Comp\Post

Description

A strange word, I know, but so was “blog” once unrecognizable a couple years ago and now it is entirely familiar in English as both noun and verb. Blog is a neologism formed from the melding of web and log, shortened to blog. Blogs are a popular form of writing technology in our new media ecology—you might know this firsthand, just never considered it technology since it has become so familiar in your experience and language. I am interested in exploring that a bit in this course about writing technology. As a teacher of writing and literature, I have also been thoroughly interested in the use of journals, notebooks and other kinds of informal writing media as an effective tool for responding to literature, initiating critical thinking, and beginning the process of writing. Digital writing tools such as a blog simply make the publication of such a journal more accessible—and less heavy: when I started teaching, I used to collect student journals (large spiral notebooks and binders) and trudge home with about 50 at a time on my back.

My solution is to take the reading/writing log [g + log] and enhance its dynamism by requiring you to publish part (or all of it, if you prefer) in blog format: hence, glog. In this way, you can read and respond to each other’s reading and writing, as can I—and save my back in the process. I am going with ‘glog’ to emphasize the connectedness of reading and writing in our focus, and also to see if I can make it into the OED someday when people will gather for a gloggers convention and English professors will theorize and decry the impact of glogging on literary study, all without even blinking at the word.

To set up your blog account, use the wordpress account created for WashColl: http://wacblog.washcoll.edu/

Assignment

You will see on the assignment schedule about 5 or 6 times in the course of the semester when your assignment will include (generally on a Friday) the posting of a glog. This “glog” should be a 1-2 page response (250-500 words) to the reading from that week. Though you might begin with some summary or notes from the reading, you should focus on using the glog to identify key ideas and passages (quoted) that strike you as particularly important, engaging, troubling, and otherwise remarkable. Start to delve into one or two of these moments from the reading and see where your thought goes. Raise questions, speculate upon some answers, experiment with ideas, and risk getting into something that might lead to a dead end but could also be the basis for strong participation in a class discussion and even the beginnings of an essay topic. Blogs, as you know, are also about the writer, as a reader, responding to other writers and incorporating this into her blogging. The same should hold for your glog: take a look at what others are glogging or what we have discussed in class and work this into your glog.

Though the format for the glog is up to you, here is one model for those in need of some basic structure. It is a three-part response structure [hear/notice/wonder] we will often use in writing workshop responses:

[1]I Hear: about 1/2 page of notes/summary–an overview of key points you have been reading, perhaps a thesis statement (if there is one), some quotations and key words that get your attention.

[2]I Notice: about 1/2 to 1 page of reflection/analysis/interpretation–take one or two of the key points or passages that you noticed (perhaps a quotation from your first section) and spend more time with it, dig in, probe it, try to understand it better, raise questions, suggest answers. In addition to digging into the text, this is also a place where you might start to link out (as a good hypertext will do): connect to other readings, further insight that is available elsewhere. This is where your glog can be your sandbox for future essays–experiment with interpretation and play with style.

[3]I Wonder: a listing of some questions that remain, that you would like to ask the author, need  or would like to raise in class discussion (be prepared, I will often ask you what questions you have from the reading, will assume that you have them, things you do and don’t understand), might want to raise for one of your essays.

I encourage you to use this kind of informal reading/writing log format for every reading assignment—even when I have not assigned a “glog.” Your glog will then include more than the Friday assigned entries—I may even grant extra credit for those interested or in need of it.

Assessment

There will be no “wrong answer” to a glog; rather, a stronger glog will be thoughtful and creative in the response to the reading it demonstrates, a weaker glog will show that the glogger has done the assignment but not given her response as much time and thought as necessary.

I will use the following point scale in my evaluation of your assigned glogs:

9-10: very strong/excellent—glog goes beyond a page (around 500 words) and explores 2 or more ideas/issues from reading thoughtfully and in depth; glogger has stuff worthy of an essay and could lead class discussion–Google may be calling for a deal

8: strong—glog is a solid page (250 words minimum) and explores 1 or more ideas with some depth and some room for more expansion; glogger has basis for solid participation in class discussion–glogosphere is taking notice

7: average—glog is barely a page and sufficiently responds to reading with need for more attention to depth in its response; sufficient for class participation but not enough to engage the glogosphere–glogger should go back and expand a bit

6: weak/insufficient—glog is less than a page and weakly or insufficiently responds to reading with any depth; the glogosphere clicks by, glogger should plan to conference with me about ways to improve

0-5: failing—glog is posted late or not at all or otherwise incomplete; glogsophere has never heard of you