Blog (15% of total grade)

For Blog access and instructions, click here.

In addition to traditional class participation, every week you will also share your ideas about our course topic with your classmates on a Blog. You are required to write an average of 2 postings each week on this Blog for a total of at least 30 postings by the end of the semester. Postings may be written in standard electronic forum or journal style, meaning they need not reflect any specific structure or organization. Topics for the Blog will be generated primarily by you and your classmates, though I will also frequently suggest topics to help you get started discussing issues and ideas. This Blog is designed to encourage you to discuss ideas or questions with your classmates in an informal, but highly accessible manner. In addition, it will provide you with more opportunities to explore issues and interact with each other about course topics than our regular time in class allows.This assignment should not require a substantial time commitment from you. Most students who consistently spend 30-60 minutes each week reading Blog posts from classmates and making at least 2 postings each week will earn full points for this requirement. While you may skip postings a week or two during the semester, I expect you to contribute to the Blog regularly and during most weeks in order to earn a high score for this portion of your grade. In other words, you will not earn full points for this requirement if you make many of your postings together in a short period of time (at the beginning or end of the term, for example) or skip making postings for more than a week. Many of you will make substantially more than the minimum requirement of 30 postings, which will help insure that you earn the maximum number of points possible for this requirement.

The 30 postings required to earn full points for this portion of your grade must include:
● At least 3 postings in which you share your own new ideas or questions;
● At least 3 responses to one of my questions or topics;
● At least 3 responses to one of your classmates’ postings; and
● At least 1 posting that discusses something from each of your 4 Future Workbook assignments.

Each individual posting will earn the maximum of 1/2 point as long as it:
● Discusses content material related to our texts or our larger class subject;
● Consists of at least 3-5 substantial sentences; and
● Presents ideas in relatively error-free writing (i.e., few typos, grammatical errors, etc.).