Posting Guidelines

As noted in your schedule of assignments, you will complete 6 exploratory journals and various other reflections and writing activities on this blog. Your journals should be approximately 300-400 words unless otherwise specified.

Your posts should:

• engage with course texts by referencing specific ideas described in those texts
• describe your ideas with enough detail that your readers can understand them
• reference or pull directly from the reading (i.e. direct quotes)
• show your critical thinking about the text through analysis of specific passages, references to related texts, or synthesis of multiple texts
• demonstrated awareness of the genre you are working in (e.g. make use of the ability to add links, videos, images, etc. into your response)
• be unique to who you are as a writer, thinker, and knowledge-maker. 

What I’m looking for in the blog posts is for you to grow and as a writer and thinker, not to simply respond to questions in order to get a grade. This is your opportunity to begin to establish an identity as a researcher and a writer. These are the aspects that I will consider when assessing your posts. In other words, simply completing a post will not earn you full credit; you must meet the criteria outlined above.

Sometimes I will ask that you respond to your peers’ blogs, either as an in-class activity or as part of your homework. Your comments should be thoughtful and show that you are engaging with your peer’s ideas in a critical and reflective manner (i.e. don’t just say “I agree with what you said,” or “I like your idea”). Aim for around 100-200 words in your comments. You are also welcome (and encouraged) to comment on posts that you find interesting or compelling at any point, whether commenting has been assigned or not.

Finally, try to use your blog posts as a space to collect texts that appeal to you as a writer, that help you think about writing in new or different ways, that challenge your understanding of writing/yourself as a writer, and that you feel are helpful to forming your theory of writing. You can include quotes from texts you encounter in and/or outside of this class, images, videos, podcasts or audio clips, gifs, etc.