Welcome to Pitt-Greensburg's Intro to Web Writing/Blogging Course!

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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Guidelines for Presentations

Use Chapter Six in Huffington as a guide. Chapter Six offers a history and analysis of the Huffington Post. We’ll be covering this chapter next week.

Your presentation (and, at the end of the term, your paper) should include AT LEAST the following:
• A multi-media component, preferably a Powerpoint presentation. Use samples from the blog you’re studying, audio and/or video clips if necessary. Whatever works best for your subject. (25 points)

• Evidence of research. You should be an expert on the blog you’re presenting. Please be thorough in your understanding of its history, its demographics, its impact, its context. (25 points)

• Some reference to relevant blog community/communities. Reference like-minded blogs. See which blogs your assigned blog links to and discover why. (10 points)

• An analysis of the readership/audience for the blog. Who’s reading the blog and why? How can you tell? How do the owners/authors of the blog maintain their blog community? Where do you find evidence for this? (10 points)

• An analysis of the quality of the writing and information you find on the blog. (10 points)


• An analysis of the blogs strengths and weaknesses, including what you like and don’t like about the blog. Your opinion should be an educated, informed one, of course. (10 points)

• A statement about what you can learn from this blog. What does this blog teach you about good blogging? What techniques can you apply to your own blog? (10 points)

Be prepared to answer questions following your presentation.
Check the presentation schedule on the class website (see below).
Presentations will not be rescheduled unless you have a medical excuse. If you fail to do your presentation or miss class on the day your presentation is due, you will receive a 0 for the assignment.
The presentation will be worth one exam grade. You can think of the presentation as an exam worth 100 points. The presentation is heavily weighted in your class participation grade for the course.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Blog Presentations

Here's the schedule for your in-class presentations:

November 3
Jason Henry (fivethirtyeight.com)
Tashaine Campbell (The Huffington Post)
Caitlin Thomson (Got2BeGreen)

November 10
Laura Kopa (Mashable)
Katie Braun (People of Walmart)
Matt Wilson (Metafilter)
Jaime Pope (DetentionSlip.org)

November 17
Greg Garland (Zen Habits)
Rin Little (Generacion Y)
Dave Yungwirth (Seth Godin's Blog)
Jesse Milliner (Bad Astronomy)

December 1
Elizabeth Foster (Lifehacker)
Brian DeRiggi (BoingBoing)
Matt Reilly (Deadspin)
Natalya Wharton (Confessions of a Pioneer Woman)

December 9
Liz Russell (Crooks and Liars)
Adam Graham (Freakonomics)
David King (needs to sign up for a blog)

Presentations should be at least 15 minutes long. You should research the blog and become a mini-expert on the blog. Your presentation will introduce your colleagues to the blog and cover the following things:

* History of the blog and critical analysis (based on research) of what makes this blog so vital per Time Magazine
* Background on the bloggers
* Demographic
* Subject range of the blog
* Community developed through the blog -- who reads the blog, which blogs are linked to here, what other blogs are regularly referenced, etc.
* Most extraordinary posts you found on the blog
* An analysis of the quality of writing and information you found on the blog

Be thorough in your research. You will use the information from your presentations to craft an 8-10 page paper at the end of the term. You'll receive two grades -- one for the presentation and one for the paper.