Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Blog Assignment
Start reading articles from the pages under “Links for You to Write About” on the left side of this screen. You will likely need to read more than one before you can find something that will be compelling enough to write about. I would STRONGLY encourage you to NOT write about big, unwieldy topics like “The War” or “Abortion.” Find something more specific within those subjects that you can get specifically passionate about, or find something totally different that might not get as much attention and that you already know something about. I will be paying attention to your choices of articles, so make sure that you choose wisely and critically.
Write one essay (between 350 and 1000 words) per week on an article from one of the publications linked on the class blog. Post this essay every week on your blog. You should do a different publication each week until you have done an article from each. At that point, you may write from any of the publications.
Two days before your discussion date, please e-mail the class your blog entry, a link to your URL, and a link to the article you have written about. You must e-mail the class from your Memphis e-mail account. The e-mail address is engl1010003.2006F@memphis.edu.
The class’s responsibility will be to read the articles that will be discussed as well as the blog entries before the discussion period. You may comment directly on the blog of the person in order to prepare them for what you’re interested in discussing. Come prepared to ask questions, make comments, disagree. Bring substantiation for your assertions.
A couple of notes about blogs:
~ Don’t include any personal information that you don’t want everyone in the world (including your parents) to read.
~ Don’t use this as a rant: it is intended to be a forum for intellectual discussion.
~ Stay focused. There is a big world out there with lots of interesting people. Be careful about going off on tangents to meet them. On the other hand, this may be a really great jumping off point for interesting relationships. Flaunt your brain power!
~ ALWAYS be respectful of other people’s opinions, experiences and writing. Be critical, but with tact and grace.
~ HAVE FUN!
To get to this information whenever: just open your UMDrive account by going to https://umdrive.memphis.edu. Sign in using your UUID (Memphis e-mail user name and password). Click on bookmarks (left side of screen). When asked for directory path, enter wsumner1/1010-03. The syllabus is also on this site with the discussion dates for each of you plugged in.
