A short guide to better blogging and blog marking criteria

Blogging will be a new experience for many of you, while some may already be established bloggers and are probably accomplished users of other social media.  You will also have evolved your own style of communicating using these media, but in a higher learning context this use has to metamorphose again to develop new ways of communicating and engaging online through this subject.

The blog entries should be informed, scholarly reflections on course lectures, readings, and your own research. They should not be done in the style of a personal diary, but as a reflective study journal. You can use the blog as a place as place for your notes, observations and analysis. To help guide you, the following list is an explanation of the criteria used to assess your blogs. I’ll be using the following to mark your work, so these are all questions you can ask of your own work when you are composing and posting your weekly entries.

1. Substance

In order to meet this criterion your blog post should consider the theme of the week’s lecture through the suggested topics in some detail. The word length is necessarily small, just 250 words – there is some flexibility here (10-15%), but aim to be over rather than under. When addressing the criteria for  substance we’re examining  whether you have really engaged with the week’s topic to the extent that it deserves, and in the way  necessary for you to have got the most out of that week’s content.

The aim of this criteria is to learn about the course content using new publishing technologies and to write short, focussed pieces that reveal how and what you think through the topics we’ve raised. Being able to consistently write interesting and relevant works of  this length is a generic skill that will serve you well in a range of careers and sectors post university.

2. Engagement

Does the post engage with the course content, readings, lecture materials and in class discussions. Does the post demonstrate original research of from a variety of primary, secondary or tertiary sources on the topic? Participation in this subject involves experimentation and analysis of new media technologies to further develop knowledge and digital literacies that will be useful to you in your university career, and in your life after university.

This criterion considers to what degree you show us that you have understood the course readings by quoting, paraphrasing and citing where relevant, and by directly engaging with the ideas authors have offered in the readings. It is perfectly acceptable to disagree, but remember to exemplify your logic through reference to other sources, and via hyperlinks, video, images and other media. The central concern is you’re analysis of the materials and using them in forming your own unique expression and understanding.

Remember it is crucial to reference all ideas and materials that you have taken from another source if referring to them in your post. Use the recommended Harvard Referencing, or ‘author-date’ system available in an online guide form at the UOW library, athttp://www.library.uow.edu.au/referencing/. The reference list is not included in the word count.

3. Originality

The object of this weekly blogging task is to develop consistent and professional writing habits, as you incorporate the knowledge gained during the course we want to encourage your to think for yourself and provide your own judgement and perspective, not simply a reworking or direction repetition of other’s people work.

At the very least your work should not be plagiarised. Plagiarism, representing the work of others as your own, is a serious academic offence, but avoiding it is simple. If you use someone else’s work – academic or fellow student – you must acknowledge with a referencing.

4. Online Affordance

Much of the learning about new media technologies and research methodologies in this subject is achieved through hands on practical experience. This involves learning how to manage the possibilities of those technologies in a practical ways. In the case of blogging this involves thinking carefully about how best to usefully hyperlink your posts to further online materials.  To give readers more information you can also feature illustrative material (including pictures and other media) in your posts.

Each post should include at least three hyperlinks to relevant online material, and one piece of illustrative material. The lab seminars are the best time to work through any problems in achieving this.

5. Presentation

One of the benefits of studying digital communications is developing the digital literacies and skills involved in professional communication. This involves the weekly production of material that communicates your perspective on the subject matter in ways that is useful to your peers but also accessible to a wider and less specific audience. A good blog writer will provide jumping off points for your readership through links and other media, but you should ensure not to undermine your efforts through simple typographical errors that distract your audience. However the blog is not a static form, being able to go back and edit the presentation at any times means we can revisit, revise and improve at any time and you are encouraged to do so.

Be attentive to:

• Correct spelling and grammar.
• Properly formed paragraphs, with topic sentences.
• An appropriate style – although less formal than an essay, this is not personal commentary – you should be trying to engage and interest a broad audience.
• Correct referencing for material you have quoted and referred to (please refer to the Faculty’s referencing guide, and consult us if you have any queries) .

6. Punctual

The weekly blogging task is due before the lecture of the following week. You can revise and edit the blog post at any time except for the week following the two assessment periods as detailed in your subject outline.

DIGC102 Week Four Censorship Debates »« E-Waste and the New Media User