Exercise 2

This informative piece of no more than 1000 words — perhaps only 600 or 700 as you start working on it — is meant to give a clear, unbiased, well-researched introduction to your topic, a helpful overview that would allow a reader to know the basic problem, the main players, their history, their disagreements, the main hopes for the future. It should be written in a voice that sounds fair, clear-headed, well-organized. Present yourself as a well-informed writer.

Exercise 1

From our Twitter conversation about Exercise 1, the Good Story:

Story assgn.: tell a strong story, 600-750 words, due as Exercise 1 on the main syllabus, and meant for the public, for publishing.

Story assgn. need not be on your research topic. It should clearly use the traits of good story-telling we discussed, and more.

If you think of other traits of strong stories besides the ones we listed in class, how about mentioning them on Twitter? Please do. Use most of those traits in your story.

Be ambitious–try to tell an important story as well as you have ever hold a story. The assignment calls for Non-Fiction, _not_ fiction.

So, check out the MLS_D600 feed for the other traits we brainstormed that week and build these into your story.

For February 19

As usual: Blog at least four times this week, as well as continuing your research, below, and remaining involved with Twitter as a form of social media. Comment on at least two blog entries by your classmates on their sites.  If any of our new techniques would improve your old postings, take time to go back and adjust them.

 

RSS Out, RSS In

 

Go to Google Blog Search and enter another appropriate search term for your project. Find the RSS feed for that search term and add it to a sidebar widget on your WordPress site.

 

Library Session

 

Carry on with the assignment announced online last week.

 

Web Resources

 

For the next few weeks, continue to search for key terms related to your project using Google Blogs, Google, Technorati, and Bloglines.  Blog about the best of the findings.

Wrapping an Event

 

From time to time you will probably be involved in a community event that is important to you, that addresses an issue of deep concern to you.  How can a citizen-activist make the most of the energy that goes into a public event?

 

What can the writer prepare ahead of time in order to:

 

a)      build an audience

b)      instruct the audience

 

How can the writer cover the event itself in order to:

 

c)      capture the highlights

d)      evaluate the event

 

How can the writer keep the energy of the event alive later in order to:

 

e)      maintain the audience

f)        learn from the event

 

These questions imply that a public intellectual, a citizen-activist, would want to develop skills that could be used to wrap an event in writing published before, at the time of, and after the event, in order to prepare an audience, capture the energy of the event, and maintain the benefits after the event has passed.

 

This semester one of the major assignments will be to compose (and revise) at least five blog entries that wrap an event of your choosing.  If possible, this event should relate to your research topic, but if this is not possible, then propose a substitute with the instructor.

 

Plan to attend the event and to post interesting entries before, at the time of, and after the event that are aimed at the accomplishments listed above.

For February 12

Blog at least four times this week, as well as continuing your research, below, and getting involved with Twitter as a form of social media. Comment on at least two blog entries by your classmates on their sites.  If any of our new techniques would improve your old postings, such as paragraph layouts, feel free to go back and adjust them.

 

RSS Out, RSS In

 

Add the RSS feed of one of your classmates to a sidebar widget on your WordPress site, just to acquaint yourself with how to bring RSS into a site.

 

Go to Google Blog Search and enter an appropriate search term for your project. Find the RSS feed for that search term and add it to a sidebar widget on your WordPress site.

 

Library Session

 

Contact the reference desk at the library to make an appointment with a reference librarian for a private session.  Ask for assistance with your research topic.  Blog about the tools and resources you learn in your session by February 23^rd.  Focus on non-web resources in this session.  Begin blogging about your findings as well.

 

Web Resources

 

Continue to search for key terms related to your project using Google Blogs, Google, Technorati, and Bloglines.  Blog about the best of the findings.

 

Using Twitter in D600

 

For the next several weeks, keep your classmates and me informed about your progress on your research, your reading and thinking about your topic, and your new blog postings using Twitter.  Also useful would be occasional postings in which you share a constructive idea with a classmate about his or her work.  This might include a source you discovered that is relevant to the person’s project.

 

Post at least 6 days a week.  Post at least 10 postings a week.

 

To be sure that you receive all the posts (Tweets) from your classmates, subscribe to their Twitter feeds today.

 

Other Twitter basics:

 

If you want to join other people in discussing a topic, add a hash mark (#) before the key word.  This works in Twitter searches as well.

 

Use tinyurl.com to compress a link so it won’t use up all of your 140 characters.  Paste in the tinyurl and you’re good to go.  Check the link when it posts, though, to be sure.

 

A little picture helps readers immediately know who you are and speeds use of your postings.

 

Once you find someone who talks about your topic, “Follow” that person’s Twitter feed for automatic delivery.  If they stop being of use to you, you can stop following at any time.

 

 Tonight in the lab:

 

1. Sign up for a Twitter account.

 

2. Tell everyone your Twitter name so they can Follow you.

 

3. Add all class members to your Twitter Follow list.

 

4. Practice responding to other people by responding to your classmates tonight.

 

5.  Try erasing a Tweet.

 

6.  Try searching for people who write about your subject: eg., “activism” “ballet” “#dance” or “#education” etc.

 

7.  Create a link to an interesting web site or article using tinyurl.com at least once.

 

Numbers games ahead

Since we’ll be talking soon about statistics as the central method of social sciences, you might enjoy Barry Gewen’s book review of The Numbers Game: The Commonsense Guide to Understanding Numbers in the News, Politics, and in Life by Micheal Blastland and Andrew Dilnot. See also the book excerpt offered by the publisher. The authors explore ways to deal productively with the judgments, the human complexities, and the imprecisions that are woven into the seeming precision of statistical data.

Three blog posts due by February 6

Everyone write one blog post about what you’ve gathered about having a strong public voice based on our readings so far and our conversations.

If you’ve settled on your semester topic, use technorati to search key words related to it and write two blog posts about the sort of things you find.

If you haven’t settled on your semester topic, write two posts this week about the topics you are considering and what their virtues might be.

Continue to read your classmates’ blogs and if you find something interesting, write a comment or two on their blogs.