In this course, your blog should represent your critical and creative ideas and feelings about the literature read, ideas discussed, activities assigned, and all other aspects of the course. Topics for your blog entries may occasionally be assigned, but often they will be chosen by you and they should be about 350-500 words.

While many might debate just how one should blog (most online treatments just deal with the technical aspects), I suggest you just apply the basic skills you learn in your college composition courses and consider the blog as an online journal. Always know your subject, purpose, and audience before getting into an entry. Consider blogging to be continuing a conversation. Unlike a journal, you are not writing in a vacuum, so be sure that you have something relatively original to say; this means that you should do a bit of research first to familiarize yourself with the current attitudes about your chosen topic. A strong entry will quote from and link to any relevant sources you find about the topic. Remember, this is a conversation: it’s not all just about you.

To familiarize yourself with the basic concepts in blogging, see The Blogging Revolution from Wired. The ideas this article presents are applicable to all blogs, including this one. You might also see what the difference is between a blog and a web site.

Consider what Jacob Nielsen suggests about writing for the web in “How Users Read on the Web.” Along these lines, be sure that:

• You give the entry an original title. The title should not only inform about the general topic, but give some idea about your position on the topic. An original title is especially important when writing on the class blog, as others will be writing about the same topics.
• Your text is readable. Hit the return key twice between paragraphs, so that there’s a line of white space. This also helps with readability. Be sure to preview your entries before submitting them; this practice gives you the opportunity to make your entry as readable as possible.
• You use categories and keywords. Select the class that you are in, and then the appropriate subcategory for every entry. Use keywords at the bottom of the entry to further classify your entry.
• You use a name to post that easily identifies your for evaluation. “Hotchick” would not be wise. I suggest the first letter of your first name and your last name; e.g., mine would be “glucas.”
• You save often as a draft when you are composing, especially if you are not on your own computer. Better yet,
• You compose in a word processor, so it is easier to check your spelling. Then, you can copy and paste into the blog. This practice also allows you to save your entries on a local computer, in case the blog server decides to “eat your blog.”
• You follow correct MLA citation style and use standard conventions when writing about literature.
• You proofread and revise your entry before publishing it. Remember, anyone can access the blog, so you want to publish only polished writing, as it is a reflection of you. Also, a sloppy blog is sure to get unpublished quickly by the community during moderation.
• Finally, and perhaps most importantly, have a clear focus, or argument, in the form of a thesis statement. If you don’t know what your point is, then your readers certainly will not.

Further Resources

Give the following a read in order to be able to talk about blogs, and so that you understand just what they are and how they function.

• Remember where and when you are blogging; see Biz Stone’s entry that accesses how not to get fired because of your blog.
• For assistance in composing strong comments, see How to Write Comments.
• For an overview of many of the items covered here, see B. L. Ochman’s “How to Write Killer Blog Posts and More Compelling Comments.” She gives some excellent advice.
• 21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic on SEOmoz.
• Dennis G. Jerz’ Guidelines for Evaluating Classroom Blogs suggests ideas relating to judging what a good blog does.
• Why You Should Blog covers just that: the importance of daily writing on a blog.
• Writing about literature? Consider these helpful prompts.

Examples

• BoingBoing is the most popular blog on the internet