Five times over the semester, you will sign up to write a blog entry responding to one of the assigned readings for that day. You may choose whether to post a public blog, to restrict readers to members of our class, or to post privately so that only you and the instructor can see the post. The default is for posts to be restricted to logged-in class members.
Your response should cover the following areas:
• Context: who is the audience for this piece? (Look not just at the text, but at where it was published and when)
• Thesis: what is the main idea this text is expressing?
• Goal: what did the creator hope to achieve by writing this?
• Response: what did you think of the piece? For example:
– What lit you up? Were there passages, moments, ideas that left you breathless and excited?
– What shut you down? Were there passages, moments, ideas that made you confused, angry, depressed?
– What do you want to talk about? Where would you like our class discussion of this piece to go?
There’s no upper or lower word limit; take as much space as you need to answer these questions. Don’t forget that your personal perspective is only the last question: take the time to understand what the writer was trying to do before expressing whether or not you think they were successful.
Blog entries are due 24 hours before class (ie 3pm on Tuesdays).
Click on this link to sign up for blog posts (don’t forget to sign up for at least one post in each section). You may only sign up for a reading someone else has chosen if there are no readings without assigned responders.