Response Assignment #6: 

In response to Reading for Oct. 11th

Due October 11th:

1. Find a blog in which the author is quite opinionated about a particular issue or set of issues about which you DISAGREE, whether it be about politics, issues around religion, sexuality, gender, animal rights, illegal immigration, etc. Any blog with any particular agenda will do, as long as the site is active and the author writes about her/his feelings, thoughts, opinions, or beliefs about any particular issue or set of issues. 

2. Either post a response to something the author has already written, OR, if the blog allows, write a new post. Compose your response first in Microsoft Word document (or whatever word document format you generally use to write papers). Your response on paper, single spaced (which you will do at first) should be no less than a full page long. Save your document, and then cut and paste your response into the blog. After you have done that, go back to your word document and make sure that it is now properly formatted (w/ your name, date, etc.) to be turned in to me. 

3. When you turn in your paper to me, be sure to include: the title of the blog, the url of the blog, the title of the posting to which you responded, if you responded to a particular post, and the title of YOUR response. If  you created a new posting (and are just responding to the overall issue or set of issues presented by the blog), then include, with your paper version of your response, just the title of your post, along with the title of the blog, and the url of the blog.

 

 

KEEP THE FOLLOWING IN MIND as you write your blog posting/response assignment: 

 

• Because you are writing in response to either a posting or an issue the author believes in or has an opinion about, to which you disagree (as this is your assignment), you are expected to articulate WHY you disagree with the author's post or overall stance on the issue/s that s/he articulates on her/his blog site. 

• Avoid writing a purely emotionally charged or heated response (even if the author's website is heated or emotionally charged). Writing, "You are a (&)%(ed up idiot who doesn't know their )*^^ from a hole in the ground," or "Bush sucks donkey _^*&^$$" isn't going to be convincing or explain why you disagree with what the author is saying. Instead, I want you to focus on responding in a clear, thoughtful, and well-reasoned manner, even if you use humor to do it. Explain WHY you disagree. Give an example that will further evidence your point. 

• If you do use a style other than typical essay-style writing to respond to the blog you've chose (such as humor, sarcasm, etc.) to deliver your point, the essence of WHY you disagree should still clearly be central within your content, as we discussed in class.

• The assigned readings for October 11th are postings from bloggers who wrote in thoughtful, convincing, engaging, and well-reasoned ways (EVEN when the blog is seemingly a rag session or nothing but humorous) and are good examples for you for this assignment (hint, hint). I do not expect you to do research in order to write a response to a blog or quote numbers or statistics, but if you do have such examples to use in your postings, this would, no doubt, make your response all the more convincing.  

• YOU MAY USE one of the blogs assigned for the readings (or from that blog site).