Getting Started

Beginning with week 3, you’ll be asked to compose 2 posts on our class blog by Monday of each week, for a total of 20 posts. The purpose of the blog is two-fold: (1) to give you a collaborative space for thinking through and working out difficult concepts, and (2) to extend our conversations beyond the classroom into another modality. Your posts will help us study rhetorical theory from ancient times to the Enlightenment. Your first posts are due at by 11 am on Monday, September 8. Posts are due weekly, except in those weeks when a major assignment is due (see the schedule).

These posts may be some of the most challenging writing you do in this class, and they should be smartly and thoughtfully composed. You might offer informed opinions about the assigned readings, ask and answer questions, expand on issues we didn't cover in class, or you might make applications of our texts to other texts you read or encounter, You might also consider more broadly how reading the text contributes to your understanding of the goals of course or other readings in the course, putting texts in conversation with one another. In other words, don’t spend time talking about what you don’t understand; rather, work towards understanding through your engagement in composing posts. 

Expectations

• Posts are due each Monday by 11 am if you wish to receive credit for posts that week. 
• Posts can and should include comments to your classmates' posts, as long as those comments are as extensive, thorough, and insightful as your own posts. In other words, your comment need to draw salient connections and cite sources in order for it to count as a post. (1 post + 1 comment can fulfill your 2 weekly posts.) 
• Your weekly posts (or 1 post and 1 comment) should not exceed 500 words.
• Title your posts to give your readers context for what they are reading. Titles should reflect what you have thought or are trying to argue, rather than merely restate the name of the reading you are responding to. 
• Posts should be somewhat polished; remember that you are writing for a public audience. Paragraphing, spelling, and accuracy all matter. 
• "Post ahead" in anticipation of Monday's readings; however, at times it will make sense refer back to readings we already discussed. 
• Remember that academic integrity applies to the posts on this site, too. Please refer clearly to the text you are discussing, be accurate with names and titles, and include page numbers where relevant. If you refer to someone else's (published) reading of a text, mention this outside source.