The first way of being noticed is by keeping a blog. Contrary to popular experience with blogs, you will not be keeping a diary online. This is your professional portfolio, so anything you post must (or really should) address your profession in some way. Your blog should focus mostly on your original content, but it will also include commentary about and links to others’ blogs and news sites in your field. This will require you to (1) be a professional voice in your field, and (2) know what’s going on in your field.

Begin by setting up a “blogroll” in the sidebar of your portfolio. In WordPress, select “Add New” under “Links.” WP gives you a pretty elegant way to add and organize your links based on keywords, or categories. Who are the major voices in your profession? You should be reading them everyday. By linking them off of your portfolio, you  indicate the people that inspire you. Their sites will point to other folks that you should also be reading. Don’t be afraid to revise your blogroll from time to time. It should reflect your current professional interests.

It should be clear now as to what I mean by “conversation.” Not only should you read the folks in your blogroll, but you should begin thoughtfully commenting on their blogs. When you leave a comment, you should be sure to include the URL back to your portfolio, so the blogger can visit your site and leave a comment. Thus, you begin a professional conversation about the subjects that matter the most in your discipline.

Another way to converse is by linking to another’s story and commenting about it in more detail with a blog entry of your own. When you do this, WP will automatically “ping” the entry you are linking to and add a comment. This is called a “trackback.” Be sure you have these enabled on your blog.

When adding to the conversation in this way, never be rude. I know that in our current political climate, people have a tendency to fly off the handle at something they disagree with. This is called “flaming” in Internet parlance, and it usually accomplishes nothing but hurt feelings and animosity. Be positive and thoughtful on your blog. You can be critical of an idea, but you do not have to me immature or mean about addressing it. Remember: your portfolio is a reflection of your professional self; you don’t want a potential employer to see your flame wars. This will send the wrong message, and you’ll never get a job.

You should post an entry to your blog at least once a week from now until the end of the semester. I would do more. In fact, if you share similar interests with your colleagues in the class, you should begin conversing with each other online. This is all about participating in a network. Do your best to be a positive and influential voice.

1. address a work of literature, text, or topic you have been assigned to read or discuss for class
2. apply a critical approach that we have discussed in class to interpreting that piece of literature (the most popular will be reader response)
3. refer to secondary supportive materials

A blog is a short piece of writing presented on a web site. Think of blog and forum entries as precise pieces of writing where you argue a specific point about a text and support it with primary and secondary evidence. Blog entries should be no less than 350 words and no more than 1000.

Each blog or forum entry should address a particular text or subject in a number of ways:

1. Your interpretation of the work using any critical method that you would like. See Writing Essays about Literature for some suggestions. Your interpretation of any aspect of the primary text should be your major focus.
2. Secondary interpretations. Since you are new at addressing literary works, you should consult secondary sources for additional interpretations to help you develop your critical approach. Use online sources as well as books from the library to help you with your journal. Be sure to practice correct MLA citation method.

The blog portion of your portfolio is designed to get you thinking and writing about literature in a critical way. It’s OK not to like a piece of literature, but you should investigate why you dislike it critically, not just dismiss it like you would a soggy piece of toast. Remember, you job is to respond to the various literary texts, not provide a book report or summary of the plot. Be sure to consult Blogging: Some Considerations and Commenting Online before beginning this requirement.

Logistics

All student blogs and forums will be kept on the LitMUSE Moodle Server. Sign up for an account, if you have not already.

Evaluation

Students will complete any number of blog or forum responses during the course of the semester. Blog entries are about the critical analysis of texts or writing topic. They should be thoughtful and succinct, and have a minimum of 350-400 words. Strong blog entries will refer to specific portions of the the primary text, will make liberal use of links to external sources, will cite sources correctly, will only summarize when necessary, and will have something unique to contribute to the conversation. Remember to proofread carefully before submitting your blog for moderation. Only the best blogs will be promoted to the front page of the site.

Blog and forum entries will be worth a maximum of 10 points. The maximum score for a blog without citing secondary sources will be 8. A plot summary will earn you a maximum of 6 points. Here is a more precise breakdown:

• 10 and 9 points: precise, thoughtful, focused, original, supported; uses secondary sources (not just links to web sites) and cites them correctly; stylistically and mechanically flawless
• 8 points: precise, thoughtful, supported; may or may not use secondary sources; uses links; stylistically and grammatically sound
• 7 points: generally acceptable, college-level work, but not really original; few mechanical and stylistic errors
• 6 points: plot summary or a re-hashing of what everyone else wrote; minor mechanical and stylistic problems
• 1-5 points: did not follow directions; not proofread; not revised; little to no effort; complaining about the assignment

Examples

The following examples are actual student responses published on this web site with their permission.

• Madness or Evil? A Psychological Critique of “The Cask of Amontillado” by Wanda Pavone for ENGL 1102

Remember: if any response gets too long on the group, you might consider turning it into a blog entry of its own.

Joan Didion, in her essay “On Keeping a Notebook,” clarifies two important reasons for keeping a journal, reasons that may be applied to your blog: “We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget;” and “Keeping in touch is what [journals] are all about.” One reason we read literature is to learn about ourselves as humans; in an effort to clarify that position between the text and ourselves, we must write down our responses before our imperfect, soft machine looses the wisdom we wanted to keep. A place to record thoughts and observations, a journal can be a good source of ideas for writing. It is a place to record your reactions to class activities, assignments, readings, projects, and any other aspects related to the course. A class journal provides practice for the writing process and promotes critical reading and thinking.

A class journal, or web log (“blog”), is not a personal diary; therefore, you must be selective in the kind of material and the quality of the comments included. You may add clippings, photocopies, pictures, cartoons, and even tapes and videos to your journal portfolio as a way of expanding the traditional written expression. You may use your blog entries as a source for project topics and other writing assignments. A reading journal entry is an effective way to interact with a text, and a place to develop and store your reflections on what you read, such as an answer to a question you may have posed in the margin of a text or a response to something discussed in class.

You may, for instance, want to reflect on why your opinion is so different from that of another student, or you may even make an entry in the form of a letter to an author or from one character to another. Blog entries are a good place to pose a series of questions about the text you are reading using the techniques of brainstorming (the discovery technique of listing ideas or questions without editing), focused freewriting (concentrating on a single topic issue), and writing nonstop for a set amount of time without editing. The journal entry provides the opportunity to explore your critical, analytical, and creative interpretations of a text. It will allow you to articulate questions for literary analysis on plot, characters, point of view, tone, imagery, symbolism, setting, form, theme, appeal, person, etc. It will help you to conceive a thesis idea about a literary text and offer the opportunity to initiate drafting a statement of that thesis and the development of details to support it. The class journal is an excellent way to advance your reading, thinking, and writing skills, to enhance your academic performance, and to promote your personal development.