Blogging Guidelines and Assignments

This semester, I am asking you to set up a blog as a forum for your portfolio. Between now and the end of the semester, when the portfolio becomes more relevant, I am also asking you to use this blog space to reflect on your fieldnotes and to do a little bit of theorizing in preparation for each major paper. My definition of "theorizing" comes from Sidney Dobrin's Constructing Knowledges, in which Patricia Bizzell sets up a critical distinction between Theory and theory: "Whereas 'Theory' tends to be thought of as something static, like a table of laws, 'theory' is better thought of as a process or an activity" (Bizzell 2). Theory with a little "t" is a "framework within which one can operate, ask questions, even alter or refine principles of that theory based on new experience, new observation" (Dobrin 9). This semester, you are learning intentionally from a range of experiences, inside and outside of classroom, and the projects you undertake will ask you to think about how to read and write various kinds of “texts,” including people, spaces, fieldnotes, and archives. Thus, this blog is your opportunity to apply concepts from the course to what you read, hear, or experience out in the world; to inspire critical thinking of class-related topics and of your own ethnographic work; and to hone your abilities to write clearly and respond confidently. By the end of Week 13, your blog will consist of at least 4 high-quality posts, mainly in response to the assignments I provide. However, you are welcome and encouraged to write additional posts, and I may offer extra credit.

• Blogging Assignment #1 - self-positioning
• Blogging Assignment #2 - description of space, image, or artifact (optional)
  
• Blogging Assignment #3 - verbal portrait of an artifact
• Blogging Assignment #4 - early fieldnotes reflection
• Blogging Assignment #5 - critical synthesis of sources
• Blogging Assignment #6 - late fieldnotes reflection
• Final "Open" Blogging Assignment - for extra credit!

blogging guidelines
Please remember that the blog space is public. Fellow class members will be reading and commenting on your posts, as you will theirs, and other Web users may encounter your posts and read what you have to say. While I want you to feel comfortable to have great discussions on it, the blog is a performance space where we still need to be committed to good communal practices.

1. Title your posts to give your readers context for what they are reading. Titles should reflect what you have thought or written or are trying to argue (rather than merely restate the name of the article or assignment you are responding to).

2. Aim for critical depth. It doesn’t take much skill or expertise to spout opinion or to demonstrate bias; the real skill is in engaging with an idea and considering it empathetically and objectively, as well as sympathetically and subjectively.

3. Aim for substance and quality. I’m not interested in seeing how much space you can fill; I am interested in seeing you genuinely communicate your thoughts, ideas, arguments, and responses to your readers. If you are responding to something we have read, explain what issues are raised for you, why those issues are interesting or important, how they complicate or challenge what you’re learning in class so far.

4. Aim for clarity and specificity. Consider stating your main claim early on as a way of helping your readers to follow your thought process. Provide context details to remind us of what article or assignment you are addressing. If you are commenting on one portion of someone else’s post, please copy/paste that portion for others to see.

5. Follow good civil/civic discussion practices. We will spend the semester discovering what these are, but for now please remember that the aim of your writing is to exchange ideas and help others understand why you think the way you do. In one sense, what we do on the blog is like diplomacy. Flaming, aggression, hate speech, inside jokes, or tactics that cause others to feel marginalized or excluded will shut down conversation and undermine your ability to theorize.

6. Follow good attribution practices (i.e., if you refer to something we haven’t read, please provide us with either the full citation so we can find it ourselves, or insert a hyperlink allowing us to access the document). Please sign your name (or your pseudonym) to every post and every comment so that other readers and writers know who left it.