WritDM Spring 2013 Proposal

Introduction

Title: How to Build a Blog: College Student Edition

Upon starting their focused blogs for NMAC 3108(Online Writing for Digital Media), students might be overwhelmed by the vast number of concepts and terms associated with the assignment. In Writing for Digital Media, students are introduced to a number of different terms, concepts, and options that help them to build a blog from scratch.

In order to succeed in the digital age while maintaining a professional online persona, it is crucial that students understand the definitions of the variety of terms that are used in the process of building a focused blog.

Audience

We will target our material to be most pertinent to undergraduate upperclassmen seeking to enter the professional landscape of digital media. Our terminology and articles will have the student in mind that has writing experience, yet needs to tailor their writing style to the conventions of writing for the web. Students nearing graduation and recent graduates seeking to build a professional presence and persona online are among our target audience. There may be a learning curve among our audience in maneuvering blog hosting sites, the focus will aim to the center—students and recent graduates that may use blog hosting sites personally, but not professionally.

Purpose

The purpose of this project is to aid college students in the creation of a focused blog. Through the information on this wiki, we hope that students will be able to focus content, format posts, and incorporate interactivity. The categorized content on this page will help students avoid common errors associated with the creation of a blog.

Project Details

The project will be put together by thirteen individual students who will focus on the terms used while building a WordPress.com blog. Each subpage will define and provide examples of terms related to their respective concept.

1. Focus (Group Leader- Shanna Dixon)
   1. Choosing a Topic (Amy Rehner): Deciding on a focused blog topic is one of the most important steps in building a blog.
   2. Research Methods (Melissa Grantham): In order to build connections outside of your blog, you must conduct research.
   3. Interactivity (Marian Brewer): Interacting and creating blogrolls help your blog gain attention and readers.
   4. Audience (Shanna Dixon): Writing for your audience is necessary if you want to reach a wide readership.
2. Organization (Group Leader- Nadine Epperson)
   1. Categorizing Posts (Candice Barca): Learn where to put your posts and how to do it.
   2. Headers and Sub-Headers (Chrissonia McCall): Control where the reader looks and how they see your article.
   3. Lists (Tiory Clark): Organizing your posts and pages into lists
   4. Links (Nadine Epperson): Linking outside of your blog demonstrates evidence and encourages digital connections.
3. Writing Style (Group Leader- Kristin Hanlin)
   1. Readability (Andrew Clouse): Maintaining an ease of reading on an ephemeral medium.
   2. Scan-Ability (Kristin Hanlin): Dale Dougherty's "Three-second Rule" and beyond!
   3. Brevity (Haley Clarke): How to keep posts concise and effective for readers of digital media.
   4. Inverted Pyramind (Siobahn Fisher): Get to the point and then fill in details.
   5. Prooreading (Kasey Miller):

Timeline

Individual Submission due 4/5/13 by 12 noon

Group Submission due 4/12/13 by 12 noon

Final Group Discussion and Revision 4/19/13 and 4/25/13

Final Wiki Project due 4/26/13 by 12 noon

Potential References

1. Carrol, Brian. (2010). "Writing for Digital Media". New York: Routledge. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
2. Lucas, Gerald R. (2012). “Writing for Digital Media, Fall 2012”. LitMUSE. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
3. Lynch, Patrick J., Horton, Sarah. (2009). “Web Style Guide Online, 3rd Edition”. Web Style Guide. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
4. Wordpress Support. Wordpress. (2009). "Wordpress Support". Retrieved 21 March 2013.
5. Strunk, William, Jr. (1918). "The Elements of Style". Bartleby Retrieved 1 April 2013.