Introduction
Each week, I’ll ask you to make a post of 250-300 words on the class blog. While academic essay writing is often oriented towards advancing an argument, blog writing is often oriented towards being informative, or process-oriented – it’s an opportunity for you to work through an idea in draft form. I use blogs during classes because they provide an opportunity to practice writing for an audience of multiple readers; and because it’s often helpful to think about writing about a topic in multiple ways. The high school essay is one genre of writing; the academic essay is another; and blogging is a third genre — and each of these genres present different opportunities and challenges for authors.
In addition, it’s a good idea for you to start thinking now about your professional online identity, and participating in this course blog will allow you to consider the different options available to you. If you haven’t thought much about self-presentation online, I recommend that you read through this post from Sean Rahman, an educator at Michigan State University. And I recommend that everyone also read Rahman’s essay “Student Blogging — What You Should Know.”
In the class handout entitled “Course Blog Sign-Up Instructions, you’ll be given instructions to create an account for the blog. You may choose to post under a pseudonym, but you must inform me and your classmates of who you are via the Catalyst GoPost message board. Once you have chosen a pseudonym and username, you must use it for the rest of the quarter.
Once information has been published on the Internet, it is often accessible for years after the fact, and you should remember that as you publish information on this blog, and elsewhere. However, you should also know that this blog is not indexed by Google or other search engines, i.e., no one will find it unless they already have the address — so it is a comparatively safer space for you to publish in.
Finally, remember that the same rules of etiquette and respect that apply in the classroom also apply in this space. Cyberbullying and stalking will not be tolerated.
On to the assignment…
Posting: You will produce a total of 9 blog posts over the course of the quarter. Blog posts will be due each Wednesday evening by 8:00 p.m.
Sometimes, these posts will be in response to a specific question or set of instructions that I provide via the blog; other times, it will be your job to decide what to write about. Either way, your goals in writing posts should be to:
• Remain focused on a specific topic or question
• Present a balance of evidence and commentary, using quotations and citations
• Explain why your subject matter is important – why it matters to this class, and why it needs to be written about, and discussed.
In order to get credit for your blog posts, you need to tag them using the option in the righthand column of the blog posting page in WordPress. Use the following format: week0blog, week1blog, week2blog, etc. If you don’t tag your post, I won’t give you points for it, so don’t forget!
Reading and Commenting: During Week 0, I expect you to read all the blog posts for the class. Starting with Week 1, you will be divided into groups of 4 people; and you will be required to read and comment on each of your group members’ posts each week. Comments need to be substantive — 20-25 words minimum, and should say more than “this post was cool,” etc. You can use comments to raise questions, advance discussions, and/or disagree with the post — but remember to be polite! Be aware that failing to comment, or posting insubstantial comments, will adversely affect your blogging grade, regardless of the quality of your own posts.
Your comments will be due by 8 p.m. on Thursdays. For both posting and commenting, I encourage you to post in advance of the deadline, rather than just prior to it.
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