A question as you get started: How long should weekly blog posts be? Is there an expected word count?

 Hi everyone! I know that many people need to know more about expectations about the length and nature
of your weekly blog posts. Here's an outline for starters -- let me know by email or in the comments if you have further questions:

The genre of blogging favours relatively brief posts with lots of ideas packed in, accompanied if possible by photos or illustrations, diagrams, video, audio, etc. So shorter, concise and full of ideas and connections is better than very long, wordy posts in the form of an essay.


That said, there are several things you are asked to post on each week. From our course outline (link posted on the first class blog entry):


Each person will be responsible to read the introduction to the topic, watch the video, try the experience (and document with a few photos or a video of what you did), and read and think about the reading you have chosen. You will share your reflections on all these with the members of your study group by a given day (by Saturday at 8 PM), and then read and respond to the reflections your group members have posted before the end of the week (by Monday at midnight).


Starting from your reading response: this should be approximately 4-5 paragraphs long:
1) First paragraph: a concise summary of the article (because the others will likely not have read it)
2) Second and third (and fourth?) paragraphs: Two or three 'stops' (things that made you stop to think, feel, connect, respond, etc. in the article -- see blog post on How to write a reflection on readings in this course: Find two or three 'stops' and write about them, and then end with a question!)

3) Last short paragraph: A question to promote discussion in the responses from your fellow group members.


You should also post your response and documentation on the introduction to the topic, the video and the experience. If you can take some photos of the way you carried out the experience and post some of these, that would be very helpful!

 

I would expect this part of your weekly post to also be around 4 paragraphs long, give or take, plus photos or diagrams or video or audio.