Blog assignments and grading

Some of you have asked me for more formal feedback on your blogs. I can't give each of you individual feedback every week (there are just too many of you), but I can explain my grading process so that you know what it is I'm looking at, and how your blog is being evaluated.

For the first couple of weeks, I was grading you on more or less a binary system: either you had a blog (good) or you didn't (bad). Either you wrote a post after each class, a minimum of 200 words, or you didn't. The last few classes I've given you specific writing assignments and I'm marking those the same way -- either you wrote a post on the given topic, during the prescribed time period, or you didn't.

Starting with yesterday's blog assignment (What propoganda have you encountered recently?) I'm going to add an element of quality to my evaluation. That is, it is no longer sufficient just to write anything on the topic, now, how well you write it will count, too.

As we go along, I will increase the criteria. For example, I'll require you to include a link to at least one external source, or I'll require you to link to another student's blog, or I'll require you to comment on someone else's blog. That sort of thing. But I will always give you specific instructions when I'm going to be looking for something specific on your blog.

So, basically, if you do everything I assign you to do on your blog, and you do it well, you'll get an A for your midterm blog grade.