Hints on Making a Good Blog Entry

Photo by viralbus

Every semester I give my students a blogging assignment. And every semester I find myself reading posts that fall short of their potential. So, in an effort to make my blog-reading experience more enjoyable, and my students’ grades higher, I offer the following tips for writing better blogs.

1.     Think about whom you are writing for. Yes, you should always be aware of your audience. Try to imagine what they are interested in. (It helps if you’re interested too!) Don’t be too formal.

2.     Write text that is easily “scannable.” That might mean using subheads, bullets, or even numbered lists. Put line breaks between your paragraphs instead of using tabbed indents.

3.     Images can engage a reader. With millions of images at your disposal from sources like Flickr, there’s no excuse for making a visually bland blog.

4.     Edit and spell-check before you publish. There’s nothing worse than reading a blog that has misspellings… or uses your when it should be you’re.

Hello World

Photo by ChrisDag

Welcome to my new blog. I plan to do the same assignments that you, my students do. I've just finished saying that you shouldn't make your blogs long. But I could be entirely wrong. In fact, new articles point to the contrary. Clive Thompson, in his article in Wired Magazine, says that short statements are now the fodder for Twitter. Go figure.