Your Blog is a Temple

Hello Students of 11v2,

Welcome to English Writing.  In order to save time, paper, and maximize efficiency, I require you to join the blogosphere and create a blog at Blogspot.  At my blog you will find information regarding weekly assignments, and on your blog you will complete and post them.  Not only does this create a valuable network to increase communication among us all, but it also serves as a showcase for your work.

Keep in mind - Next year, I will be writing your College Counseling letters in Naviance, where I will summarize everything I know about you, attempting to advertise you as a top candidate (hopefully) to your dream college.  To that end, you can expect to keep using this blog next year for college essay writing practice (not necessarily making your final college essays public), and I will indeed look back on your blog in order to comment on improvements you've made to your writing, and to share my impressions of you.  So, please inspire me for the next 743 days (approximately). :)  

In terms of your final grade, you can consider your blog as a work in progress that is the most important determining factor.  At times, I may ask you to print out your essays in the traditional manner so I can line-edit in fine detail; but, for the most part, you will receive feedback from myself in the comments section, where I will suggest changes, point out grammatical issues, and indicate what I found to be of strength and weakness.  It is up to you whether or not these comments are displayed on your blog, as you can change the options as you see fit.  When indicated, it will be possible for you to increase your score if improvements are made.

For the most part, you can expect one writing assignment every week or two weeks, depending on the flow of our semester. My blog is the hub where you can review the prompts and find your scores (via codename).  Some assignments will be more demanding than others, and some will be very simple.  Keep in mind that your blog is "your blog" and I will by no means stop you from posting anything you want to post outside of what I assign.  In fact, that's sort of the point.  The more active you are and the more you enjoy the process of writing, the higher your grade will be - particularly in terms of participation.  In this regard, as I've stated in the title of this post, your "blog is a temple."  Treat it with respect, reverence, and regularity. 

Unlike traditional essays printed out on paper, where artistic and creative license is limited, your blog will give you the ability to incorporate pictures, links, and even video.  Good blogs, or any kind of digital display of information, place a high value on presentation.  Are things straight? Is the font appropriate? Is it eye-catching? These are all things to consider before you publish your work.

As far as assignments go, you can expect a wide range - everything from argumentative essays to poetry to different styles of fictional narrative.  If you do something particularly impressive, you can expect your work to be highlighted.  Good writers learn from other good writers, and the best writers fully intend their work to be read.  So, in this regard, our class will be interactive.  You are encouraged to read each others work, and provide feedback.       

Blogspot provides many options and lot of freedom in terms of design.  Here are some things I'd like you to consider:

1.  Blog Title - something clever, creative and memorable.  Not just "Tom's Blog."  

2.  Blog URL - something short and sweet and simple that you could explain to someone at a party where there's no paper or pen but a lot of loud music .  Perhaps "ilovecheese.blogspot.com" and not "qwertyzxcv9081.blogspot.com"

3.  Less is more.  Don't go too crazy with Gadgets.  View counters, polls, slide shows etc. are nice, but anything with advertisements, such as games etc., should be avoided.

4.  Your display name.  You can choose anything you want, and it doesn't have to be your real name. 

5.  Creativity. Your blog is a temple - so have fun building it with your own personal creative touch.  In my case, the background image you see is a picture I took.  Try to make your blog unique to your individual personality. 

When you've created your blog, please leave a comment below with your URL and name. 

Cheers!