Instructions for the blog post task

Welcome to ARTS2036. This is where I will post information, instructions and links to resources and other interesting modernist stuff. You, however, will complete the blog task in the blog for your tutorial, where it will only be visible to the members of your group. New posts that I make here will feed to each of the four tutorial blogs, so you will be able to keep track.

This post contains instructions for the discussion post assessment task.

Each tutorial has a blog, where you will post your discussion of one of the texts that we study this semester. You should already have access to the blog for your tutorial: if you don't, let me know.

If you came to the tutorial in week 1, then you should already know which text you need to discuss in your post. If you have not yet been assigned to a week, get in touch with me or your tutor as soon as possible.

You must post your discussion before 9pm on the night before your tutorial. This will give the class an opportunity to read what you have to say before we meet.

Your post should focus on one aspect of the text: something that you find interesting, and something that you can develop in the space of 750 words. For example, you might have been struck by the way in which women are assaulted, run over and molested in Un chien andalou, and you might therefore want to focus on the theme of violence against women. You would then plan out your discussion as you would an essay: perhaps, you could address the three main attacks on female figures in the film: the opening razor sequence, the killing of the androgynous woman by the speeding car, and the menacing and molesting of the woman in the apartment. Then, if all goes well, you will reach a conclusion: some way of tying together what you have discussed into a single coherent statement about the text.

The course outline lists assessment criteria for this task: you should refer to these before you start planning your post. One in particular that I would draw your attention to is the requirement of close reference to the text. In order to do this assignment well, you must demonstrate that you have a good knowledge of the text and that you know where to find just the right quotes and examples to illustrate your point. If you're writing on a literary text, this means quotation - short quotations of one sentence or even less are an effective way of showing the reader you know what you're talking about. Always give the page number in brackets. If it's a film, this means referring specifically to scenes and even frames to support your claims.

Just because this task is online, it is not something that you can write quickly, without preparation. You should read/watch the text/film, take notes on it, and re-read or re-watch as you plan your discussion.

That said, there is one difference between this exercise and an essay: tone, or register. You are free to write in a more personal way here than you would in an essay, as long as you are expressing yourself with clarity and precision. Your discussion will resemble an essay in that it is articulate, well organised, and uses evidence (i.e., close reference) to support its assertions, but it may resemble a blog in attempting to present these texts in an engaging and interesting way to your classmates.

I will provide links to some literary blogs that you can use to tune your ear for tone. I will also link to a class blog at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, which contains examples of blog posts by students that provide a rough model for what we're doing here.

Here is one: this blog from a class at UMW last year on women in modernism contains some good examples of student posts that use textual evidence and and analysis well and focus on a single idea. "Jane's Post on Cather" on page 3 is a good example of close reference and the formation of a cohesive discussion around a single main idea.