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Guidelines for Student Blogging

Toward the end of 2008, Jeffrey Keefer and I used Google Docs to collaborate on guidelines for students to follow when writing in their blogs. What follows is the result of our collaboration, along with some of my personal spin added in. Though I wanted to create these guidelines as a guide for my students at Georgia Southern University, they may apply elsewhere as well. 

Guidelines for Creating Blog Posts

Keep these general guidelines in mind when you post blog entries for our class:

  • Blogs are public, so write in a way that you will be comfortable with anybody reading your work (co-workers, friends, potential employers, parents, etc.).
    • Public blog posts may be indexed by Google and other search engines, so be mindful of your online identity you are creating.
    • Remember that Google may cache previous versions of your blog posts, even if you delete them. Google never sleeps.
  • Use an engaging title that captures your blog post and promotes reader interest.
  • Write about anything that interests you as it relates to our class content, even if there is no specific class assignment. Writers get better writing by writing. 
  • Give credit where credit is due
    • If you use the direct words or lists of another blogger/writer, you MUST put the words in quotation marks.*
      • Cite the source by including the name and URL of the source; hyperlink to the source. OR use APA style.
    • If you paraphrase another blogger/writer, you MUST indicate where you found the information.*
      • Cite the source by including the name and URL of the source; hyperlink to the source. OR use APA style.
    • When using images in your blog posts, indicate where the images come from, either by linking back to the image source or providing a photo credit on the page. A great source for images is Flickr, especially when searched using CompFight.
*Note:  Failure to cite sources in blog posts will result in the same penalty as failure to cite sources in traditional research papers or other writing projects. Consult with your professor if you are in doubt about how to attribute the sources.

Guidelines for Commenting on Blogs

  • Reading your classmate and colleagues’ blogs to will give you ideas for your own writing.
  • When you comment on another person’s blog, you can potentially start a dialogue and gain new social contacts.
  • Like blog posts themselves, you never know who will read your comments.
  • It is good practice reply to comments on your own blog.

Questions about blogging guidelines?

barbara_is_listening

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Arrive, Survive and Thrive in Prof. Nixon’s Classes :: Summer 2009

An Open Note to All of Prof. Nixon’s Students at Georgia Southern University:

We’re almost off and running in our Summer Semester classes at GSU. This semester, I’m teaching two classes; the classes, with hyperlinks to the syllabi, are listed below:

So that we can make the most of this semester, please (PLEASE) take some time to read through the blog posts I’ve included here. I promise you, it will be well worth your time. (How often do professors let you get inside their heads, letting you know their tips for success and their pet peeves?)

Additionally, here are a few more tips:

  • When communicating with me via e-mail (or Facebook), please put your course number (such as PRCA 3339) in the subject line to help me immediately identify who you are and frame your questions or comments. Do your best to write in full sentences, paying attention to standard English grammar and spelling. Always sign your e-mails with your first and last name, as your GSU e-mail address will not make that readily apparent to me.
  • When submiting an assignment in GeorgiaVIEW, always put your last name as part of the file name, and also include your name in the document itself. Papers submitted without your last name as part of the file name cannot earn full credit.
  • If an assignment is due in GeorgiaVIEW, the only way to get full credit for the assignment is to submit it in GeorgiaVIEW. (E-mailing an assignment to me can be risky; I receive 250+ e-mails a day, and there’s a chance I will not see it in my inbox.)
  • Follow me on Twitter, if you really want to get inside my head. (What’s Twitter?)

Let’s make this a great semester together!

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The Lady in Black

Last weekend, my husband surprised me with tickets to the NASCAR Nationwide race at Darlington, otherwise known as The Lady in Black. I’ll blog more about the experience later, but for now, here are some of the pictures I took:

Many thanks to my Twitter friends Nicole Hornig for connecting me with Nationwide driver Benny Gordon; the pit passes really made this a wonderful first NASCAR experience for me.

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Spring 2009 PRCA 2330 Blogroll

Looking for the blogs of my students from Introduction to Public Relations, Spring 2009? I moved the list from a page to this blog post.