Sunday, April 24, 2011

Blogs of Note: Community

English 101D is a community. And many members within our community are also members in a whole range of other intriguing communities. Check out our blogs of note for this time: Drum roll, please!

Have a look at christian d, vanessa f, peter g, jonathan g, and cj t. We were treated to some fabulous insights about the foster parenting, facebook, church and gym communities, bus riding, driving, and even a bridal salon. Interesting stuff! We can begin to connect the dots for the function of communities in our lives by reading such a variety. Tanks!

Lolly and Andrea love cruising the blog because that is where we feel we hear your authentic voice (we talk about voice and audience all quarter). You seem relaxed, thesis-free (although there is usually one lurking in your prose), and joyous participants in the world. We also appreciate the range of your experiences, including work, church, fitness, online connections, dog ownership, and passions. Thanks!

Great job, everyone!

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Blogs of Note--The Wallet!

Have you noticed that Blogger has a constantly changing list of "blogs of note"--blogs they single out for the excellent job they do with their site? They've now introduced over a thousand, and we thought we'd take a cue from them to do the same with some of your blogs.

For their well-presented, well-written answers to the question of "What's in your wallet?", we present to you the following notable postings: christian d, jaimee f, jonathan g, matt m, cj t, and crystal y.! These folks had lots to say and really helped us to get to know them. Their postings sparkled with concrete and specific details, a strong voice (and often humor), and substantive content.

There were lots of interesting postings--we loved the lists you included (you seem to have lots of room available) and the consistencies (i.e. Starbucks cards, Costco and bank cards). This activity, along with "The F-word" encapsulate issues of identity, don't they?
The content in so many of these postings was amazing--you had stories to tell and showed us interesting pieces of your "wallet" lives.

The blogs are important in our course because they introduce students to issues of voice and audience. We see an informal tone, appearances of humor and satire (as well as sarcasm) and a strong sense that you are writing for your peers rather than a more academic (please do not think "stuffy") audience of nit-picky imaginary English professors. We love the variety!

Go ahead and check them out. Great job, everyone!
Lolly and Andrea