Londie Martin Written, Oral, Visual, and Electronic Composition Spring 2008 Place, Nature, and Environment

Unit X: Online Blog Journal

Assignment
This assignment will be completed over the course of the entire semester. You will be expected to write eight blog entries on a Blogger blog (www.blogger.com) that we will create in class. At the end of the semester I will ask you to write a brief reflection paper in which you will (among other things) describe your experience as a blogger. This assignment is designed to integrate traditional written composition in the context of electronic media. The advent of the so-called blogosphere in social, political, and corporate contexts has made blogs an important genre for us to understand in the 21st century. Through the course of the semester, we will read, write about, and publish blogs rhetorically. We will also discuss blogs in a social context in topics ranging from audience to freedom of speech. Because the course takes a trajectory of emphasizing the importance of place in communications, I ask that your posts reflect the ways in which place is present in the topics you write about. Of the eight entries you are required to make for class (I encourage you to do more if you wish), four of the entries will be summaries, two will focus on critical commentary, and two will require critical analysis. I will be keeping a blog as well (http://londiem-engl250.blogspot.com). While I will not require it, I do ask that you respectfully respond and comment on each others blogs.

Your Personal Course Blog

Evaluation Criteria
When I grade your blog site at the end of the semester, I will do so with the following criteria in mind: Are all entries present and complete? Do entries reveal careful thought and insightful commentary? Are all entries appropriately titled and labeled? Do entries use correct MLA citation for published communications, direct quotes, and paraphrasing? Do entries use hyperlinks to help the reader develop a more complex understanding of the overall communication? Do entries avoid grammatical and word-level errors that distract the readers attention? Do entries utilize a variety of sentence structures to create interest in the communication?

Londie Martin Written, Oral, Visual, and Electronic Composition Spring 2008 Place, Nature, and Environment The Topics
**Important Note: Use correct MLA citation for all blog entries.** Summaries Begin these blog entries after January 29th Word Count: at least 250 (3) Summary of a news article Select an article from a credible online news source and write a substantive summary that illustrates your understanding of the articles content. Remember, the content of your article should focus on an issue related to a place, an environment, or a space. For help with writing summaries, consult pp. 233-5 in your Brief Penguin Handbook. You should complete 3 news article summaries before the semester ends. (1) Summary of a film In class on April 3, well watch a film that engages the course theme (interactions with place/environment). After class, compose a substantive summary that illustrates your understanding of the films characters, theme, plot, and narrative structure. Commentaries Begin these blog entries after February 26th Word Count: at least 300 (1) Commentary on a song about a place Select a song (one that you enjoy) about a place (take a wide definition of place) and compose a substantive and illuminating piece of critical commentary in which you summarize the song's content, elaborate on your opinion of the song, and draw connections between your view of the song and the song's qualities (melody, tone, rhythm, etc.). Think of this as a review that you might find in a publication (online or print) about music. (1) Commentary on an advertisement Select an advertisement (print or electronic) that features a place or environment and compose a substantive and illuminating piece of critical commentary in which you explore: your opinion of the ad, the ads rhetorical situation (audience, context, and purpose), and the underlying assumptions that the ad makes about the featured place or environment. Remember to begin by summarizing the ad before you move to a more critical explanation of the ad's composition. Analyses Begin these blog entries after March 27th Word Count: at least 400 (1) Analysis of a text Sign up for a reading (I'll pass the reading schedule signup sheet around in class on 3/25) and compose a substantive and illuminating rhetorical analysis of the text in which you explore the author's use of rhetorical appeals (ethos, logos, pathos) with respect to the essays audience, purpose, and context. Your analysis should focus on the following questions: What textual strategies is the author using to achieve her or his persuasive purposes for a specific audience? For example, is the author relying on the organization of topics to be persuasive? Does the author use metaphor to appeal to the audience's emotions? Does the author use facts and/or statistics to appear credible and trustworthy? Remember, briefly summarize the author's argument, and then spend your time analyzing how the author composed the argument so that it might be persuasive. Remember to consider the following: What world view does the author seem to be advocating? Important Note: Please post your entry to your blog and bring a paper copy to class for

Londie Martin Written, Oral, Visual, and Electronic Composition Spring 2008 Place, Nature, and Environment
me to collect. I will expect you to contribute your thoughts and ideas about the reading to our class discussion on the day your analysis is due. In a sense, you will be a discussion leader for the essay you selected. (1) Analysis of a corporate blog Select one corporate blog from the list below and compose a substantive and illuminating rhetorical analysis of the blog in which you explore the blogs audience, purpose, and context. Things to consider while you analyze: Who reads this blog? Is commenting allowed? Who owns the blog? Who is allowed to publish on the blog? How does the blog's design help or harm its overall purpose? What world view does the blog project and how is this world view depicted in the blog's design, comments, articles, etc? Finally, how does the corporate blog you selected compare to personal blogs? How are they different and in what ways are these differences important? General Motors - FastLane Blog - http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/ Delta Airlines - Under the Wing http://blog.delta.com/ IBM - Game Tomorrow http://www.gametomorrow.com/blog/ Stonyfield Farms - Baby Babble or The Bovine Bugle http://www.stonyfield.com/weblog/ Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN Walker Blog http://blogs.walkerart.org/index.wac Superseed (a non-profit organization) Superseed http://superseed.typepad.com/ Benetton (sponsored by) BenettonTalk http://www.benettontalk.com/ The Washington Post Select one from the list at http://blog.washingtonpost.com/ The New York Times Select one from the list at http://www.nytimes.com/ref/topnews/blog-index.html MTV MTV Movies Blog http://moviesblog.mtv.com/ Google The Official Google Blog http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks Blog Maverick http://www.blogmaverick.com/ General Electric From Edison's Desk: GE Global Research Blog http://www.grcblog.com/ McDonald's Open For Discussion http://csr.blogs.mcdonalds.com/default.asp Kodak A Thousand Words http://1000words.kodak.com/