Blog

A significant portion of the writing, thinking, and collaboration of this semester will take place in the blogosphere! All students will have their own blog at Blogger.com and these blogs will be connected via a "blog role" on the course blog Climate Refugees (once created, provide Dr. Webb with the URL of your blog).

In this way we can share thinking, publish our work and ideas to a broader community than just our class members, and connect our work to the enormous resources of the web.

You are expected to write six thoughtful and insightful blog entries, and to write content-meaningful commentaries on your classmates' entries -- on at least 5 of their blog posts every time a blog post is due. There is one blog post on every major literary work we read, and one on the essay from Storming the Wall. After specific blog assignments, I will visit your blog to record your work and all of your commentaries on other blogs in the grade book.

1. Grapes of Wrath - suggestion: explore ideas for the paper you will write

2. Water Knife - suggestion: examine connections with the real world

3. Refugees -  suggestion: further research past or present

4. Storming the Wall - suggestion: research issues further

5. Exit West - suggestion: consider ethical issues of open borders

Blog posts should always be posted by 10 pm the day before the class they are due.  Responses to blogs can be posted up until class time.

A blog is a "web log" -- in its most essential form, a commentary on other sites on the web. Your posts will be about exploring connections between the literary works that we are reading and news, commentary, resources, research, and ideas on the web. In this way our blogs are a kind of literary analysis focused on making careful connection from the texts we read to outside the text.

My suggestions are only suggestions - you are free to take your post in a different direction. Our blogs are "academic blogs" focused on the work in this class, your own ideas and analysis, and connections with other materials on line.

Writing on the blog should be thoughtful and careful, appropriate not only to the academic project of the class, but mindful of the possibility that your writing is published to a world-wide audience. 300 words per blog post is about right for a typical post. They should be visually attractive. Each post should include at least one image and several links to other sites on the web.

I suggest first writing blog entries in your own word processing program before cutting and pasting into the blog. The blog is an easy to use space that allows you to revise and to receive commentary by your classmates and other readers. Soon you will be comfortable with the format.

You are very much invited to write more posts on your blog, and more comments on other students' blogs, if you would like to!