Blog Talk: In Which I Discuss How Blog Assignments Like This Can Bring Up Sprinkles of Post-Process Theory and "Diving In" Into Everyday Generalized First Year Writing (Wanted: One Shorter and Snappier Blog Title)

One big assignment that I’ve considered including in my syllabus carried the post-process thinking of Breuch’s article as well as Selfe’s idea on mapping through technology for discursive purposes. The assignment, which would be 10% of the final grade so as not to overshadow the brief assignments and essay writing of a composition course at Tech, would involve the same type of blog-writing that we’ve been doing for this whole semester. Only instead of having students make their own blogs, I would have them comment on their choices in a selection of 5-7 arguments and topics that I’d post on my blog each week. I got the idea from a government class that I took during my senior year of high school, where the instructor would set up a blog with different current events, and each week we as students would have to comment on at least one of the current events. Adapting such a weekly exercise meant for a political science class into the structure a First-Year Writing class would be less of a stretch than it sounds. I could upload articles on the craft of writing or articles on composition writing like the ones we’ve read all semester long, and then have students give 300-500 word comments on what they think of the argument or how the articles could be applied to their own experiences with composition writing. Also, unlike the more structured brief assignment writing expected from RaiderWriter people, the blog comments would allow students to write in any subjective or objective form that they feel comfortable in writing. The goal of this assignment would be to dive into student opinions on composition writing, as well as get to know the students and their writing styles that go beyond the more generalized process-theory style writing.

            Of course, I would discourage them from typing in text speech or emoticons, since I’d state as a restriction to “be legible” with the comments. At the same time, I’d encourage multinational students to write in a language they are comfortable with while still helping them with making their English translations have the same voice as their more comfortable native writings. But that last part is still a work-in-progress, and I’d be welcome to any ideas on how Selfe’s interface mapping can be applied to multinational students. All that aside, the blogging exercise that I’ve cannibalized from similar weekly blog assignments works best for balancing more modern post-process theory ideas with the generalized writing process that’s been applied to our first-year writing classes now. The blog process that we’ve been doing all semester long, for instance, helps give us a gateway to express our own opinions without really being restricted to process theory techniques. The blog exercise in my syllabus likewise gives my theoretical composition students an opportunity to think outside the box, which can help them establish a definitive writing style without reliance on things like Engfish. That way, students can experience post-process ideas that can be used in developing effective compositions while still following Tech's First Year Writing program's generalized writing process in some form.