Writing 340: Advanced Writing for Arts and Humanities (65005)Writing 340: Advanced Writing for Social Sciences (65165)
Weblog Guidelines: Spring 2009
Geoffrey Middlebrook, Ph.D.
Overview
The Internet is perhaps the most dynamic medium of our time, woven into our daily routines and a means by which more and more parts of our personal, professional, and academic lives are enacted. Because of its potency, in this course you will probe and perform in a prominent online realm, the blogosphere, and create and maintain a weblog (blog), or regularly updated webpage of hypertextual and multimodal entries (see above).
Proviso
To comply with the provisions of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), you may not mention Writing 340 anywhere in your blog.
Building the Blog
Your blog will be constructed with Blogger in a simple but robust WYSIWYG environment. To take full advantage of Blogger you must be in one of its supported browsers; the best of these and what you should always use on campus is Firefox for Windows (avoid Explorer on campus) and Macintosh (avoid Safari altogether). Blogger has many denizens, so you may initially have minor difficulty in creating your blog. Once created, to see changes that you have made you might need to refresh or reload the page.
(1) To build the blog, go to Blogger and take these steps.
(a) Select create your blog now; create a Google account (write down your password) or enter the data for your existing Google account; for display name put your first and last names; complete the word verification, accept the terms, and click continue.
(b) Title the blog (one or a few words that cleverly convey its focus); for blog address choose something simple (I recommend your first and last names, all lowercase with no spaces); if you have difficulty obtaining a URL, accept a Blogger suggestion (write down the URL, which includes http:// and blogspot.com; do not add www to the URL); click continue.
(c) Choose a template (select Minima; this will be edited later); click continue.
(d) Create and publish a practice post (this will be deleted later).
(2) Begin to customize your blog at the dashboard.
(a) Go to edit profile and in the about me section write a short paragraph of self-introduction. Do not use your name or mention Writing 340. However, indicate your year at USC (spell this out), major(s) and minor(s), career plans, and the focus and purpose of the blog. If you had a Google account, enter your first and last names in the display name box now. Click save profile.
(b) Go to settings (basic), and in the description give a few words of subtitle (do not end with a period) to the blog to clarify or amplify its thematic thrust; stay in settings (basic), and select yes for show email post links; click save settings.
(c) In formatting (settings), under show type 10 posts on the main page; adjust the date header format and timestamp format as desired; click save settings.
(d) In comments (settings), select anyone under who can comment; select show backlinks; adjust the comments timestamp format as desired; enter your email under comment notification address; click save settings.
(e) Go to layout, pick new template, and select Minima Stretch or Minima Lefty Stretch (one should be chosen and then not changed); click save template.
(f) Go to layout, fonts and colors, and pick the desired attributes (leave the page background color white; choose readable and compatible colors for text, titles, and description; have the links and visited links be the same color and make it compatible but sufficiently contrastive with the text; make all font Georgia; be sure that the font size is
easily read); click save changes.(g) Go to layout, page elements, click edit navbar, select the color that you prefer and click save.
(h) Go to layout, page elements, on the side click add a gadget; choose link list, title it Linkroll, under sorting select sort alphabetically, enter the URL for USC, and under new site name type University of Southern California (spell this out); click save. To add more sidebar links, select edit and follow the same steps (include your major(s) and minor(s) at USC, with all words spelled out). Note that Blogger provides the http prefix, and you can edit and delete links.
(i) Go to layout, page elements, on the side click add a gadget; choose labels; click save.
(j) Go to layout, page elements, on the side click add a gadget; choose newsreel; title it Newsreel; enter a search expression or expressions that correspond to the emphases of your blog; check open links in new window; click save.
(k) You may also add pictures, the Blogger logo, and more to the sidebar through the page elements interface. If so, select and sequence these thoughtfully.
(l) Back at page elements remove followers, drag about me to the top, next have labels, then linkroll, next newsreel, and finally blog archive; click save.
(3) To post at your blog, take these steps.
