English 431-001
Topics in Advanced Writing: Blogs and Blogging
Instr: Sands, Peter
Office: CRT 578; 229-4416
e-mail: sands@uwm.edu
Office hours: TBA
Course Information: MW; 11:00am-12:15pm; CRT 127
Course Description
This course will introduce students to the critical study of a particular Internet or Web 2.0 phenomenon-weblogging—but will concentrate most particularly on the construction and maintenance of actual blogs by students.
Over the past five years or so, weblogging-online diaries and commentaries-has gone from an Internet insider's activity to a powerful force in popular and political culture. But even experts disagree on how many blogs there are—estimates range from 3 million to more than 150 million—and how many people actually read any of them. We will look closely at this question, as well as the definitional question: what, exactly, is a "blog"?
Through the weekly study of blogs that focus on particular themes—personal, political, professional, unclassifiable—and weekly blog-writing about those blogs, students will analyze, interpret, and engage interactively with the so-called blogosphere.
The course will cover both mechanical, technical issues surrounding blogs and blogging, but also the relation of the weblog to other forms of writing-particularly journalism and personal essays. While there will be some formal reading assignments in the course, the bulk of the reading will be found out there in the blogosphere itself. And virtually all of the writing will take place there, too.
Some basic familiarity with Internet technologies will be assumed, but no previous experience writing a blog is necessary. We will address that in the course.
