Your Weblog
You'll do a lot of the writing for this class in your individual weblog space on the course website. Think of your weblog as your personal journal--only it's not private. Your classmates, teacher, and potentially anyone on the Internet can access it. You should always write with the awareness of a potential public audience beyond this class.
In your weblog, you will respond to readings, post drafts, and share research notes. Your class members will be able to post feedback (comments) to your blog entries. You can access your weblog via your profile page or the "Blogs" link top left.
Note: File attachments posted to your blog are only accessible to members of this class until you publicly share the URL.
Good Blogging Practices
Follow these general blogging practices to demonstrate your awareness of the rhetorical situation and to receive full credit for your work.
- Use good titles. Titles for blog posts should reflect the context of what you have written, not merely restate the name of the title of the assignment or reading. Be specific.
- Smaller chunks. A good strategy when writing for the web is to use shorter paragraphs. 1, 2, 3, 4, or maybe even 5 sentence paragraphs are long enough for a blog post.
- Bloggers link. Good bloggers always keep in mind that they are writing for a public audience. They provide links to reference sources they use on other websites. Besides, there would be no World Wide Web without hyperlinks.
Final Tips
- To receive credit for your work, be sure to follow the course requirements for reading responses.
- Too often people forget to hit submit or their Internet connection fails while posting. Always double-check to see if your blog has been posted after you think that it has been posted. You can only get credit for work that actually appears on this course website.
