During “Participation” weeks, each student is expected to post at least two times in the course Blog Section. One of these must be a question about the assigned readings from the previous “Reading” week and one must be a response to classmates’ posts, for a total of two posts per “Participation” week. The first post is due by 11:55 PM on Wednesday of the Participation week. Your question must be posted in your own personal blogs that you will create (each new blog) every other week.

The first post of the Participation week must be a question about the readings, not a response to a classmate’s post. Questions must show familiarity with the assigned readings and must be specific, not open-ended. For example, “What do you guys think?” is too open-ended and non-specific, which makes it hard for the rest of us to write effective responses. Questions should also suggest a possible analysis of the reading or a line of inquiry to be developed by commentators. As a result, question posts should be at least paragraph length. Commenting on another student’s blog post (either an original question post -OR- a comment to an original post) should develop and enrich the points in the post; helpful and respectful criticism is welcomed. As a result, comments should be roughly paragraph in length or more. Students will not earn credit for posts of insufficient quality. To receive credit, posts must be intellectually valuable, encourage further discussion, and draw support from at least one reference to the assigned readings from the previous “Reading” week. Students will not receive credit for posts such as “Good idea!” and “I agree with you!”

The purpose of each post should be to help each other better understand the arguments made in the assigned readings and how to apply those arguments to real-world situations. I will comment on some posts in order to help the class to understand better certain ideas. Feedback will also be given on your individual blog posts. You should monitor all posts to improve your understanding of the material.

Note: In an online environment, it is tempting to write in the kind of shorthand we often see in text messages, blogs, etc. Please note that for our course this is not acceptable. Blog posts are considered formal writing, so they must be written in complete sentences with a minimum of spelling and grammatical errors. Blog posts that are not written in complete sentences or that contain excessive spelling or grammatical mistakes will not receive full credit. Additionally, in an online environment, it is tempting for some to be less courtesy. You are expected to be courtesy and respectful to each other and me. Inappropriate posts will be monitored and sanctioned (See Code of Conduct).