[amended from Delia DeCourcy, Alan Jacobs, and Bill Wolff]
Your blog is a place to further explore the ideas we discuss in class, to write about related concepts of interest, and to ask questions about them. When creating, designing and writing in your blog, please complete the following:
- Choose a professional and meaningful title and subtitle.
- Compose a detailed and relevant About page discussing who you are and the focus of your blog.
- Choose an appropriate theme.
- For each blog post, compose a meaningful title written for an audience beyond our class.
- For each blog post, include 5-6 tags.
There is no set requirement for the length of a blog post. One of the features of the blogging medium and the characteristics of individual posts is that length is determined by content and goals. However, each post you make should be thorough in discussing the subject at hand.
During the weeks regular blogging is required, be sure to post 1) an entry that extends the class discussion and 2) one that explores an area of interest particular to you. These posts should serve as exploratory, introductory writing toward larger, later assignments. I encourage you to offer an interpretation, ask a question, link to, quote from, and respond to anything and everything we read this semester.
Again, blogging in this course should be concerned with the regular examination of ideas and provide concise arguments via unique viewpoint and voice. With that in mind, I encourage you to:
- Find new ways of saying what you think you want to say.
- Make clear to readers that there is substantive thought behind the ideas presented.
- Push yourself to explore the ways you can get at ideas through the use of different media.
- Have specific references, including text, hyperlinks, video, images, and audio, as means of support.
- Experiment with the dashboard area.
- See how things work and what happens when you make changes.
The more you engage with, customize, and explore your blog, the more effective it will be and the more you will get out of the assignment.