Week Two: Planning and Inventing an Activist Blog

Based on my past experiences teaching this class, I'd like to offer some suggestions about successful strategies I've seen students engage to structure their work flow with this assignment.

• Reflection 1: Pace yourself. This project is an endurance race, so to speak. Unlike many college assignments where you have only a portion of the semester to "complete" the work for a project, for this assignment you have nearly the whole semester. This can be a good and a bad thing depending on how good you are at structuring your work flow to ensure, that come the final deadline for this project, you have created a well-organized, blog with at least 12 substantive posts, and genre elements that cohesively relate. There is a great deal to learn, and one could even say that the (1) about me statement, (2) the blog description, (3) the mission statement are in many ways microgenres that your readers will confront with expectations about what type of information they'll find in that location of the project. 

• Reflection 2: Plan ahead. Spending time on the brainstorming/invention component of this assignment will be an important exercise. The reason for this is if you have a good plan before you begin writing/creating the blog, and if you understand what the types of expectations there are for each part of the assignment, you're more likely to create content in an efficient manner. For example, if you wanted to write about environmentalism making careful choices about how to limit that topic might help you to write more focused, specific posts. Perhaps, authors will want to focus on fishing regulations, the effect plastics are having on the environment, or perhaps I want my readers to come to my blog to read about the newest developments in green technologies. Writing is at its best when it is focused, and specific. Avoid generalization. Discover ways to bring real content to your audiences. 

• Reflection 3: Be passionate. Pick a topic you care about. Chances are you already know a whole bunch about this topic, and that will help you construct a clear overall plan your blog. The most common complaint students have with this assignment is "I don't know what to write" about. Picking an issue you are passionate about will help make this assignment more fun and help you to complete the assignment. Still, you will need to find ways to write specifically and authoritatively about topics that relate to that issue every week. 

• Reflection 4: Share it. Many first time bloggers are leery about writing in public spaces and sharing their work, because they realize that writing has consequences--it is an important activity. However, I've found that the students who create a blog that they share on their Facebook page with friends and family motivates them to do better work. Why? Well they realize that they are writing for a real audience. They think about how real people they know might react to what they've written, And, it also motivates writers to do good work because, let's be honest they want the people they care about to value what they have to say. Still, if you are really nervous or you are writing about a topic that is very controversial, consider writing under a pseudonym. Or, even consider creating a whole new persona. Be creative with this. 

• Reflection 5: Use the interwebs. The greatest resource you have when blogging is already at your fingertips. Create a twitter account and try to find and follow people who are also invested in the topic you're following. For example, on my twitter accounts I follow people who are experts in web design, internet trends, technology, and computer based writing--you would be amazed at just how much cool information I learn every day just by clicking on the links they post. Also, most of these people are so far ahead of mainstream news outlets that you might learn something weeks before others will. Also, consider creating a news filter that searches news stories on the web about that topic. This will be a good way of finding information that you might want to write weekly posts about. Last, when you compose posts, remember to use the affordances of web-based authoring: hyperlinking, networking, and adding connectivity to your writing is what makes the web a unique and exciting place to write.