Welcome to the blog-home for Professor Ben Curtis' Theories of Human Nature class! For the second half of the semester, we will be turning our attention to contemporary moral problems generated by the increasingly complicated interactions between human life, on the one hand, and the various technologies humans have created to make their/our life "better," on the other hand. This site will serve as a forum for students to discuss the lectures, readings, and films we cover in class, raise interesting questions we may not have addressed during our regular
IRL time together, make connections between our course material and current real-world events, and engage in an ongoing digital conversation with one another, Prior to this point in the semester, your progress and understanding has been assessed through objective quizzes and symposia. This is your chance to demonstrate that you also can express your ideas and arguments in written form.
First, if you don't know ANYTHING about blogs or blogging, there are (fortunately) lots of tutorials out there to help! If you have a specific question, you can usually find the answer to it at the
Blogger Help Center. For a quick YouTube introduction to blogging, I suggest
this video and
this one. There's also a
"Complete List of Blogger Tutorials" available. That's the amazing thing about the internet, of course... you can learn to do almost anything with a few clicks!
It's important to know that blog-writing differs from the writing you might do for "traditional" papers in some ways, but not in others. Here are some things to think about as you compose your posts and comments:
WHEN POSTING:
- Do not wait until the last minute to write your post! Students should think of the blog as a community exercise. In this community, Authors are responsible for generating discussion and Commenters are responsible for continuing and elaborating upon it. In order for the Commenters to be able to provide the best commentary they can, it is necessary that Authors do not wait until the last minute to post entries in any given week. Like traditional papers, it is almost always obvious when a student has elected to write his or her blog-post at the last minute, as it ends up being either overly simple, poorly conceived, or poorly edited. Your contribution to the blog discussion is important, so take care to show the respect to your classmates that you would expect them to show you.
- Be concise, but also precise. The greatest challenge of blog-writing is to communicate complex ideas in a minimal amount of words. It is important that you keep your posts short, in keeping with the 400-word assignment format, but also that you do not sacrifice the clarity or completeness of your ideas for the sake of brevity.
- Be focused. If you find that your blog-entry is too long, it is likely because you have chosen too large a topic for one post. (Consider splitting up long entries into two or more posts.) It should be eminently clear, on the first reading, what your blog post is explaining/asking/arguing. Use the Post Title to clearly state the subject of your entry. DO NOT POST ANYTHING THAT DOES NOT INCLUDE A POST TITLE.
- Choose a topic that will prompt discussion. The measure of a good blog post is how much commentary it can generate. To that end, do not use your blog posts for simple exegesis or to revisit questions already settled in class. Good discussion-generators often include bold claims about, or original interpretations of, our classroom materials (lectures, texts, films, etc). Connecting the course material to current events or controversies is also a good way to generate discussion. Pay special attention to in-class conversations, as many of the issues that generate discussion in class will also generate discussion on the blog.
- Proofread. Proofread. PROOFREAD. As a rule, blog-writing is (slightly) less formal than the writing you might do for a paper you hand in to your professor. For example, you may write in the first person, and a more "conversational" style is usually acceptable. However, blog writing with glaring punctuation, spelling or grammatical mistakes not only will be difficult to read and understand, but also will greatly diminish the credibility of its Author. DO NOT "COPY AND PASTE" the text of your post into the blog's "new post" box, as you will inevitably end up with a format that is difficult to read. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the formatting buttons above, and ALWAYS preview your post before publishing it.
- Make use of the "extras" provided by new technology. When you write a traditional paper for class, you don't have many of the opportunities that blog-writing affords. Take advantage of the technologies available here to insert images, embed video or employ hyperlinks to other relevant materials.
- Respond to your commenters. After you write a post, you should stay abreast of all the commentary your post generates. If you are asked for clarification by a commenter, or if one of your claims is challenged, it is the your responsibility to respond.
WHEN COMMENTING ON OTHERS' POSTS:
- Read carefully BEFORE you comment. The biggest and most frequent error made by commenters is also the most easily avoidable, namely, misreading or misunderstanding the original post. Don't make that error!
- Simple agreement or disagreement is not sufficient. There is no word-limit for comments, but if you make a comment on another's post, you are required to say something substantive in your comment. Sometimes it will be the case that you fully agree or disagree with an Author's post. However, a comment that simply states "I agree" or "I disagree" will not count for credit. You MUST provide detailed reasons for your agreement or disagreement in your comment.
- Evidence works both ways. Often, the source of disagreement between a Poster and a Commenter will involve a matter of interpretation. If a Poster makes an objectionable (or false) claim about something that is verifiable-- for example, textual claims, statistical claims, historical claims, claims about current events, or claims about any other evidentiary matters-- he or she MUST be prepared to provide evidence in support of his or her claims. The same goes for commenters. If you want to disagree about a matter of fact, you MUST provide evidence for your disagreement. Hyperlinks are everyone's friend.
- NO flaming allowed!: "Flaming" is defined as "a hostile or insulting interaction between Internet users." Students should be reminded that disagreement, all by itself, does not constitute disrespect, nor does it count as "flaming" However, threatening, intimidating, belittling, name-calling, or otherwise inappropriate and/or reasonably objectionable language does count as flaming. Engage your classmates on the blog with the same consideration and respect that you would in class.
Although this blog is viewable by anyone on the Web, participants have been restricted to students enrolled in PHIL224 only. This means that only students enrolled in PHIL224 this semester at CBU can post or comment on this blog. However, please be aware that
anyone can read this blog, so students should take special care to support the claims that they make, to edit their posts and comments judiciously, and to generally represent themselves in conversation here as they would in public.
I am very much looking forward to reading your work here over the next several weeks!
BC
