Good Blogging Practices

The primary use for our blog is to foster and collect discussion on class-related topics. Please remember that this blog space is public. In other words, while I want you to feel comfortable to initiate and facilitate great discussions here, this blog is a public performance space where we still need to be committed to some good practices. So I’d like to pose the following “good practices” to guide us:

1. Title your posts to give your readers context. Titles for blog posts should reflect what you have thought or written or are trying to argue (rather than merely restate the name of the article or assignment you are responding to).

2. Aim for substance and quality in your posts. I’m not interested in seeing how much space you can fill; I am interested in seeing you genuinely communicate your thoughts, ideas, arguments, and responses to your readers. If you’re responding to an article we read, explain what issues are raised for you, why those issues are interesting or important, how they align with or challenge what you’re learning in class so far.

3. Aim for clarity and specificity in your posts and comments. This may include providing details to remind each other of what article or assignment you are addressing. You may also need to clearly state your main points up front as a way of helping your readers to follow your thought process. Finally, if you're commenting on one portion of someone else’s post, it might help to copy/paste that portion for others to see.

4. Remember what it feels like to have your words taken out of context.

5. Follow good civil/civic discussion practices. I realize we will spend the semester discovering what these are, but for now please remember that the aim of our discussions is to exchange ideas and help others understand why we think the way we do by explaining those ideas. In one sense, this is like diplomacy. Flaming, aggression, hate speech, inside jokes, or similar tactics cause others to feel marginalized or excluded will not only not be tolerated by me, they will also shut down conversation and make this blog a complete waste of time.

6. Follow good attribution practices (i.e., if you refer to something we haven’t read, please provide us with either the full citation so we can find it ourselves, or with a hyperlink allowing us to access the document).

7. Remember that technology is fallible. You may want to compose your post in Microsoft Word so that it is saved, before pasting it into the blog.

-Dr. Graban