Welcome to semester 2

How to manage your contributions to the Blogs!

1. Number of postings

You should make at least one post of your own and one comment on someone else’s post each week. The posting should be of a critically valuable item and should consist of the link and your views on it. The item might be a link to a web site, an image, museum, library, an article, a video. Your comment should also make a helpful and critically evaluative statement about someone else’s posting.

2. Kinds of postings

When you post something, you should make it clear to your reader why you have chosen the material. State how it links to the topic of the week. State what your reader should look for in the posting. Evaluate it - do you agree with the opinion or point of view given in the material you have posted? When you comment on another person’s post, you should offer a substantiated opinion – back up your comments with evidence.

3. Kinds of writing

Part of the task in the Blog is to sharpen your writing/debating skills. You must get used to reviewing and editing what you have written. Please check your spelling and punctuation. Don’t write in txt spk.

4. Length of postings

The Blog is not a message board. It’s for sharing your developing and researched ideas on the topics and issues on your module. Please don’t gossip, update us on your TV watching (unless its relevant and is critically evaluated) or the latest on Brangelina. Your messages should be between 25 – 50 words long.

5. Creating a narrative

Think of the Blog as developing over the semester. Go back and review the previous week before a new post. Add comments as to how and why your opinion has changed. The major aim of the Blog is to encourage you to become self-critically aware. You should be able to look back at the end of the semester and see how your views on ideas and debates developed. Go back and review semester one’s Blog - can you see such a development? If not, why not?

6. Marking the BLOG

We will use all of the above when we mark your contribution. You therefore need to check when you make each post, comment on other posting and review your narrative over the semester that you have followed these directions.