Welcome and First Assignment

Your first assignment for this class is to create your own blog using Blogger and to write your first post. Here are the instructions:

[1] Set up your blog: To do so, go to www.blogger.com and follow the on-screen directions for setting up a free blog. Please take some time to personalize your blog. This is a way for your classmates and me to get to know you, so feel free to include a photo, links to other sites you enjoy, etc. Please make sure that your name (first/preferred name and last initial) is clear on your blog. I know that some/many of you already have a blog where you write posts; however, for the purposes of this class, you will need a separate blog that is focused on reflecting on your work in this course. Feel free to provide links to your other blog(s) if you would like to share them with us and with your classmates. Keep in mind, though, that we will post your blog address on the course website, so your class members will have access to your blog. You can restrict general public access to your blog, however, under “Settings” by marking “no” for the question “Add your blog to our listings?”

[2] Write your first entry: Write a letter of introduction about yourself. Start with the basics—where you are from, what year you are at TCU, what major, etc. Then, please include a few more specific things about you and your participation in the course.

*First, help us to get you know you. What brought you to TCU? If you were made Chancellor of TCU, what are the first things you would change? What do you feel makes a good teacher? Good students? If you could have dinner with any three people (living or dead), who would they be? What are three things we should know about you? What are three things you'd like to know about us?

* Next, think about your interest in this course. Why did you choose to take this course? If your answer is simply that it’s required, then what would you like to get out of it?

* Now please consider your academic and personal experiences as they relate to this course. What types of reading do you do, inside and outside the classroom? What types of texts do you enjoy? What types of writing do you primarily do (think beyond traditional school papers to other kinds of writing and technologies, like email, texting, etc.)? How do you feel about your writing? Why?

* Finally, throughout the semester, we’ll discuss the personal, political, and historical arguments/messages inherent in texts—messages that are some times not readily apparent, intended by the author, or easily understood by a contemporary audience. As a first step to uncovering, analyzing, and understanding these messages, take a few minutes to talk about what kind of message you think your blog is sending. Consider choices you made about colors, images, the way you introduce yourself, etc. What do these choices say about you as the blog author? About your participation in the course?

At the end of your letter to your blog audience, please write a final statement letting me know that you have read, understand, and agree to the terms of the course syllabus, which I see as a contract for our course. Remember that all of your blog entries should be in paragraph form.

[3] Follow up: Add a comment to this post that includes your name, section, and blog address (http://____.blogspot.com), so that I can add it to the list on our course page. Also let me know if you have any questions regarding the syllabus or anything discussed in our first meeting of the course.