ENG251culture

due: Thursday, Feb. 1st (by the time class begins)

Find a blog entry that engages you, says something that you want to answer back to, respond to, and dis/agree with. Or you can choose a blog entry that says something of interest to you that you want to share with your readers. Or, if you find more than one entry on the same topic, you can provide a summary of what other bloggers have to say on a particular subject.

In whatever manner you decide to respond, you must either trackback or pingback the entry or entries to which you refer. (Again, remember that a specific entry is different than the weblog as a whole).

Trackbacks

Trackbacks allow you to link to another blog while also notifying the author of the fact that you’ve referenced her/him in your own writing.

In order to trackback the entry you are referencing must find the entry’s trackback link:

Most trackback links appear just after the blog post content and before the comments.

Sometimes the link will appear as a plain text link:

Other times it will be a hyperlink:

If the trackback URL is hyperlinked, you’ll need to right click on it and select “Copy link location…” (or your browser’s equivalent), otherwise, you can highlight and copy the link.

Once you’ve found and copied the proper URL, you’ll need to paste it into the trackbacks box found below your text box, following “Send trackbacks to:”.

Pingback

Pingbacks notify a blog(ger) that you’ve referenced them/him/her when you simply post the permalink to a specific entry.

For more information go here or here.

For an interesting perspective on trackbacks and the difficulties involved in creating and maintaining an online conversation go here.

**Be sure that your responses/posts are thoughtful and careful. Even when disagreeing with another blogger, don’t seek to offend. Offer more than simple opinion; be sure to support your views with evidence.**

and report your findings….

Find one online news source and one blog (NOT a classmate’s blog) that interest you–create a brief (threeto five sentences) description of the site and put a link to it in your blog. This will create a collection of sites for the class to explore.

To create a link:

• Type the name of the site and highlight it
• Click on the icon at the top of your text box that shows a little chain link
• Enter the web address/URL of the site (For this you might want a second tab open with the site you are linking to; copy and paste the URL out of the address bar)
• Decide whether you want the link to open in the same window or a new one and click insert. Your highlighted text should now be a hyper-link.

Sites that might help you with this assignment:

technorati: tracks blogs on the web and what people are blogging about; check out “Top Blog Posts” for currently popular blogs; and see “What’s the Buzz” for what people are writing about and searching for. This should help you find an interesting blog.

salon : a news source that also includes links to blogs at the end of their articles.

due: Sunday, January 21st by 4pm

1. Go to wordpress.com

2. Click on “Sign up” or “Start your wordpress blog”
3. Choose a username. Please note that this username will become part of the URL for your blog. For example, the username for this blog is expository, and the URL is www.expository.wordpress.com. In other words choose something that isn’t overly complex, is easy to remember, and is a little bit unique and/or “catchy.”

4. Enter email address; check yes to “the terms of service;” and choose “gimme a blog!”and click “Next”

5. On the next screen, create a title for your blog and click Signup.

6. Go to your email and activate your blog. When you activate your blog, you will be given your password. Please write this down and don’t lose it. You can change your password, but for now be sure you are able to log-in.

7. Login; click on your blog name/link on the right-hand side of your screen. This will take you to what is called your “Dashboard”–this is the place from which you control your blog–writing posts, making edits, changing the look of your blog, etc.

8. Click on “Presentation” and then choose a theme. This is what your blog will look like.

9. You now have a blog, and I need the URL or blog address. Again, this should look like www.username.wordpress.com. Your blog address appears at the top of browser screen in the Address or URL line. Please copy this address and email it to me (by Sunday at 4pm). Remember to follow the guidelines for emails as stated in the syllabus.

For a brief tour of/tutorial on your new wordpress blog, click here

10. To change your password go to Users and Update password.

Is it preferable to “think” without having critical awareness, in a disjointed and irregular way, in other words to “participate” in a conception of the world “imposed” mechanically,…that is, by one of the many social groups in which everyone is automatically involved from the time he enters the conscious world…or is it preferable to work out one’s own conception of the world consciously and critically, and so out of this world of one’s own brain to choose one’s own sphere of activity, to participate actively in making the history of the world, and not simply to accept passively and without care the imprint of one’s own personality from the outside?

For his own conception of the world a man always belongs to a certain grouping…He is a conformist to some conformity, he is always man-mass or man-collective. The question is this: of what historical type is the conformity, the man-mass, of which he is a part? …Criticising one’s own conception of the world, means, therefore, to make it coherent and unified… The beginning of the critical elaboration is the consciousness of what one really is, this, a ‘know thyself’ as the product of the historical process which has left you an infinity of traces gathered together without the advantage of an inventory. First of all it is necessary to compile such an inventory. (Antonio Gramsci The Modern Prince and Other Writings 1987)

This is the class blog site for ENG 251 Topics in Prose Writing: Writing about Society and Culture. Here you can find the syllabus (should you lose your hard copy), assignment details, and any general class announcements. Each of you will have your own blog, and eventually, in the sidebar of this blog, there will be links to those. Also under “blogroll” are links to sites that I find valuable and/or relevant to this class. Please browse and explore. Feel free to leave comments/questions here or email me.

Here you might find some helpful ideas for starting your semester off right.

Let’s begin…and enjoy your semester!