Blog Assignment

English 1110 College Composition 1 Assignment:  Writing Blogs
Prof. Kali Piro Email: piro.k@rhodesstate.edu Office: Liberal Arts Department

Overview:  Over the course of this semester, you will keep a blog filled with daily writing exercises, some assigned, some you create on your own. You will write about topics raised in our course and respond to assigned readings, but you must also write about work in your other courses.  For example, you might write a letter to a much younger or older person explaining the formula you are learning in your mathematics course, a principle in physics, or a concept in sociology.  You could write an advertisement for a book in your criminal justice course, or review ideas you’ve been discussing in biology class.  You may write a dialogue in which you replicate a conversation you had or would like to have in art class.  The point: write about your learning and thinking experiences.   The goal: establish, stretch, and explore writing opportunities and ideas. You can use either site for your blog: www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com Audience: You and your instructor, on an informal level. Please use language and content that you would allow your grandmother to hear or read!!! Don’t write anything that is too personal. Remember that everything is being published on the web where anyone can read it, even future employers. So be wary of what you write and post. Purpose: Simple: to practice writing and to stretch. These blogs are about developing a process and growing as a writer—get used to writing nearly every day all semester.  Grow your ability to write here.   Be creative, try new things you’ve never tried before, play with a semi-colon… do your best, do your worst—learn from everything you do. NOTE: these entries are not about writing perfectly. Worry about editing, revising, and proofreading in your papers, not in this notebook.  Features: (1)  You will complete a minimum total of 50 entries for this blog over this semester.  These entries will include: 12 miscellaneous entries 15 in-class directed entries 8 assigned reading responses 10 entries about your other classes 5 entries about your career path  (2) Length Counts: Please make sure you meet 250-500 words for each post.   Content: Content should have some degree of focus, but sometimes the topic can be anything you want.  Occasionally, I’ll ask you to direct your prompts to respond to a reading or to a specific idea (like the strangest food you’ve ever eaten).  Many times, you can just write about what moves you or strikes you as interesting. Content can be creative, even disjointed. As long as you are working out your thoughts on paper with your goals in mind (i.e., this isn’t simply busy work), you will receive credit. More than that, you should find that the writing you do here should help you elsewhere, whether it is an idea for a paper in another class or toning your thinking muscles for this class. Use this blog to practice for your papers; when working on a report, jot down information from your area of interest and comment on it (muse).  When working on an analysis, write about the analysis and observations you encounter in everyday life (like food labels or illustrations in a sociology textbook).  If you end up wandering in the 10 minutes from what you started with, that’s okay. Building stamina as a writer is one of our goals; this notebook should help you find you can focus in ways you never did before.  Freewriting tasks like this have been known to produce amazing insight and discoveries you might otherwise have never anticipated. When you’re stuck for something to write, take a notebook and sit on a bench outside on campus and write what you see passing you by and then transcribe it to your blog. Tell a story, describe a moment, list the small details about people’s clothing as they pass… anything to keep your mind and pen working for 10 minutes straight. Try a few of the ideas / prompts on the websites below to spark your interest. Itis important that you use a variety of prompts because this matters in your growth as a writer.  http://creativewritingprompts.com/ http://www.writingfix.com/Classroom_Tools/dailypromptgenerator.htm http://www.writersdigest.com/WritingPrompts/

Grading / Criteria Guidelines: You can only post one entry per day. You cannot post multiple entries. I will be checking the blogs sporadically during the semester without letting you know. You will need to comment at least 50 times on your peers’ sites. Please leave thoughtful responses. We are creating a writing and learning community, so we all need to help it burgeon (grow and flourish). Your grade for this blog will be based on two (2) factors: (1) the amount you write (the number of entries), and (2) the effort you display in this work (thoughtfulness, length, scope, and following format/directions). You will get out of this only what you’re willing to put into it. If most of your entries are only 3 sentences long, and they’re all about a reality show you love, DO NOT expect a high grade. If you can practice correct academic English as you write, good for you.  If you  want to go back and correct subject/verb disagreement, word choice, punctuation, or anything else—go ahead.  It can only help you—and will further display your commitment to learning how to write across the curriculum. Length:  The word count for each entry is 250-500 words, or you can aim for 2-3 paragraphs. Also, if you set a timer for 10 minutes, it might help you focus more on your writing. I’m only asking you to write for 10 whole minutes on an every other day basis. Format:  You have two options. You can create individual pages for each category, or you can title the post by including the category in the post’s title. It is up to you, but I need to be able to decipher what category each post belongs to without too much research. It should be very apparent.