Downtown mixing fabrics trying to find the magic
Started a little blog just to get some traffic
Old folks’ll tell you not to play in traffic
A million hits and the web crashes – damn!
As part of this course, you will submit two original blog entries to a course blog at Blogger.com on “The City in Literature.” You will also be required to respond once per rotation to a blog post by one of your classmates.- Kanye West, "Made in America"
The point of the course blog is to 1) practice the literacy of digital writing, and 2) practice thinking through and writing about the culture of cities.
Given the changing landscape of writing across the curriculum, you will very likely be required to use some kind of WYSIWYG format to express yourself in your college courses. Practicing how to write in this format will thus be good college preparation. Think especially about the design of your posts: how you integrate original text, quotations, images, and other elements both aesthetically and analytically.
My hope is that the blog will also be an online forum for us to discuss course texts as well as broader issues relating to the study of cities. Ideas about the novels under study will be covered on the blog. But we will also explore how music videos and current events not necessarily studied formally in class are relevant to course topics. The blog is thus a continuation of class discussion and a place to brainstorm for formal essays.
One of your two blogs will be a response to course materials (any novel, poem, song, music video, film, photograph, or event studied in the class). This of this blog entry as a pre-writing exercise for your class essays--there's no reason you can't cut and paste and revise a blog for your paper assignments. Just as in a traditional essay, you will be expected to close read and cite correctly.
The other blog assignment will be a commentary on an outside source (any novel, poem, song, music video, film, photograph, or event you find relevant to course topics). Of course, this writing might prove fruitful for later assignments as well: you are thinking through course ideas that might be relevant to an essay for the course and you could use some of the writing as an introduction to an essay.
The other blog assignment will be a commentary on an outside source (any novel, poem, song, music video, film, photograph, or event you find relevant to course topics). Of course, this writing might prove fruitful for later assignments as well: you are thinking through course ideas that might be relevant to an essay for the course and you could use some of the writing as an introduction to an essay.
Each blog entry should contain at least the following:
ü 300-500 words original writing, or about 1-2 double-spaced pages in Word (minimum)
ü 1 good, clear, and intriguing title
ü 1 quotation
ü 3 images or videos (minimum)
ü 2 hyperlinks
ü 3 content "labels"
A note on images, videos, and quotes: Digital writing is a highly visual medium. You always want to be thinking about an appropriate balance between text and images, video, etc. Images and videos make your writing look better, but should also be used to support and further your argument. Indented quotes can also be used to break up text or highlight major ideas.
A note on links: Links are, in a sense, the citations in your digital writing. They should link to websites that support your points or allow your readers to learn more about a topic.
A note on "labels": Labels are key terms and concepts discussed in your entry. They act as a kind of organically generated "index" for the content of the blog. This will be helpful in your paper-writing process, as you will be able to review writing on a certain course topic ("environmental determinism," for example), by clicking on the label and reading through the entries on that topic. Labels should neither be too general ("cities") or too specific ("Marcy Projects"), though labeling an author or text discussed is helpful.
Remember that, unlike a traditional essay, when you write a blog entry, your audience is not only your teacher. This blog is the community forum for the everyone involved in the course, so you are in conversation with your classmates as well. Because the blog is published on the web, your entries will also be accessible to anyone with an internet connection!
A note on links: Links are, in a sense, the citations in your digital writing. They should link to websites that support your points or allow your readers to learn more about a topic.
A note on "labels": Labels are key terms and concepts discussed in your entry. They act as a kind of organically generated "index" for the content of the blog. This will be helpful in your paper-writing process, as you will be able to review writing on a certain course topic ("environmental determinism," for example), by clicking on the label and reading through the entries on that topic. Labels should neither be too general ("cities") or too specific ("Marcy Projects"), though labeling an author or text discussed is helpful.
Remember that, unlike a traditional essay, when you write a blog entry, your audience is not only your teacher. This blog is the community forum for the everyone involved in the course, so you are in conversation with your classmates as well. Because the blog is published on the web, your entries will also be accessible to anyone with an internet connection!
Blog entry due dates are scheduled on the course syllabus and are due on off days by 5 pm unless otherwise noted. Responses should be posted by class meeting time the following day.
Here are some sites that might be helpful to you as you begin to practice your blogging skillz (note that my tutorials are based on an older Blogger format and that the newer format makes things like embedding YouTube videos much easier):
[NOTE: It it possible to create a Google account with creating a Gmail address, though if you have a Gmail address, it might be easier to register with Blogger using that.]
