More of a personal note, this post.
In a week I'll be starting a class teaching electronic writing at a university in the Southern California area. I'm looking forward to it — a nice reprieve from the steady streak of regular English Composition classes.
I've developed a good deal of my curriculum already — the students will learn how to use hyperlinks properly, how to learn from blog formatting, how to create their own wiki, how to write electronically rather than for print, how to steer clear of thorny ethical problems, how to cultivate a proper voice, and how to integrate and interact with audio/visual material. Among other things.
I'm just soliciting advice from you, my wise and accomplished electronic-writing friends: If you could teach young impressible freshman one thing about the art of writing for the electronic medium, what would it be?
8 comments
Sounds like a great class!
What came immediately to mind for me is the ins and outs of interacting with your electronic audience and in the midst of others’ audiences — quite different in some ways from traditional print counterparts.
Yes, okay. So responding to comments, like I’m doing now? Yes, should develop more around back-and-forth writing. Not sure exactly about what is meant specifically by “in the midst of others’ audiences.”
I’ll also teach them to think about three kinds of audience: real people (all the variety), SEO, and media sharing tools, because you need to write differently for each one.
Thanks!
Can I take this class? After a couple of false starts, I’m trying my hand at blogging myself, and I want to know … let’s see:
– the most effective use of tags vs. categories
– what are trackbacks, and what are pings?
– what are Digg This! and Stumble It! and del.icio.us
– that voice thing — how personal vs. professional should it be? Do you need to write with authority?
– how to interpret stats
– how to “market” your blog/find an audience
– finding a focus/niche and determining the purpose of the blog
– how to use a blog to further your own writing/career goals
– how much time should I reasonably spend blogging?
– the importance of producing original content vs. aggregation/regurgitation
– how much personal information should you reveal online?
– are there unwritten rules of etiquette vis-a-vis other bloggers — i.e., who do you include on your blogroll and why?
– where should you blog — i.e., a free host or one that you pay for?
– should you link to etailers for free or get paid for it?
So … where do I enroll? ;-P -ae
Teach them that UR is not a word, ever, not even online.
Jodi: Don’t worry. No abbreviated speak here. I suppose that would be Writing For Mobile Devices, but I’m interpreting the electronic environments as being slightly more classy.
Besides, I hate text messaging.
Annlee: Um, wow. Yeah, I’m not even going to try to answer all those questions. (Except when you take my class!) But those are all such reasonable questions.
It’s funny to discover how much I’ve actually learned in the last two years of blogging. Once I’ve assimilated it, I forget other don’t know about the SEO benefits of category tags.
Please teach your students that while they are writing in a newer medium, that the classic rules of punctuation, spelling, and proper form are still required if our society is to remain somewhat civilized.
Amy: On the whole, I agree. Go Civilization! But then what is proper form? If you mean grammar, then yes, but if you mean structure, then the structure of writing should be mutable and adapt to the medium at hand.