assignments ENGL226 Writing About Writing: BLOG INFORMATION
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LEE TORDA 310 Tillinghast Hall Bridgewater State University 508.531.2436 ltorda@bridgew.edu lee.torda@gmail.com www.leetorda.com |
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Overview: One of the challenges of teaching writing in a classroom to students who want to write outside of the classroom is mirroring the way people write in the real world. One of the most difficult and somehow fraught aspects of writing in the real world is that real readers read you—not for a grade, but because they like what you are writing. As a monumental testament to how little grades actually matter, students are much less nervous about having their teacher read and grade their writing than they are about having regular people read and not grade their writing. A blog is public. And there is the possibility for other people to read what you wrote. And that is what I am, in fact, inflicting this project on all of you: I want to raise the stakes a little.
I would like for this blog to be useful to your fellow English majors at BSU--or potential English majors. Blogs have real--not just imagined--audiences, and I'm asking you to write to this specific one.
Lots of blogs suck. I would like ours not to suck. I do not want it to be about our class or cutesy stuff about writing—bad clichés that there is plenty of and more on the internet already. It’s asking a lot, I know, but I’d like to come up with an idea for a blog that was general enough to allow all of us to have something to say, but, at the same time, not be so general that it’s about nothing at all.
We will, as a class, decide on a blog—based on personal expertise and interest as well as collective expertise and interest. Once we’ve made some decisions, I will set up a draft of the blog site, and invite the rest of you to give feedback and suggestions to the look and feel of the thing. Then we’ll start posting, one entry a day, every day except Sunday, until the last day of classes of the semester. This will mean roughly 2 to 3 bog posts per student over the course of the semester. I don't want to be too heavy handed with oversight, but, keep in mind, we are still in a classroom and foolish content will reflect badly not just on me but on the University. I don't want to pull content, but I reserve the right to (just in case).
In addition to determining the topic for our blog, you will also, as a class, determine the requirements for an "acceptable" blog post.
Let's get blogging.
Details
Acceptable blog posts have to follow these guidelines:
How You Will Be Evaluated
At The End of The Semester
When you are creating your final portfolio web site, you will include your blogs as professional writing samples. You'll have the chance to evaluate your blogs and, along with feedback from me, revise them for the portfolio. You can only revise blogs that you submit on time. You will submit to me a 500 word reflection on what you learned about your writing process and your writing process for writing for the public.
I would like for this blog to be useful to your fellow English majors at BSU--or potential English majors. Blogs have real--not just imagined--audiences, and I'm asking you to write to this specific one.
Lots of blogs suck. I would like ours not to suck. I do not want it to be about our class or cutesy stuff about writing—bad clichés that there is plenty of and more on the internet already. It’s asking a lot, I know, but I’d like to come up with an idea for a blog that was general enough to allow all of us to have something to say, but, at the same time, not be so general that it’s about nothing at all.
We will, as a class, decide on a blog—based on personal expertise and interest as well as collective expertise and interest. Once we’ve made some decisions, I will set up a draft of the blog site, and invite the rest of you to give feedback and suggestions to the look and feel of the thing. Then we’ll start posting, one entry a day, every day except Sunday, until the last day of classes of the semester. This will mean roughly 2 to 3 bog posts per student over the course of the semester. I don't want to be too heavy handed with oversight, but, keep in mind, we are still in a classroom and foolish content will reflect badly not just on me but on the University. I don't want to pull content, but I reserve the right to (just in case).
In addition to determining the topic for our blog, you will also, as a class, determine the requirements for an "acceptable" blog post.
Let's get blogging.
Details
Acceptable blog posts have to follow these guidelines:
How You Will Be Evaluated
- The blog project is worth 15% of your final grade. In order to earn a A for that 15%, you must submit the required number of blogs (To be determined by the number of people in the class and the number of days in the semester) at an acceptable level. See above for an explanation of what an "acceptable" blog looks like.
- Missing a blog post will drop your grade for that 15% to a B.
- Missing two blog posts will drop your grade for that 15% to a C.
- Missing more than two blog posts will mean you will earn an F for that 15% of your grade.
At The End of The Semester
When you are creating your final portfolio web site, you will include your blogs as professional writing samples. You'll have the chance to evaluate your blogs and, along with feedback from me, revise them for the portfolio. You can only revise blogs that you submit on time. You will submit to me a 500 word reflection on what you learned about your writing process and your writing process for writing for the public.