Various, by individual assignment, throughout the quarter. Group deadlines are as follows:

Group A: Fr Jan 20 (by 9am)

Group B: W Feb 1 (by 9am)

Group C: Section 3: T Feb 7 (by 8pm); Section 8: W Feb 8 (by 9am)

Group D: M Feb 13 (by 9am)

 
Each blog post should be a mininimum of 200 words.
 

As part of our on-going experimentation with electronic discourses and authorship, we will construct and maintain a collaborative blog (the eRhetBlog) that offers a space for people to explore relevant issues, comment on class discussions or assignments, and participate in building a virtual community. Over the course of the quarter, students will write a minimum of two entries:

      1. one entry as part of their Group, and
      2. one individual entry.
Why are we keeping a collaborative blog?
As the quarter progresses, your research project will come to dominate most of your reading and writing for the course. However, to continue a fruitful class discussion of eRhetoric, it is important that we continue to perform rhetorical analyses on different types of electronic discourses as well as experiment with those forms of writing ourselves.
What group am I in and what is the due date for my group's assignment?

The groups are composed as follows:

Group A: David, Brandon, Jaehyeok, Jeff Seibert

Group B: Katie, Alina, Ali, Dan, Thaddeus, Won Tai, Emily, Dennis, Patrick

Group C: Cheri, A.J., Tolu, Erica, Steve, Jeffrey Sefa-Boakye, Ruidi, Lee

Group D: Gerry, Sophia, YF, Tunde, Joshua, Charlie, Noah, Loren, Susan

For their group's due date, each student in that group -- individually -- will read one of the texts on their topic and compose a blog post of approximately 200 words to be posted to our eRhetBlog. That post should engage both the content of the article and, as appropriate, the rhetoric of the article -- what it says, and how it says it. In discussing the content, start off with a very brief summary of the article for those readers who haven't read it yet -- but then offer an analysis that either critiques what the article says or draws connections to what you see as related issues based on your own experience or knowledge of the subject area.
What are the group reading assignments?

Each group member should browse/skim the different articles listed under their group below and choose one to read more indepth and respond to in their post (it's okay if there's duplication within each group). Note: These readings may be updated -- but will be updated no later than the Sunday before the group blogpost is due.

Group A: Topic - Blogs (Due Friday, January 20) -browse the articles below and choose one to write about for your blog post:

Group B: Topic - PowerPoint (Due Wednesday, Feb 1) -browse the articles below and choose one to write about for your blog post:

Group C: Topic - E-mail, IM, and Hypertext (Section 3: Due Tuesday, Feb 7 by 8pm; Section 8: Due Wednesday, Feb 8 by 9am) - browse the articles below and choose one to write about for your blog post:

Group D: Topic - Wikis (Due Mon Feb 13) -browse the articles below and choose one to write about for your blog post:
What are the requirements for the individual entry?

In addition to the group post, students also must submit one entry on their own at some point in the quarter before Monday, March 13. This entry must be at least 150 words long and can be

  1. a commentary on/analysis of an article, website, event, etc. related to the broader topics of digital culture, technology, or eRhetoric -- if you can, provide an image of the object (for instance, if you were analyzing the new zebra-striped cell-phone iPod [yes, I made that up]) or a link that your readers can use to visit the "text" you're analyzing (such as a Daily Show segment or a Wired article)
  2. a reflection on a class, an extension of a discussion started in class, a (respectful and constructive) discussion of a student presentation or group of presentations, a commentary on some issue related to digital culture or technology
  3. a reply/response to an already posted topic that engages with the ideas (not the style or writing) of another student's post, possibly making connections to additional texts or to your own experience
How formal should my writing be?

Below are the format guidelines for the blog posts:

  • voice: Since this assignment involves blog posts, your writing may be more informal than that found in traditional academic writing. However, even though your voice might be more colloquial, your writing should be clear and your analysis developed and convincing.
  • links & images: Please include links and images as appropriate.
  • titles: Also create an interesting and relevant subject header/title for your blog -- your classmates will be responding to your blog posts and will look at titles as a gage of whether or not the content of your post will interest them enough to read it.
  • extended entry: For any posts over 1 paragraph long, please use the extended entry option through movable type. In other words, put your first paragraph in the entry box and then the rest of your post in the extended entry box. This will help keep the blog itself less cluttered and make it easier to navigate.
  • category: Assign your blog entry to an appropriate category in movable type to help us keep the blog organized.
  • proofread: After you publish your post, please look at it via the "view site" link or the class link to the blog to make sure that it looks the way you want it to look. This is especially important for people who write their post in a word processing program and then cut and paste it into movable type: often, in these cases, the quotation marks and other punctuation might become gibberish in the translation and will need to be corrected directly in movable type -- though you won't know this unless you check the published version!
Where can I get more help on this assignment?
As always, e-mail or IM me if you have questions about the assignment.