Blogs in English 201, section 11

Because we’ll be spending the semester developing together as writers, I’d like to provide you with a space to communicate and share your writing with each other outside of class. This space will also be a public space, though it is unlikely to be the most popular corner of the internet. 
The advantages of putting our writing in public are: 
- You can share your blog with roommates, friends from home, parents, etc.
- We have some incentive to polish what we publish
- We may attract some outside attention, which could be interesting for discussion.

Each of you will set up a blog, which you can design and name whatever you’d like. Each blog will be connected to the blog I run, the class blog (http://thoughtmeat.blogspot.com) under your first name (or a pseudonym, if you prefer). DO NOT PUT YOUR FULL NAME IN YOUR BLOG ADDRESS OR IN YOUR BLOG. I will explain why in class. 

Each week, you will post something to your blog or respond to someone else’s blog. These posts will be scheduled as follows:

Fri, 9/16: Free post due
Mon,  9/19: response to free post due

Fri, 9/23: Group 1 analysis post due
Mon, 9/26: Group 2 response to analysis post due

Fri, 9/30: free post due
Mon, 10/3: response to free post due

Fri, 10/7: Group 2 analysis post due
Mon, 10/10: Group 1 response to analysis post due

…and so on throughout the semester. 

Free posts: These are free-genre, free-topic posts. I expect you to post some piece of writing that you’ve spent some time on. You can post a poem or fictional piece, a rant against the UMich football coach, a letter to a friend, anything. But I do expect it to be interesting and thoughtful and well-written. 

Response to free posts: Your peers will have a chance to read your post over the weekend, and you will post a response to one of your peers’ free posts on Monday. I expect the responses to be thoughtful and involved. You can just write, “Hey, that was a cool poem.” If you are simply going to compliment your peers’ post, be specific  and detailed in why you liked it. Part of our job as writers in this class is to become smarter and more articulate readers of each others’ work. 

Analysis posts: These posts may be a bit more involved, so leave considerable time for writing them. For these posts, I would like you to examine one issue or event currently in the news. You must look at either two different articles on two different days in one publication, or two different publications’ articles on one issue. You must include the information about the publication, date, title, etc. of the article as well as an internet link to the article in your post so that your responding peers can find it and read it. (Even if you read the article in a newspaper, you will often be able to find a link to the article online.) You will read the articles in full and compare/contrast/analyze the publication(s)’s portrayal of the event. You need not have personal or outside knowledge of the event or issue. By analyzing two different perspectives on one issue or event, I hope that you are able to come to a better understanding of how events can be portrayed differently.

Response to analysis posts: You will either do an original post or a response post in one week, never both. If you are assigned to respond, read some of your peers’ blogs and choose one that you find interesting. Read the articles that your peer has provided the links to, then respond to your peers’ analysis. I expect you to provide real, critical engagement with your peer. Comment on your thoughts about the articles, how thorough your peers’ analysis is, etc. 

Grading: I expect everyone to do all posts to their blogs. I will respond regularly (weekly, generally)  to your posts privates via email, but I will not grade individual blog posts. At the end of the semester, I will collect a “blog portfolio” that you have chosen. In your blog portfolio, you will have what you determine to be your five best blog posts. At least one of these posts must be an analysis post, one a free post, and one a response post (to either genre). I will grade the portfolio, and the result will be 25% of your final grade. I see blogs as an integral part of this class and essential to your practice as a writer and have weighted them accordingly in your final assessment.