Long Read Blog Post (100 points)

Produce a long read blog post on a particular topic area of digital technologies and cultures in which you have an interest. A list of suggested topics is available.

You will need to collect articles, books, and/or multimedia about your topic, read/watch and analyze them as well as synthesize their meaning based on your thesis.  This writing should analyze a certain trend, technology impact, behavior, or environment.

For your post, you should:

• Brainstorm and develop your topic and central idea. What questions are you trying to answer? What can you challenge about your topic? What claim do you want to make?
• Do research on your topic and collect resources.
  • Your resources should be more scholarly or professionally reviewed in nature.
  • You should include a range of resources from a variety of sources.
  • You must include, at minimum, 6 resources in your post, at least 2 of which must be scholarly resources (based in research).
• Interesting, relevant, perhaps even funny title.
• Brief summary may be included, but focus more on a thoughtful analysis and evaluation (react to, identify strands, find problems or contradictions with, give strengths of, explain why you agree or disagree with, etc.).
• Synthesize (place in relation to, bring together themes with, relate to other resources) information to other topics/discussions/readings/experiences.
• Engage thoughtfully, critically and originally with one or more of the course topics.
• Display a mastery of close reading and analytic skills in engaging with resources.
• Credible and relevant evidence supporting your claims, with links to readings, articles and other sources.
• Include relevant visual elements, such as photos/video clips/multimedia/visual representation of data or information.
• Present your analysis with a clear sense of order and organization and with a careful eye on spelling and grammar.
• Draw a conclusion about the direction of the trend or technology.
• This is YOUR writing and should be in your VOICE, providing a unique argument building upon your own perspective.
• Meet the length requirement with a minimum of 1,250 words and a maximum of 2,000 words.  This word count includes the written body of the post and does not include the reference list, infographics, media, etc.
• Use a categories of ‘FYS142DW’ and ‘LongRead’, as well as appropriate tags/keywords.

The Research and Writing Process:

To become a better writer, you need to do research and read a great deal.  To become a better researcher and analytical thinker, you need to read and write a lot.  The two are very closely related and are tied together in the overall process. The more you research, the easier you will be able to write your post, and, as you write, you may continuously re-formulate your thesis and ideas, requiring you to do more research.

One of the main focuses of this class is to help you develop a variety of skills to become a stronger student. These skills include writing, critical thinking, analysis, research, evaluation, synthesis, and communication. The research and writing process should not be a solo endeavor.  Ask me if you have any questions or need assistance during any process of developing your project. Librarians are very beneficial to the research process and I recommend you take advantage of the services they have to offer in guiding you through your research. Additionally, having a writing assistant embedded in the class provides a direct resource to aid in developing these processes.

Chapters 6 and 7 in Writing Analytically (7th) are particularly helpful for this assignment. If you do not have a copy of Writing Analytically, there are two copies available in Ready Reference in the library.

Schedule:

• October 11: Introduce Assignment
• October 30: have topic idea and outline considered. Share/discuss with Tina via Google Doc. This is not a draft, but just an idea on what and of how you want to focus your long read post.
• Week of November 5: Preliminary meeting with Ryan. Come to the meeting with Ryan prepared by having a solid freewrite, a well developed thesis/introduction, and/or a strong start on a rough draft. Send a copy to both Tina and Ryan by November 5.
• Week of November 26:  Meet with Ryan to review final post. Come to your meeting with Ryan with a fully developed rough draft that should be close to your final form.
• December 6: Final post due by 11:59pm.

Please note, failure to meet with Ryan to help develop your writing process on this project will result in points deducted from your overall grade.

Topic Ideas:

A list of potential topics are provided. You are not limited to this list, but do consult with Tina on your area of focus. 

Due Dates:

• October 30, discuss/share topic idea and outline with Tina via Google Docs
• November 5, rough first draft
• Week of November 5, meetings with Ryan. Sign-up Sheet
• November 26, fully formed and re-edited draft
• Week of November 26, meetings with Ryan
• December 6, final post due by 11:59pm