thought it was worth the extra time and effort it takes us to give page # citations, for the sake of those who can get the edition we recommend (either through Amazon or through us, or etc.). The goal is to provide an extra help for those who have to buy the book anyway (especially those trying to buy the same book as a co-op) and therefore have the option of getting "on the same page" with the class plan.

I hope that helps!

Christy

1) I'm glad to hear that chapter numbers are ordinarily given. (I haven't been teaching lit so far this year - we just switched teaching assignments in our co-op.)

2) Looking at the TNs, I agree with you that including chapters everywhere would be unwieldy. I shouldn't have implied that you should do that everywhere - I wasn't thinking of the page numbers attached to specific examples. When I wrote that I did have something more specific in mind that I can't identify today. But in any case, I noticed that you do give chapter numbers for the recitation assignments, which is helpful.

Thanks again!

Hi Beth! I was thinking of you this morning while correcting Weeks 20-23 Reading Assigment Charts for the printer so that they would reflect chapters instead of page #'s. That really was just a human error, so I'm doubly glad you caught the mistake it time for us to correct it! Thanks again. :-)

In the meantime, for you and anybody else who may be working from a different edition, here are the chapter #'s:

Week 20: I-XIII
Week 21: XIV-XXVII
Week 22: XXVIII-XLIV
Week 23: XLV-LIX

God bless!

Christy