Blog Assignment

There are two parts to the blogging portion of your grade: 1) two full posts  2) commenting on others’ posts. Remember to sign up for your post dates on Blackboard (one should be before the midterm). If you have to change your date, please do so at least 24 hours in advance, and switch to another open slot.

Note: If you miss a blog post or are unhappy with the grade, you may choose to write an optional third blog post, and I will drop your lowest grade of the three. You must still sign up in advance for this post.

See Grading Rubric Here.

1) Throughout the semester, each student will be required to write two 300-500 word posts on the day’s assigned reading. Responses should be posted no later than 8pm the day before our class meeting to ensure all class members have time to view the response. If we are reading more than one text on your assigned day, you may choose to focus on one text.

What to do in your posts:

• Provide an interpretation (close reading) of a certain aspect of the text: you may focus on a certain section of the text or a certain theme; you don’t have to account for the text in its entirety.
  
• Point us to a particular passage or part of the text you’d like to focus on/analyze
• Stick closely to the text, its language, and concerns, images, characters
• Raise or attempt to answer challenging questions
• Use specific examples from the text
• Really delve into one idea or question, rather than jumping around without fully analyzing anything.
• Pay attention to spelling, grammar, punctuation, word choice, and proofreading
• Tag your posts with at least 3 categories of your choosing: think of these as hashtags. You can stick with the obvious categories here (Poetry, Nature, author’s name, etc.), but you can also get creative (e.g. thestruggleisreal, loveit, confusing).
• Please read the other blog posts for the day, and any comments already posted. On days you post, I’d like you to be prepared to talk about and expand upon whatever ideas you raise in your own blog post. You should have in mind specific passages and/or ideas that we should focus on and in general, you should be prepared to be the go-to person during the class discussion–ready to answer my questions or raise your own if called upon.

You may also:

• Make connections between the text and another text we have read for class
• Connect the text to a contemporary theme or issue
• Include images or video if applicable.

What NOT to do:

• Provide a summary of the plot: we’ve all read the text as well and, we don’t need you to repeat to us what happened
• Write your post entirely about the section or author introduction.
• Focus entirely on outside information: while you may want to make connections to another text, the main focus of your post should be analysis of the reading itself

2) Commenting

Students will be expected to comment on the blog at least three times throughout the semester. These should be substantive comments–a paragraph or two in length–that respond specifically to the posts, rather than a simple “great job!” or “I agree!” These should be spread out throughout the semester, and not posted on a day you are assigned to write a primary post. Comments should be posted while we’re still discussing the text–ideally before the class session in which we discuss the text, and no later than the end of that day.

While informed disagreement and engaged argument is encouraged, all class members should be respectful of their peers in any and all blog posts and comments.