2) This week (4/25) will be the last Friday for posting blog entries. This includes any make-up entries you might need to do. So, Friday at midnight, you can say goodbye to blogging…for now!

Also, if you are doing a draft #2 of your “Crash”essay, be sure to attach draft 1 before turning it in on Monday.

See you then!

The class wiki for ENG105 section 18 can be found here.

1. Follow the link to the wiki for your class section and use your invite key to log in. Use your first and last name (and e-mail). Find your group and click on the link.

When it is your turn to post your essay to be workshopped:

2. Click on “create a new page” in the box to the right-hand side of your screen.

3. Give your page a name (like Jenn’s Essay #1 or the title of your essay #1 — just be sure to include the number of the essay). Click “create new page” at the bottom of the box.

4. Paste your essay in its entirety into the text box provided and click save.

5. At this point you’ll need to get back to the home page for your group. To do this: click the home tab and click on your group link.

6. Once there, click on the edit page tab, and under Essay Drafts you’ll want to type the name of your essay (again, indicating the number essay that it is). Highlight this and click on the link option in the editor section of the box.

7. Under “link to wiki page” is a pull down menu; choose the title you gave to your essay/page, and a link will be created. Click on save.

8. Now all group members should have access to your essay via the link on the group’s home page. If you have problems with this, please let me know right away. Your essay should be posted by class time on the day the essay is due.

Guidelines for workshopping a peer’s text:

Click on the title of the essay first and read it through. Go back over it again with a careful eye.

• What did you find the meaning of this essay to be? What is its central point or thesis?
• What did you find worked well about this paper? What were its strengths?
• What details stood out the most? What was memorable?
• How would you describe the voice or tone of the paper?
• Were there any areas that left you confused? That didn’t make sense?
• Did I meet the assignment guidelines?
• What would you like to see more of?

• Look for: the central idea/thesis, what works well, points where you’re confused, memorable details (use the questions above as a guide).
Tell the author what you find to be the central idea (thesis) of the essay.
• Be specific. Not just – this was good, bad, or I liked this piece – but what specifically worked about the piece – point to specific part of the text (through summary) and try your best to explain why and how it worked well.
Use the comments tab at the top of the essay page to leave specific feedback for the author:

Vague, Unhelpful Criticism–> Specific, Constructive Criticism
“I don’t like this example” → The example in paragraph five doesn’t fit with the topic sentence. Is there a stronger example you could use? (Or suggest one).
“This sounds bad” → The language you use in paragraph four sounds different than the language in the rest of the paper. You might consider working toward a more consistent use of vocabulary.
“These paragraphs don’t flow” → Paragraph two doesn’t seem to set up the ideas that follow in paragraph three. You might reorganize them.

You can also use the comments section to feed off the comments of others (in other words, agree, disagree, etc. with their feedback and opinions on the piece).

Feel free to let me know if I’ve missed any.

QUALITIES OF EFFECTIVE WRITING

–attention to length – staying concise while still making your point clear
–attention to how the writer situates him/herself
–strong imagery
–use of realistic dialogue
–relatable to the reader
–personal
–character development
–draw readers in with specific details, making them a part of your story
–movement, change occurs (plot — rising and falling action)
–self-reflection
–expression of coming of age, growth takes place
–creative title
–careful use of details that appeal to and/or evoke emotion
–in-depth descriptions
–attending to both the positive and negative aspects of the story and/or central idea (thesis)
–juxtaposition
–has a life lesson
–including backstory
–use of humor (if relevant or appropriate)
–strong grammar/mechanics makes the piece readable (or easy to read)
–has a sense of immediacy
–has a flow
–a clear thesis (that appears at both the beginning and the end)
–challenges the reader

2. Click on “simply RSS” and add this application.

3. Skip the send invitation and click on “add feed to begin”.

4. In the box where it asks for the URL of the feed, copy the URL http://eng105.edublogs.org/ for the class blog site and add /feed after .org, so it looks like this: http://eng105.edublogs.org/feed

5. Click add.

6. Voila! Updates to our class blog can now be seen each time you log-in to Facebook.

For Myspace users:
1. Go to SpringWidgets

2. In the box labeled feed URLs there will be a sample feed listed the (feed.feedburner.com), delete that and put in its place: http://eng105.edublogs.org/feed

3. Click the little blue plus sign to the upper right of the box. At this point you should see the sample feed in box to the right change to postings from our class blog site (this assignment should appear, for example).

