If you're a student in this class, you may well have questions about how to write blog entries. Maybe you aren't familiar with blogging in general, or maybe you want to know more about what I expect. In this blog entry, I'm going to try and answer both of those questions.

This present post is an adaptation of some earlier and similar blog entries I've written, so some of the advice herein will be applicable to blogging in general (I hope). Some of what I have to say, however, will be more specific to this class, although for the absolute specifics, the final word is the syllabus and the further requirements on the blogging assignment page.

This is advice, though, not a prescription. In short, whereas the syllabus and assignment page offer requirements for blogging in my class(es), what I want to do here is offer recommendations. Keep reading to learn what I think characterizes good blog writing.

1. Choose a good title

Your title should be interesting and specific, not just blandly informative. Since we will all be blogging about similar things, it's especially important that your blog title be more than simply the title of the thing you're writing about. Don't just give your reader the topic, give them a topic and a perspective -- preferably all within the first three words. This article by Jakob Nielsen has good advice on creating effective titles, and I recommend strongly that you read it.

2. Use images

Many of the texts we will study this semester will be highly visual. It makes sense, therefore, to illustrate your points with images from these texts. Adding images on this site is pretty easy, just make sure that it does support your argument. Also, make sure to 2) acknowledge your image's source, after 1) making sure you have permission to use it. On Flickr, for example, you can search for images explicitly licensed by their creators so others can take them for "Commercial Use" and/or to "modify, adapt, or build upon." This search, for example, finds free to use images related to "narrative".

3. Don't rely on your own opinion

This is advice that applies for any kind of writing: don't just assume that because you have an opinion, your reader cares what it is. If you want to argue that _________ is the greatest ___________ ever, a statement to the effect that you think it's really awesome isn't going to be persuasive or compelling to anyone else. Instead, find supporting evidence: quote other people who agree with you, find statistical data, build your case logically. The thing about your opinion is that it's unassailable by reasoning, and therefore doesn't go very far in contributing to a reasoned debate. Similarly, don't weaken your insights by qualifying them as your opinion. Don't tell us it's your opinion that The Matrix is as much about corporate control as it is about computers, tell us that it is about corporate control, and then explain why.

4. Use formatting

Use font styles like italics and bold to emphasize important words. Use headings to give structure to your blog entry. At a minimum, break your blog entry into several smaller paragraphs, rather than one long one. The reader of blog entries is used to skimming, so help her out by making important things jump out visually.

5. Include lots of links

The great thing about the Internet is the amount of information it contains, but there's an awful lot of it. Part of your job as a blogger is to help sort that out by linking your information to everyone else's. Whereas in conversation you might say, "I think I read somewhere that ______", on a blog, you can verify the information online, and link straight to it from your blog entry.

Finally, here some examples of what I consider excellent student-generated blog entries that have been produced in my classes. They aren't necessarily perfect, and really some of these far exceed my expectations. They are, however, good for inspiration and, I hope, ideas.

These are all from last year's Graphic Novel course (and there are many more excellent blog entries on that website):

• Mmm.. people's insides
• When Comics aren't so Funny Anymore, or, The Week Garfield Died
• A Picture is Worth a Thousand-Foot Turkey

One final piece of advice: read blogs. There are thousands and thousands of blogs out there, so find some you're interested in and read them regularly. For tech stuff and Internet culture, I like Boing Boing and Lifehacker. For progressive politics, there's Daily Kos. For videogames and politics, there's Game Politics. The best way to learn how to master any genre of writing is to become a consumer of it, so make blog reading a habit and your own blog writing will improve.