Midterm blog grades

Since there are only three weeks, including this week, until I give you your midterm blog grades, I thought it was time to spell out the evaluation criteria for both of us. So here it is:

Your midterm blog grade is worth 20% of your final grade, so I will give you a numeric grade out of 20, which I will assign upon evaluation of the following specifications.

- the total number of points, out of a possible 38, for the blog posts that have been assigned up to and including October 12.

- your blog has a title

- your blog has no visible technical errors

- your name (can be first name only, if you prefer) and some sort of description of who you are, or your blog philosophy, appears in the template. An accompanying photo is a nice touch, but is not an absolute requirement.

- your template includes a blogroll with, at minimum: a link to my blog, links to at least three other bloggers in the class, plus at least three other links of your choosing, all organized in some way

Those are the minimum, objective, measurable criteria, but do keep in mind that blogging is a creative activity, and there will be an element of subjectivity in my grading. For example, any blog title will do, but "Blasting My Media" and "Da Kid Doin It Big" are far more engaging than "MCOM 72" or "Fred's Blog." As well, be forewarned that sloppiness such as broken links, unreadable fonts, URLs that are visible in the links, and careless spelling mistakes will cost you points.

I will begin the grading process on Monday, October 16, and I will email you your grade and my comments as I go along. I hope to finish grading all your blogs by Friday, October 20.