4. Under Share Your Widget, click on the little myspace symbol (blue people). This will give you the code.

5. Copy and paste this code into your Myspace profile (for example, in your “about me” section).

6. Voila! Updates to our class blog can now be seen each time you log-in to Myspace

1. Most Important: Make sure the time-stamp on your blog is accurate. Here’s how: Go to options (from your dashboard); scroll down to Date and Time; in the box next to where it reads — Times in the weblog should differ by — it should say -4 or -5 (just substract from the standard/default time listed there in order to make your timestamp accurate).

2. Housekeeping — cleaning up your blog: You might want to make some changes to make your blog more “official” by getting rid of the “hello world” or any sort of test posts you might have that aren’t actually a part of your collection of posts. To do this: Go to manage (from your dashboard); make sure “Posts” is chosen. You should see a list of all your posts and to the right side of the screen you have the option to view, edit, or delete. Simply delete any posts you don’t want. Also, this is where you will go if you want to edit or make changes to any of your posts after you’ve saved them (as draft) or published them (posts them to the web).

3. It has come to my attention that depending on what view of the textbox you’re in, you might not see a button that reads “link.” This has made it a bit confusing for some people to create links, as suggested by my previous guidelines. If you don’t have words (letters) above your textbox, you have little pictures. To create a link, the one your are looking for has a little chain link on it. Use that. Be sure that you are also breaking your link in the proper place (you might need to use the little broken chain icon button to do this). Some of you have blog entries that are linked in their entirety. Part of writing effective blog entries is choosing when and where to link, which words make the most sense and are most appropriate to act as a link. See, for example, above, when I referenced my previous entry, I mentioned it and created a link out of that reference. Notice that the rest of the words are not links — only the words I chose.

4. Also regarding linking — as you read blogs (including this one), you will probably note that blog writers don’t include the whole long URL in the midst of their writing. This is disruptive to the reading of the text. This goes back to #2 and the idea of choosing specific word(s) to act as the link. The URL only gets pasted into the box after you’ve highlighted your word(s) of choice and clicked on the link button. Also, try to embed the links into your writing, as I’ve done here in this sentence with the word “links” — the links are a part of your writing, not separate from it.

5. Extra Credit: Create an “about me” section. To do this choose “manage” and “pages” (from your dashboard). You should see an About page listed there. Choose edit on the right side of the screen. Get rid of the default text that is there (something about this being a wordpress blog) and get creative. Remember this is a public blog, so you might want to filter/limit the information you include in this section. Ideas for this include (but are certainly not limited to):

• Write an autobiography in fourteen lines, starting from the present moment.
• List ten random bits of information about you
• Describe why you are blogging
• Explain what brought you to the point where you are now in your life

2. If you already have gmail account (or other google account), please log-in and then proceed to step 7.

3. If you don’t already have a google account, click on “Create an account now” (under “Don’t Have a Google Account?”).

4. Fill in your e-mail address, password, and complete the word verification; click accept and create account at bottom of screen.

5. Check your e-mail for your activation notification and click on link to activate account.

6. Click on “click here to manage account” and click on Reader — settings. Or go to google.com/reader and login.

7. Click on Add subscription and enter the class blog address: eng105.edublogs.org. You might have to specifically get the RSS feed address. To do this, click on the icon on the far right side of your address bar (it might be an orange square or a blue rectangle); this will give you the RSS feed address to copy and paste into the add subscription box in google reader.

Voila! You’ve subscribed to your first blog. Check your google reader account daily to get any updates.