You will be doing several different types of writing assignments for this class each week.

Blog posts. Every week, you will be posting in your blog at the course Ning website. These blog posts are considered formal writing assignments: you need to use correct spelling and grammar, and you need to proofread your posts by reading them out loud. Most of the blog post assignments have minimum/maximum length assignments, so you need to know how to do a word count to make sure you have met the requirements. GoogleDocs is one way to do a word count; you can also use the Word Count Plus add-on for Firefox. You will be including links and images in your blog posts, and you always need to credit the source of the images that you use; you will learn just how to credit your image source when you create your first blog post this week.

Blog comments. Each week you will read and comment on the blog posts of other students in the class. You will add your comments to the specific blog posts that you are commenting on. Your comments may be brief (a minimum of 2-3 sentences), but they must clearly show that you read the blog post. You need to comment on specific details of the blog post, showing that you read the post carefully and thoughtfully.

Webpages. Starting in Week 2, you will be publishing webpages for the class, and starting in Week 4, you will be publishing your Storybook writing assignments in the form of webpages. Again, you need to make sure you spellcheck your writing and proofread it by reading it out loud. You also need to make sure your word count is within the minimum/maximum limits for the assignment. Just as with your blog posts, you will need to credit the sources for the images you use. You will also need to provide Bibliography citations for your story sources.

Webpage comments. Starting in Week 5, you will be reading and commenting on the Storybook webpages of other students in the class. You will leave these comments on the Comment Wall that each person has at the Ning website. As with the blog post comments, you need to make sure your Storybook comments show that you read the Storybook webpage(s) carefully. Your comments about the Storybooks will be more substantial than the comments you make on the blog posts, and so you will need to check your word count to make sure your comments meet the minimum requirement for the assignment.

Emails. For the first few weeks of class, you will be sending some Storybook assignments to the instructor by email - but starting in Week 5, you will be publishing your Storybook assignments online; you will use email only to notify that the assignment is ready for me to read online. The specific instructions for each assignment will let you know just what you are supposed to submit via email.

Do NOT use Microsoft Word for this class. Microsoft Word is good for one thing: it formats pages for printing. In this class, however, you will not be printing your assignments. Instead, you will be publishing your work on the web. Microsoft Word formatting can cause terrible problems on the web (especially if you use the Microsoft option to "save as a webpage" - it's a disaster). So, I repeat: DO NOT USE MICROSOFT WORD for your assignments in this class. You will end up having problems with your blog and problems with your webpages that will be time-consuming and difficult to fix.

RECOMMENDATION: Use GoogleDocs to type the basic draft for each writing assignment. You are certainly not required to use GoogleDocs, but there are a lot of advantages to doing so. Here are some good reasons to at least give it a try:

• Access your work from any computer. If you do your work with GoogleDocs, you can access your work from any computer. So if you are on campus, say, and need to do some work in a computer lab or using the Bizzell Library computers, you can access all your files for this class at GoogleDocs.
• Save your work. GoogleDocs lets you save your work as you go along, and it also has an auto-save feature which automatically saves your work every few minutes. Whenever you do work online, you run the risk of losing some work if you accidentally close the browser window or lose your Internet connection for some reason - but with GoogleDocs you will have a saved copy you can retrieve in case you run into trouble.
• Spellcheck built in. There is a great little Spellcheck tool in GoogleDocs which you can use to spellcheck your work as you go along.
• Word count built in. There is a wonderful Word Count tool in GoogleDocs which will allow you to make sure your writing fits the assignment requirements.

NOTE: You should use GoogleDocs only for typing text - not for formatting. You should not do any formatting in GoogleDocs - just use it to type the text, and then cut-and-paste the text into whatever other application you are using (blogging software, webpage publishing software, etc.). You can then format the text - with fonts, images, links, etc. - using the appropriate software application for blogs or webpages, etc.

For more information about GoogleDocs - with extra credit for trying it out - check the Technology Tips assignment list.

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:

I have read the information about the different kinds of writing assignments in this class.

I have read the recommendations for completing online writing assignments.

I understand that Microsoft Word should NOT be used for any writing assignments in this class.