This semester, you will publish three blog posts to the class website.
1) Curator’s Blog (rolling due date: Friday-Sunday of your assigned week as a “curator”)
2) Midterm Blog (Experiences Reflection): due between 3/1-4/1)
3) Final Say (due after final portfolio—5/5)
These posts will appear on the site’s blog. Professional writers find composing blog posts a helpful exercise because it puts them in direct touch with their readers and gives them practice fleshing out new and sometimes risky ideas. I am primarily interested in keeping you thinking about the relationship between media, persuasion, and writing outside of the classroom and giving you additional opportunities writing using digital methods. Because of the necessarily creative and experimental sense of this project, the main tenant for receiving (and proving) credit for this assignment is thoughtful and consistent participation.
General Guidelines
Posts should be 300-500 words in length.
Topics: Blogs 2-3 have a specific prompts (see below). In your curator’s blog, you are encouraged to write about your experience taking the reins of the class social media accounts / the creative projects you undertook during your reign.
Some ideas include reviewing a song, video or concert current or topical to you as a UT student; discussing the implications of a recent piece of campus news; responding to a post by another student or a blogger on another site; explaining why you think a particular campus spot should be better appreciated; interviewing a professor, student athlete, or other university contact, and/or delving deeper into a topic that was raised in class. You may contribute no more than one Buzzfeed style listicle/list post because they make the site slower to load.
Write titles, sentences, and paragraphs that are short and easy to read. For specific suggestions, see Michael Reid Roberts on writing clickbait articles.
Keep readers interested by embedding images or videos. Place smaller images along the left margin and wrap the text so that readers’ eyes can keep moving through the post without having to do unnecessary scrolling.
Use hyperlinks to give credit to other writers on the class site and elsewhere when you borrow or respond to their ideas. Note that “using a hyperlink” does not mean copying the URL into the text of your post. To add a hyperlink, highlight a small chunk of text that you want to turn into the link and then click the button in the toolbar that looks like a chain link.
Be nice. Encourage readers to leave you a comment.
Submitting your post: You will submit all posts directly to the class website. To begin a post, log into the class website (tip: go to https://sites.dwrl.utexas.edu and scroll down to “log in”) and then click the + button at the top of the page. You can publish your post right away, or save it as a draft until you are ready to post it.
Comments 1-10
Since the point of blogging is starting conversations, you will also contribute at least 10 comments to posts that have been written by other students (on our WordPress Blog, Twitter, or Instagram). Generally, comments earning course credit will be thoughtful and often average 50 words in length, but if the medium (Twitter or Instagram) lends itself to a shorter expression, you can argue for a briefer comment in your LR. You should aim to balance your comments (i.e. do this steadily over the semester, with about half before the midterm, and keep track of your comments for inclusion in your midterm and final learning record.
You may respond to the original post or another person’s comment.
You may also write responses to comments that other students have left on your own posts.
To receive credit, your comment must contribute meaningfully to the conversation. That is, it must do more than simply agree or disagree with what has already been written.
Due date: 10 by the end of the semester, though I suggest you space out your participation (5 before midterms and 5 after). Although you will have may have as many opportunities as possible to leave comments, you are only required to leave & account for 10 in your portfolio.