Prompt 3: Response Blog

Prompt 3 gives you an opportunity to explore blogging as a personal, political, or opinion-based public platform. In this blog post, you may respond to a class discussion or reading OR any text (blog, article, video, image) you come across in your own time that is relevant to the course theme (this does not include your primary source). You should describe what you are responding to and then offer your thoughts and opinions. Your response can be a rhetorical analysis that explains what the text is trying to accomplish, a thoughtful response to an issue or idea that came up in class, or an opinion piece responding to a text. Feel free to be creative in your responses and to incorporate images, videos, or hyperlinks throughout your posts. Keep in mind the rhetorical principles we’ve been discussing throughout the quarter. What do you want your audience to understand? What are you trying to accomplish in your post? Which rhetorical techniques best suit your needs in this situation?

Due Tuesday, February 2nd, by 5:00pm

Prompt 2: Blog Analysis

For this blog post, you will practice finding and analyzing a primary source, but you will be working with a new kind of text––blogs. First, you need to find a blog (on any kind of subject) that interests you. (Check out the links on the side of the page). Second, you should pick one post from that blog to focus your analysis on. Then, using the methods we've discussed in class so far, you will analyze the post and the overall visual look of the blog. In your blog, you should answer in depth a couple of the following questions:

• Who created this piece?
• Who’s supposed to see it/hear it?
• What’s it meant to do?
• How does the post's author's persona (tone, writing style, etc.) affect the way you read the blog?
• How do the visual elements (including the layout of the blog itself and/or pictures added to the post) of the blog contribute to the overall tone or the argument?
• Do you find it effective? Why or why not?
• In what ways does medium of blogging (a public "web log" on the internet) influence your above answers?
• How does your analysis differ from or compare to the exercises we’ve done thus far in class?

Remember, your blog post should still be designed to interest your readers. In other words, you shouldn't begin your post by saying "For this assignment I chose to analyze this blog..." Try to introduce the blog in an engaging way. Explain why the blog interests you, and what you thought was interesting or strange about the post you chose to analyze. Then, assess how the author of that blog attempts to draw readers in and persuade them to agree with the comments in his/her post.

Note: Please hyperlink to the blog post you're analyzing somewhere in your post.

Blog Prompt 1-Introductory Post

Write a profile of yourself based on the contents of your refrigerator or shelf where you keep food. Taken separately or together, how do the contents of your fridge/cupboard/shelf construct an image of your identity? What assumptions might someone make about your personality and values based on the food products you choose to keep in your personal space? What might people “miss” or be unable to know about you? As you respond to this prompt, consider the value and limitations of the judgment reflex – the knee-jerk and seemingly automatic process of evaluating the things we encounter.

Create a blog post that your classmates will read. Consider your audience, which is both academic and social, and develop a voice for your blog that is engaging, but professional.

Do not simply answer these questions individually. Rather, use these questions as a springboard for a short narrative portrait, a different way of introducing yourself. Be creative! Don’t include sensitive information about yourself that you aren’t comfortable sharing with others, as these responses will be shared with the class. Think of this as research on yourself – research that may or may not be missing lots of pertinent details regarding your identity.

Due Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 by 5:00 p.m.

Welcome to English 110!

The blog project is designed so that you have an opportunity to engage in a different type of writing (and reading) than you might usually in a first-year writing class. Over the quarter each of you will respond to three blogging prompts designed to reinforce the rhetorical skills we're learning and using in class. Like the Analytical Research Paper, some of the prompts ask you to analyze a text, giving you practice working through the process of rhetorical analysis. Other prompts ask you to think about your Commonplace essay, making you consider what types of evidence work best for your audience. Additionally, you will compose two blog entries on your own time, and in response to readings or class discussions you find interesting or provocative in any way.

I hope all of you enjoy blogging as well, and comment frequently on others' blogs. Like Commonplace, the blog creates a venue for you to read and respond to the writing of others. Writing communities like our class blog and Commonplace give us new rhetorical situations, and will help us think about how we can write for different audiences. Enjoy!

Best,
Annie