(a) Select new post and verify that you are in compose not edit html view. Craft a title and subtitle for the post (separated by a colon with no closing period). Create posts in a word processing application, save them as plain text (this results in a .txt extension), click to accept the loss of formatting, and then paste the plain text file directly in the post box. You may need to do this a few times in order to get a clean format in the post. The convention in online writing is not to indent paragraphs, but instead to have an extra space between them; spacing between lines of text is single, keep the right margin ragged, and run a spell check.
(b) At the top of the post box is the menu to set bold and italics (do not adjust the font, size, or color of the text), as well as introduce hyperlinks (when linking, select the least number of words) and graphics.
(c) After you have added (you may need to accept the terms of service) a graphic (typically size medium or large) to the left or right (never center) of a post, confirm that the text is positioned properly (the top line will drop when a graphic is uploaded) and wraps around the graphic. To add an additional graphic (vary placement, left and right), upload and drag it down to the desired location in the post (never let graphics fall below the last line of text). Again verify that the first line of text has not dropped.
For purposes of attribution and copyright, all graphics must link to their source page (not, for example, to the page in Google Images where the graphic was found). Click the graphic, then click the link icon at the top of the post box, paste the complete URL of the context page (do not duplicate the http:// prefix), and click OK.
Note that after you upload an image you may not see it and the text of the post may render in code. Should this occur simply click the compose (not edit html) tab in the upper right.
(d) It is important to tag or label posts so that readers can find related entries. After the post is done, go to the labels box below the post box and enter the appropriate tags (have all labels begin with a capital letter and be separated from one another by a comma).
(e) Be sure to save your work often. Publish the post when it is ready, or save it as a draft until it is suitable for publishing. If you have trouble saving a draft (Blogger has an autosave feature and there is on occasion a lag that prevents manual saving), just publish the post and then return to edit it.
(f) Before and after you publish a post, confirm its appearance and functionality, then modify if necessary.
(g) To edit or delete posts, go to manage posts. If you wish to delete a comment on a post, click the garbage can beneath it. Labels may also be removed or altered through the edit post interface.
(h) Always sign out before you exit Blogger.
(4) To assist in retaining copyright of your blog while allowing certain uses of your work, you will obtain a license with Creative Commons. At its homepage go to license your work: commercial uses (no), allow modifications (no), jurisdiction (United States), click select a license, which leads to Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works.
Copy the code, go to the dashboard, layout, edit HTML in your blog, paste the code directly above at the end of the page, and click save template. The Creative Commons logo should now display at the bottom of your blog.
(5) It is important to promote your blog. Adding it to Blogger listings, notifying Weblogs.com, and including it in a Google blog search have already done this. You may also register with one or more of the various blog search engines such as Technorati, Blog Flux, BlogCatalog, and so on.
(6) To help you remain current with developments in your field you will establish an account with Google Reader, which is an integrated, Web-based feed reader or aggregator that provides regular updates from sites and blogs that you select. Bear in mind that an aggregator, which pulls content to its subscriber, is meant as a supplement to not a substitute for active and intelligent searching.
First sign in to Reader with your Google account (you may initially need to verify the account), then click browse for stuff. In search and browse enter keywords that are relevant to the emphases of your blog (try a host of terms). Scroll through the pages, find resources of the highest caliber, and click the subscribe button for those that meet your needs. You can add or delete subscriptions, rename, star, or email them, create or change folders, and display in expanded or list view.
Blog Conference
In order to confirm the focus, scope, and interface of your blog we will conduct individual conferences in my office (JEF 238). A sign-up sheet shall be available outside of my office by 9:00 a.m. on Monday, 26 January so that you may reserve a slot in advance.
To facilitate these conferences send me an email with the following information by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, 30 January: (a) put your full name and course section number in the subject line; (b) in the message area have a complete and solid paragraph wherein you clearly, concisely, and concretely identify your strengths and weaknesses as a writer; (c) below this paragraph paste not type the complete URL (include http:// and blogspot.com) of your blog.
Have your blog emphasis and interface ready when we meet, bring a pen and paper with which to take notes, and leave all practice posts in place.
