Blog Instructions

The Blog

Writing 100

You will be keeping a blog that we will be linking to our course blog. For each unit in the course, you will produce a blog post or a collaborative blog post in preparation for each formal paper project. Blogs are multimedia, and you will be capable of expressing your ideas in many forms: in images, text, sound, video, etc.

All of your work on your blog is public. It can and will be Googled. In other words, you are leaving an intellectual trail for all to see.  If your grammar is poor, your spelling bad, your punctuation leaves the impression that you do not know about capital letters, you will be creating a public record of which you cannot be proud. Proofread everything you write. Be proud of your intellectual trail. This public blog is something you will be able to point to as an accomplishment long after you have forgotten your grade for this course. You will be able to show future employers how adept you are at technology platforms and communication.

The Technical Stuff

First, you will have to create a Google account and start a blog on Blogger (blogger.com). You will send me the link to your blog, which I will then link to the main course blog. For each of the assignment blog posts, you will visit your classmates’ blogs and comment on their posts. In other words:

1. Get Google account

2. Create blog on Blogger (part of Google family of websites)
3. Send me the link via email ebrumitt@cedarcrest.edu

Writing A Quality Blog Post

1. Clearly identify what you are discussing. Use helpful titles.
2. Each blog post should have at least one photograph or image and one link to a web resource.

3. This is in part a reading journal. You will be practicing your reading and writing skills. To understand what an author is saying it often helps to outline what the author has written, said or otherwise presented.

4. You need to summarize what each author is saying (arguing for, opposing, contending, describing, etc.) in such a way that a person who has not read or seen the original material being discussed will understand what the discussion is about. This summary should be brief, though. Remember blog posts are pithy!

5. You need to discuss your position. Sometimes it is how and why you disagree (or to what extent you disagree). In some cases you need to think about and describe how the author's arguments, if true, might affect you. In other cases you need to support the author's position with evidence from your own experiences. Outlining what you intend to write BEFORE you write it will help you clarify your thoughts!

6. You need to studiously AVOID empty paragraphs that could fit in any assignment. In other words, it says nothing. Here is an example:

I am very impressed with the author's writing style. I am laughing and wincing all at the same time. I love it! Thank you, Professor, for asking us to subscribe to the feed. I think I would have missed a lot of his writing, if you had not. I really like the Google Reader as well.

This paragraph says NOTHING of substance. It could fit anywhere. It is an empty paragraph

7. Use proper grammar, spelling and follow capitalization rules.

8.Proofread your post! It can be corrected even after it has been published!

Writing A Quality Blog Post Response

We are practicing written communication in this course; therefore, you will be responding to your classmates’ blog posts in a substantive way.

1. Respond directly to the ideas in the original post. What do you want to know more about? What did you get out of reading this post? Did you think of something new? Did the link or image your classmate included help you to think of the issues?

2. Do NOT tell your classmate that she did a good job. Just as the empty paragraph is explained above, make everything you say count on these blogs.

3. Use proper grammar, spelling and follow capitalization rules.

4. Proofread your post! It can be corrected even after it has been published!