Blog posts
Our regular blog posts serve as a place for you to share your ideas about our readings and discussions, explore your writing voice and your purpose and goals for your English major, and connect with other students in synthesizing the work of our intellectual community by articulating how a day’s readings and discussions fit into the larger course themes. 

A blog is an excellent format for this type of reflection because of the interactive nature of tool.   You are all authors building a common understanding of our class work. Each student will be responsible for composing a thoughtful, well-supported post each week; these may be creative, analytical, or a hybrid of those approaches.

For more tips on writing a good blog post, see here. For specifics on the assignment for this class, see the Blog Assignment and Prompts section of our Moodle course.

You should post your blog entry each week by Monday evening at 5 p.m.

Blog comments
Blogs provide a forum for you to engage in conversations outside of class, but this aspect is only useful when your classmates read attentively and make constructive comments.  Commenting on other students’ posts is part of your class participation.  You can respond to their posts, analyze related themes, or link to outside materials (with an explanation of the connection you’re making, of course).  For students who are less comfortable jumping into in-person conversation, comments are a great opportunity to engage with your classmates and with larger class themes.  For some additional tips on writing effective blog comments, read this.