Blog entry 2

If you're not sure what to write about for your second blog entry, try reading chapter 3 of the St. Martin's Handbook, which talks about how to explore, plan, and draft a piece of writing.

1. When you're working on a major assignment for a class, what are the first steps you take? Are there some strategies in this chapter that you would like to try out, especially if you had enough time?
2. Procrastination is a problem that many (if not all) writers have. Why do you think you procrastinate when you're faced with a deadline? What strategies have proven successful in the past, and what strategies would you like to try out?

Blog entry 1

If you're not sure what to write about for your first blog entry, try reading chapter 1 of the St. Martin's Handbook, which talks about the expectations for college writing.

• When you first starting writing in college courses (either English or another discipline) did you feel like you were prepared to meet your instructors' expectations? If you were to advise a high school senior about writing in college, what would you tell him or her?
• Do you think about the expectations of your readers when you are writing informally - for example, on Facebook, Twitter, or another social media website? How are those expectations similar to or different from the expectations that your college instructors have? 

Welcome and Blog Guidelines

In order to foster and reflect upon good writing habits, students in this course are required to keep a weekly blog.  This blog may be hosted at the social networking site of your choice, and the privacy and audience of this blog is up to you. (Just remember that at least one of your audience members is your instructor.)

On your blog, you can post about any topic related to the course. If you get stuck, here's a list of things you could do:

1. Tell your readers about your experiences drafting or completing a writing project for one of your classes. 
2. Provide a link to an interesting article you have read about any of the course topics (writing, Twilight, Gothic literature, etc.) and write a short response to the article. 
3. Explain your reaction to any of the works of literature that we have read this semester.
4. Show your readers what kind of writing you want to be able to do or want to be able to do better.
5. Post a video (either yours or someone else's) and connect the material in the video to the course.
6. Respond to any of the blog topics I will post during the course of the semester.

Over the course of the semester, you should choose at least 3 of your best posts and upload them to this blog. I will email instructions at a later date. 

Additionally, this course seeks to foster a participatory culture, so you will provide at least 5 insightful comments on your classmates’ posts on this blog. Inflammatory posts and comments will be deleted and will not count towards your blog grade. 

Questions? Email amhodge at uark dot edu.