Brian Redmond

The Technical

The first step is to make sure that you have access to posting to the blogs here at Penn State. To do so, you need to get your webaccess ID.

The second thing is to try out a test entry. You can do this in your own personal blog or in our shared blog space. Click on “+ Post” towards the top of the page. You can then create an entry using the form. I recommend trying out a few different things such as including a link and inserting a picture as these are things that you will want to do with your regular entries to enhance the content. Make sure to title this test something like “test entry”.

It is recommended that you write the entry using word processing software (such as Word or Pages) first and then copy and paste it over as the spellcheck is not great here.

Hit “Publish” towards the right side of the page. But also don’t forget to proofread both before you do that and after your entry is published so that your entry looks professional.

Feel free to ask questions if you need help. Your instructor is happy to help, as is the blogs support team.

The Content

Think of an idea that you want to write about. Research the idea and take some notes. Create an outline and then draft the entry after you have a thesis . Otherwise you run the risk of your entry sounding like stream of consciousness writing or a rant. While blogs are less formal than say term papers or academic essays, you still want them to sound intelligent and be informative to your readers. To that end, you want to include your references and cite where your information is from so that your readers can find out more information if they so choose and can hopefully engage in you in an intelligent conversation about your topic by reading the information that you are basing your ideas from.

Have fun and get creative. Add things like videos, charts, pictures or links that demonstrate your point. Feel free to add some humor and make the entry personal (obviously remain professional as the information is public).

References

The Pennsylvania State University. (n.d.). Sites at Penn State. Retrieved at: http://sites.psu.edu/support/

Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana University. (2008). How to write a thesis statement. Retrieved online at: http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/thesis_statement.shtml

An earlier version of this entry appeared in the Applied Social Psychology Blog.

Here are some examples from other sources for you to model your entries on.

This first link is to the Applied Social Psychology (ASP) blog. You will see a wide variety of entries there. The best ones do the following:

Explain the situation
Describe how the theory explains the situation
Include facts not just opinions (and therefore are cited and referenced)
Related to #3 they have links to more information
Have some style to draw the reader in; either through a compelling story or graphics

Here is another link to my personal blog (moving psychology) if you are looking to pattern longer reads.

And here is a link to the World Campus Psychology Club blog if you are looking for other things you can do. Warning, most of the entries in this blog serve a different purpose than our blog and the ASP blog. But there are a few if you read through that can serve as examples as well.

tips for writing a blog entry

Links to some sample entries