Assignment #8: Scheduled Posts & 2nd Weekly Feature

Two blog posts from each group member due Tuesday (11/20) by midnight

2nd weekly feature due Thursday (11/22) by midnight

This week's social issue publishing directions will be brief. They are essentially the same as last week. You'll each post your full and curated posts to your blog by Tuesday night, as scheduled. Then, by Thursday at midnight, you'll post your second weekly feature.

Keep in mind that Thursday is Thanksgiving, so you'll probably want to work ahead to make sure you've got your weekly feature completed before the break. If it's really important to you that your weekly feature be published on Thursday, you can use Blogger's "schedule" tool to create your weekly feature ahead of time, but have it publish to your blog at a specific time and date. I've made a brief tutorial video showing how to use Blogger's "schedule" tool.



For this week's full and curated posts, I will be offering 5 extra credit for each post that incorporates "rich media" in one way or another. In other words, you can earn 10 extra credit points for incorporating video, polls, interactive charts (etc.) into your post. I've put together this tutorial to walk you through what I mean by "rich media" and some suggestions on how to incorporate it.

Assignment #7: Weekly Feature & Scheduled Posts

Two blog posts from each group member due Tuesday (11/13) by midnight

1st weekly feature due Thursday (11/15) by midnight

Hopefully you've found yourself "getting into the groove" with our social issue publishing course component: identifying times when you can create posts; gathering the information and links you'll need to make your point; writing with clarity and enthusiasm; and then moving on with life...

As detailed on our social issue publishing calendar and schedule, you each have two blog posts (one full, one curated) due by Tuesday (11/15) at midnight. My expectations for these full and curated posts remain the same as last week. Remember, you don't have to wait until the last minute to post to your blog. Do yourself a favor: knock out a little bit of information gathering and writing over each of the next few days, and you'll find this a much easier (and maybe even enjoyable) process.

Now for the new stuff...

Assignment #6: Calendar & Scheduled Posts

Calendar due Tuesday (11/6) in class

Two blog posts from each group member due Tuesday (11/6) Thursday (11/8) by midnight 

Now that we've had two weeks of workshopping full and curated posts, we'll spend the remainder of the quarter getting into a regular rhythm of publishing one full and one curated post to our blogs each week. To this end, I've asked you to complete two activities this week: (1) a blogging calendar for the rest of the quarter; and (2) another set of full and curated blog posts. Each of these activities are detailed below:

Embedding Links in Blogs

I've had a few folks say that they're having trouble embedding links in their blog posts. By "embedding," I mean the practice of linking to a website or article, like this op-ed from New York Times journalist Joe Nocera, in the actual text of the blog post. Embedded linking is considered superior to leaving a clunky URL on the page, like this: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/23/opinion/nocera-where-the-candidates-degree.html?_r=0

Sure, both links will take you to the same place. However, if you visit high quality webpages across the Internet, you'll find that the authors almost always embed links rather than writing out clunky URLs. It makes the writing look more clean, and it makes the page easier for readers to use.

If you're running into issues with embedding links, check out the quick video below that clearly shows how the process works.

Thanks, T.C.

Assignment #5: Second Posts

This week's social issue publishing assignment is exactly the same as last week's. The only difference is that if you completed a Full Post for Thursday (10/18), you'll be creating a Curated Post this week (and vice versa).

Assignment #4: First Posts

So at this point in the quarter, we've accomplished a few things that will aid our work for the "social issue publishing" component of this course. You've each identified a social issue you're interested in, and you've found group members with common interests to write with. You identified a peer group of other blogs and websites from which you can draw information and inspiration for future posts. You've also created a few resources (e.g., blogroll, "about us" page, other "gadgets") that will be useful for readers and that give a sense of identity to your blog.

Now to writing about your social issue.

Assignment #3: Blog Identity

Tasks must be completed by Tuesday, 10/9 by midnight

As I explained in class today, Assignment #3 is geared toward laying the groundwork for your blog. We're going to incorporate a few basic components that most good blogs and websites have, and that readers expect as part of an engaging experience on a site. We'll get to the writing over the next few weeks, but we want to keep the horse in front of the cart.