Fear -- or Don't Fear -- the Blogger: 20 students, 21 blogs, 15 weeks. Learning in public at the University of Maryland. Watch what we do.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Vote for us, or forever regret it
Unstoppable Blogs Here
Sure, the University spent $700 million to come up with a sub-par slogan, but that doesn't mean we should abandon all support! By attending this school, we pledge allegiance to the all mighty Terrapin. Even if we waste valuable funding on some hipster marketing firm.
When you look at the cost associated with the slogan, "Unstoppable Blogs Here" is by far the most expensive tag line any of us could come up with. It would be a shame if we didn't honor our lost dollars.
Vote!
The University of Maryland's class dedicated to analyzing, participating and immersing in the world of blogging and studying blog culture.English 488B will offer students a chance to break away from the traditional forms of writing. You will begin your own blog, engage in blog theorization, tracking and history in a structured open environment. Professor Lindemann anticipates class & web participation as we examine and establish blogs.
Lia Azucena and Tiava Morris
Vote For This One
“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”
Vote. Or at least consider it.
Let's be honest, we could write almost anything and make it more exciting than the first description. This proposal aims at catching the eye and peaking an interest of someone stumbling across our class blog. Despite a little exaggeration in complimenting ourselves, this tagline establishes an identity.We're approaching this journey as a class, bouncing ideas off of each other and becoming better bloggers in a public forum. This class offers a unique opportunity to combine our individual efforts and abilities in writing our own blogs with the benefits of maintaining this single blog as a class. All of the taglines submitted are really good so far, and we're looking forward to reading the rest.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Terp Bloggers!
This is Terp blogging at its best. Follow University of Maryland students as they explore the evolving world of the blogosphere – in its roots, practice, and future – with Professor Marilee Lindemann at the helm.
I wanted to make my subheader concise and engaging. What are we: a terp class blog! It encompasses our identity as a class as well as gives information about the course without overwhelming the reader. Once they scroll down the sidebar or see our postings they’ll get a more in depth understanding of what we’re doing, but a tagline needs to be short. In fact, I’d almost like it to be shorter. I like the word “follow” – it’s blog lingo that other bloggers will recognize. I chose not to include the course name because it is only inclusive to UMD students. Those outside the Maryland community will have no idea what ENGL488B stands for. This tagline includes the core workings of this blog.
If you don’t vote for this tag, you’re saying you love Duke.
Down with the Old Description!!
Revising in Public
The original subheading for our class blog, "This is the class blog for English 488B, Writing for the Blogosphere, at the University of Maryland. The class is being taught by Prof. Marilee Lindemann in the Fall 2010 semester," is not appropriate. A subheading should be something that excites the readers and draws them in, making them excited about reading the blog. This current subheading couldn't be more boring. Not only does it not get students in the class excited about writing for the blog, it does not encourage outsiders to see what we are doing. We believe our new proposal is more engaging because the voice draws people in and is not stuffy. What will you get if you vote for this? It's a surprise.
Himmer Explores the Weblog as Literary Form - Brittany & Ellen
Himmer outlines the delivery of content through novels and newspapers, two literary devices that have been around long before blogging:
Novels:
- Fiction or Science Fiction: Whichever genre, it is generally defined and known by audience
- Reader identifies the narrator, the presence of the narrator, and the other characters
- Published and completed
- No direct, open, or continuous communication with audience
- Audience engagement and feedback at most includes reviews, book signings, etc.
- Edited by others (editor, publisher)
Newspapers:
- Factual
- Overall voice is ignored in favor of the facts and opinions that must be processed as information intended to give.
- Also edited by others (copy editors)
What about a Weblog?
- Content
- Personal
- Controversial
- Informal, Conversational in Tone
- Brief
- Requires the reader to both process information and interpret whether fact or fiction
- “Identify/discover” the author
- Example: Tim O’Brien, The Things We Carried
- “Makes the stomach believe”
- Reader participation and conversation
- Cybertext – feedback loop
- Entrance points not decided by the author
- Way for reader to influence/orchestrate production through process of reading
- Easily accessible
- TIME: No time constraint
- Always in a process; never completed
- Arguments and pieces can be gradual built
- Potentiality
- Infinite number of texts, “creations that create”
- Ergodic work – offers multiple paths of traversing text
- Guided by individual intentions
- Not edited, sole editor is the author
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
The Best Tagline
This new tagline, created by Ellen and Lisa, would be an excellent choice for our blog. Not only do we give readers essential information (our class name, our school, and our professor), but we also include the informal style of writing found on many blogs. This is an important contrast from the original tagline. In addition, the two sentences above encompass our past (literature essays in our previous English classes), our present (the class that we joined), and our future (our "venture into the world of blogging"). Vote for this tagline for our class blog!