Overview

The objective of blogging this semester is to get you to internalize course materials and concepts, as well as engage with these concepts in hands-on activities.

Each student will produce four well-developed blog posts during the semester.

Guidelines

In every case, the posts should be about 500-600 words and include a relevant image, media clip, or related hyperlinks.

Adhere to good blogging practices, by following these blogging guidelines.

Topic	What Is the Problem?	How to Fix it?	Why is it Important?
Connections	You don't draw any connections between the subject matter of your blog post and the material from class.	Identify a specific reading, class activity, or class discussion that relates in some way to your blog post. Link to it.	While exploring your ideas independently of the class is valuable, it is also important to fully register course concepts and integrate them into your everyday thinking.
Hyperlinks	You don't link to the sources that you reference (articles, assignment banks, etc), or your links appear as long URLs.	In your visual editor, highlight the relevant text, then choose the Create Link icon from the style menu.	Hyperlinks a great way to point to external content (and therefore provide sources for your readers) without interrupting the flow of the text.
Paragraphs	Your paragraphs are excessively long, and oftentimes, your blog is one single paragraph.	Create shorter paragraphs than you normally would. A 500-word blog post might have anywhere from 3-5 paragraphs in it.	Paragraphs serve to organize ideas in a visual pattern. When we read on the web, our eyes tend to scan more quickly, and therefore we need to be able to detect topic sentences more quickly.
Photo credit	The source of your image is undocumented, and it is unclear whether or not you own the image and/or have permission to use the image.	In the caption under the photo, or at the end of the blog post, include a hyperlink to the original source of the image.	Giving credit to work that does not belong to you consititutes ethical blogging. Giving credit to your own work establishes origin.
Photo format	Your image appears to "float" on the page, because it is not aligned with text wrapping	Click on the photo in your text editor > Click on the edit photo button that overlays the image > Choose an alignment option (Left or Right)	Aligning your photos with wrapped text creates a more polished look, and a better reading experience
Titles	Your title does not invite the reader to peruse your blog post because it is vague, generic, or otherwise too abstract.	Identify the purpose of your blog post and create a title that reflects that purpose.	Choosing a specific title that reflects the content of your post not only guides readers to you, but it helps you establish the purpose of each post.