Syllabus for English 397: Theory and Practice of Blogging

English 26-397

Advanced Composition Theory and Practice: Theory and Practice of Blogging

Dr. Dale Jacobs            CHN 2114; ext. 2309; djacobs@uwindsor.ca

Winter 2009                Office Hours: TW 1-3 or by appointment

Course Description

Over the last ten years blogging has become increasingly popular and important as a form of communication and expression.  According to its proponents, blogging is a democratic form of self-publishing that allows more voices to become part of our local, national, and international conversations and is a vital part of the collaborative endeavor that is Web 2.0.  According to its detractors, blogging is hastily written material that exists without quality control and forms part of the mass noise that is Web 2.0.  This course aims to examine blogs and the blogosphere in order to think about the usefulness of this kind of writing as a tool for communication, learning, and dialogue.  In this course, we explore the possibilities of blogging, by keeping blogs ourselves, reading a variety of blogs, and theorizing and analyzing existing blogs and blog culture. We will read writing that attempts to theorize blogging from both an academic and a practitioner perspective.  In addition, each of you will be expected to write your own blog on the topic of your choice.  In this course, I will encourage you to be creative, to try out new techniques and approaches, and to stretch yourselves as writers.  In doing so, we will concentrate on thinking about purposes, audiences, and the contexts for your writing.  This course will provide you with many opportunities to interact with each other and with me as you blog and think about blogging.  I hope that in questioning, exploring and working together, we will become better writers and readers and that we will begin to use blogging as a generative tool.   

Course Texts

Gurak, Laura, Smiljana Antonijevic, Laurie Johnson, Clancy Ratiliff and Jessica Reyman.  Eds.  Into the Blogosphere.  June 2004.  < http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/>.

Rettberg, Jill Walker.  Blogging.  Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2008.

Yang, Jonathan.  Rough Guide to Blogging.  London: Rough Guides, 2006. (Optional)

Course Wiki

A course wiki has been set up at pbwiki.  The address is uwblogcourse.pbwiki.com (password: lancer397).  Here you will find course materials, including the syllabus and reading schedule, as well as a page where we can discuss and make recommendations about the blogs we are reading. In addition, you will be expected to use this wiki to construct your group project.  At this site you will also find resource material on issues is blogging put together by the previous Blogging class.    When accessing this site, it is best to use the Firefox browser.

Course Requirements

Blog – Each of you will keep a blog for the semester on a topic that will be of interest to other people (music, politics, current events, film, comics, education, etc.).  In other words, your blog is a piece of public rhetoric.  Set up an account at Blogger (www.blogger.com); the account is free and you will be guided through the set-up process when you access the site.  In maintaining this individual blog, you will be expected to write substantial entries twice a week beginning no later than week 3.  We will workshop each person’s blog three (3) times over the course of the semester (see semester schedule).  Keeping up with your blog will contribute to your grade for class participation and provide you with material for your final portfolio.

Blogging Windsor - Wiki Project (20% of final grade) – The first assignment will be a group project on 1) how blogging is currently being used in Windsor, and 2) on the potential of blogging as a way for the citizens of Windsor to develop a dialogue about the past, present, and future of the city.  Each group will begin by focusing on one current Windsor blog (Scaledown Windsor; Here Be Dragons; Windsor Eats Blog; International Metropolis; Schnurr's Sound Off) From there, each group will collaboratively create a page or pages on the class wiki using whatever approach you feel will best help others to think about current and possible uses of blogging in and around Windsor.  In addition, each student will submit a 2-3 page reflection on the process of putting together this group project, on the choices made in doing so, and on using the wiki as a technology and genre for doing so.  A full assignment sheet will follow next week.  The Blogging Windsor Project is due in class February 11, 2009.  

Blog Analysis (20% of final grade) – During the course, you are expected to read and discuss a variety of blogs.  For this assignment, you will be asked to pick one blog and examine it in relation to the theoretical concepts we have read this semester.  You may use any of the theory we are reading this semester (and any other theoretical reading you deem appropriate).  Think about the major issues that we have discussed over the course of the semester and explore that issue in relation to the text or texts of your choice.  In addition, think about the following questions:  How does the blog work as a piece of writing?  What is its overall project?  Who is the intended audience?  Is it successful?  Why or why not?  Make links between theory and practice as you analyze this particular blog.  Use MLA format.  This paper should be 5-7 double-spaced pages in length and will be due in class March 16, 2009.

Final Portfolio (40% of final grade) – For the final portfolio, you will be expected to include 7-10 pages of your best blogging from the semester, a 4-6 page piece of revised writing that uses one or more of the entries as its starting point, and a 3-5 page analysis of your own blogging and blogging practices in terms of the theory we have read this semester.  This material should be organized in a logical manner and, where appropriate, should use MLA format.  The final portfolio will be due on April 6, 2009.

Class Participation and Attendance (20% of final grade)  – Every member of the class is important to our community of learning and so everyone will be expected to attend all classes, participate fully in class discussions and activities, and maintain an individual blog throughout the course.  You are expected to be prepared for all classes and to read a variety of blogs, in addition to maintaining your own blog.  More than two absences will affect your participation grade; excessive absences will result in an F in participation. 

Grade Distribution

Blogging Windsor Project            20%   

Blog Analysis                             20%   

Final Portfolio                            40%

Class Participation/Attendance    20%

Late assignments will be penalized by 1/3 letter grade per day.

The Student Evaluation of Teaching will be administered within the final two weeks of the term.