Blogging Guidelines

Please follow these guidelines when posting to this blog.

If you are unfamiliar with the basics of how to create a blog post, refer to Google's "Blogger Getting Started Guide." The part about creating a blog will not apply, but the rest will. You can also watch "Blogger for Beginners: How to Create a New Post" (the interface may now look slightly different but the video is still useful). There may be more recent how-to videos that you can Google yourself on the topic.

1. Title. Be sure your post has a meaningful title, one that previews your post's content or that serves as a teaser. Poor title: "Assignment #1" or "Blog post for Sept 5." Good titles: "How Nestor Observed Decorum" or "Were the Greeks actually anti-intellectuals?"
2. Length. Shoot for 300 words, although 200 is just fine. If you go 400 words, it better be an exception. This word count is important, since people often write too long when blogging. (Copy your post into something like Word Counter to be sure. If you go over 300 words, consider dividing your post with the "jump break" feature.)
3. Audience and Tone. Write your posts as though they will be read by a general audience outside of our class. An informal tone is appropriate, but not overly so. 
4. Use hyperlinks (optional). As appropriate, link to other blog posts in this blog, or to other relevant sites beyond the blog. Short posts may have just one or two links. Make these meaningful.
5. Break up the text. Use breaks between paragraphs. For longer posts, use subheadings for sections of the post. Other good ideas to keep it visually interesting include using lists or bullet points, and embedding media. 
6. Use media (optional). Try to find or create a single image to accompany your text. However, do not spend too much time on this part, and do not violate copyright. Search for images using search.creativecommons.org. Please give attribution for using media you have not created, or seek permission from copyright holders if you are not using public domain or Creative Commons-licensed media.
7. Use labels (or tags). THIS IS MANDATORY. Labels will be the way by which we can easily index your posts, find specific assignments, or browse topics. Always use at least two labels: 1) the label "posted by Myfirstname Initialoflastname" (So... "posted by Joseph P" for example). Please note you should not capitalize "post"; and 2) the label designated for the assignment within the instructions  (For example, "the greeks and I"). After those mandatory labels, you can use others that seem to fit your topic. Separate labels by commas (this allows for multi-word labels, such as "Greek rhetoric, heroic speech, appeal to pathos" - etc.)