Why Blog?

Many cultural observers have heralded the great democratizing possibilities of the Internet, arguing that those who were once silenced by power and resource inequities can, at least theoretically, broadcast their voices and harness new media to organize and advocate. In this age of communication, rhetoric seems a powerful tool, indeed.

Blogging is one such way rhetors can get their message out there, whether they are advocating for political change, building interest communities, sharing experiences and information, or just having fun. Since most blogs are meant for an audience, blogging is an implicitly civic action. Because blogging intimately connects rhetorical practice to civic life and brings together written, oral, visual, and digital media, it’s an ideal activity for this course.

Blogging Overview

For the Fall semester of Rhetoric and Civic Life, you will create three distinct blogs/blog categories. Your weekly entry for each of your three blog categories will be due before each Thursday class. We will spend about half of every Thursday class reading and responding to one another’s blog posts. Indeed, thoughtful commenting on others’ blogs will be a significant component of your final blog grade.

Assessment Standards

Overall Blog Evaluation

Fifty percent of your blog grade (worth twenty percent of the final grade) will be a participation grade based on these questions: Did you do all your blog entries? Did you do them on time? Did you submit entries of the proper length? Did you comment on others’ blogs thoughtfully and effectively? The final fifty percent of your blog grade will be reserved for the quality of your blogs. The quality expectations for each blog and for commenting are delineated below.

Remember, too, how important it is to tag your blogs correctly. Improper tagging can lead to lower grades, so, please be attentive.

Above all, when blogging and commenting, remain respectful of one another and adhere to the PennStatePrinciples.

Successful “Passion” blog entries are:

submitted in a timely fashion and are at least 300 words.

written in a lively voice that engages and provokes its audience into commenting and taking distinctive stances.

coherent in terms of its content or focus and address a particular topic, niche audience, or human interest angle.

attentive to grammar and correctness, but may be written in an informal or colloquial style.

 

Successful “Rhetoric and Civic Life” blog entries:

are submitted in a timely fashion (before each Thursday class) and are at least one full paragraph in length (300 words).

are written in a lively voice and find ways to engage and provoke its audience into commenting and taking distinctive stances.

demonstrate an engagement and understanding of the course materials, principles, and themes.

provide incisive analysis of how rhetoric functions.

are attentive to grammar and correctness, but may be written in an informal or colloquial style.

 

Successful “Work in Progress” blog entries:

are submitted in a timely fashion (before each Thursday class), with developed drafts uploaded on designated workshops days or reflective posts on non-workshop days that are at least a full paragraph long (200 words).

consider options for how to develop responses to assignments.

reflect meaningfully on the writer’s process, performance, and rhetorical choices.

consider how course principles can be brought to bear upon the writer’s work.

do not get bogged down in complaining about grades.

Arranging and Tagging

When you write a blog post, you have the option to add categories and tags to your posts. Categories are broad groupings of post types. You should separate your entries into Passion, RCL, WIP and CI for your blog categories. You could also add additional categories. For example, if you wrote a food blog, your categories might include “breakfast” and “dessert.”

Tags are more specific to the content of the post, so if you wrote a recipe for chocolate cake, you might categorize it in “dessert” and tag it “cake” and “chocolate.” Categories are useful on your blog when readers visit and want to view several posts that are similar. Tags are useful to find specific posts and for searching on the Penn State network.
For this course, the blogging assignment uses tagging to filter student posts to make it easier for instructors, classmates, and students in other RCL sections to find your work. It is important that you follow the tagging conventions outlined below so that your posts can be found for commenting and grading.

Tagging Conventions
It is important that you use the tags listed below so that your blog posts can be found.
Across Sections: RCL1213, & one of the following: passion, RCL, wip (whichever corresponds with the blog post you’re writing)
Course Specific: Wiley
Optional: week (eg – wk1, wk2)
Optional: topic (eg – football)

Category Conventions
You can also create three categories for the three blog post types you will be writing so visitors to your site have a quick way to view all the passion posts or other types of posts. The categories should be: passion, rhetoric and civic life, and work in progress.

Successful commenting on classmates’ blog posts:

furthers the discussion prompted by the post in thoughtful and meaningful ways.

responsibly and responsively critiques working drafts, offering thoughtful suggestions that help the writer improve his or her work.

adheres to the Penn State Principles, especially when disagreeing with the writer.

Rubric

	Excellent	Good	Acceptable	Poor
Content	Content is coherent and focused, and fulfills expectations of category (per features of success) with excellence.	Content is coherent and focused, and fulfills expectations (per features of success)  of category well.	Content is mostly coherent and focused, and fulfills expectations (per features of success)  of category acceptably.	Content lacks coherence and focus, and does not fulfill the expectations (per features of success) of category.
Style	Written in a lively voice that engages and provokes its audience into commenting and taking distinctive stances. Writing style greatly enhances post genre/category.	Written in a consistent voice that engages the audience, though may not provoke audience to take action or stance. Writing style enhances post genre/category.	Written in a mostly consistent voice, though does not engage or provoke the audience. Writing style does not add much to post genre/category.	Written in an inconsistent voice. Does not engage the audience. Writing style does not add to post genre/category.
Mechanics	Post was submitted on time in the appropriate length, with few to no grammatical errors.	Post submitted on time in the  appropriate length, with few grammatical errors that did not distract from meaning.	Post submitted on time, but the length was inappropriate (too short or too long), and/or there were a few grammatical errors that distracted from the meaning.	Post was not submitted on time and/or the length was inappropriate (too short or too long) and/or there were numerous grammatical errors that distracted from the meaning.