Introductions
Fastwrite: What’s your favorite blog? Why? Is there anything about it that you might try to imitate in writing your own blog?
Resources
Blogs
In groups: Jot down some notes about your aims, using the questions below. Then read your About pages and first post (if you have one) aloud. Listen to what your readers say about your aims and compare them to your notes. Then talk together about design elements.
Aims
- Focus: What is your blog about?
- Slant: What makes your blog worth reading?
- Engine: What drives the blog? How will you generate new posts?
- Readers: Who do you imagine yourself as writing to? (See Yahoo! sheet.)
- Method: Report, aggregate, comment, something else?
- Voice: What three or four terms best describe your blogging voice? (See Yahoo! sheet.)
Design
- Title and tag
- About blog/you
- Theme, widgets, settings, comments, links, etc.
- Use of images, overall look
Response to responses: Please send me an email in which you (a) describe the feedback you got from your group, (b) outline a plan of work/revisions for the coming week, and (c) tell me what kinds of feedback you most need from me now. I will email you back.
Setting Up Blogging Groups
Moment of Zen
Colbert on SOPA and PIPA
To Do
- Start blogging! Pace: One shorter post (100–400 words) every week; one longer post (>400 words) every other week. Be professional. Recruit readers and commenters. Have fun!
- Follow the blogs by the other members of your blogging group. Comment on posts that interest you. Recruit other other readers.
- Tues, 1/31/, 9:00 am: Read Microstyle, pp. 1–119. Post r2 to this site.