Even this early in the semester, we have read quite a number of autobiographical works--literature that we read now as a means of understanding not only the literary movements of the period, but also the historical and cultural environment in which those works are grounded. Literature anthologies now represent literature in different ways--much of our early American literature is comprised of travel narratives, sermons, spiritual conversion narratives, historical documentation of the communities that founded the "New World," the political texts that founded American democracy and later critiqued it. But in looking at contemporary literature in an anthology like ours, very little non-fiction of any sort is represented there.

That doesn't mean, of course, that such literature is not being published or written today. Our public figures like Mary Rowlandson, Benjamin Franklin, and Frederick Douglass publish their autobiographies, and political critics write in the same vein as Thomas Paine's "Common Sense." Moreover, technologies like the internet and email are enabling a different kind of personal writing, a boom in the publication of individual writers' work quite unlike any other in our history. The printing press literally revolutionized the publication of works, which could then be made available cheaply, but the internet's scope is far greater in many ways, and writers today are creating at this moment a comprehensive record of our history--always assuming of course, that people will be able to read these moments in history when the contemporary iteration of the computer is as outdated as the eight-track (probably day after tomorrow).

For this project, you will create a weblog, or a blog. Blogger defines the blog "in simple terms" as "a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis":

A blog is a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically -- like a what's new page or a journal. The content and purposes of blogs varies greatly -- from links and commentary about other web sites, to news about a company/person/idea, to diaries, photos, poetry, mini-essays, project updates, even fiction.

Your weblog will be a record of what's important or interesting to you, a diary or journal of sorts.

Before you begin to set up your blog, you'll need to think about the topic you intend to write about--will you explore elements of your personal life? Do you want to comment on the political environment of the 2004 election? Or you might use your blog as a response to the readings we're covering this semester. As you try to imagine what might be interesting to write about--and for others to read--consider what parts of your life are most important to you right now. Do you want to write about going to college? Being a preacher's son or daughter? Being Southern? Or being transplanted to the South? Having children? In other words, if you want to write about your personal life, imagine what about that life will be interesting to other readers who would like to learn not only about you, but also about your culture. We've all had bad relationships and breakups--so if you want to tell that story, you need to think of what about your experience is unique or interesting. And remember that sometimes this is simply your way of telling the story.

Your blog doesn't have to be focused exclusively on this one topic--the very nature of a weblog is that it is transitory and moves from topic to topic, from day to day, easily (and unfortunately sometimes without transition). But the most successful blogs are those that have a central focus and keep relatively close to that focus. One way to work around this is to define your topic somewhat broadly; then your avenues for exploration are greater.

Now. Stop right there. Before you have another thought, it's important for you to realize where your blog will be: right out there on the big old internet, where anyone can read it. DO NOT use your real name to set up your blog unless you are just a very comfortable person with the idea your thoughts hanging out there in the world. If you're OK with that, use your first name only, please. And when you write about the people in your life, don't use their real names either, unless you have their permission. Again, first names would probably be OK, but I would advise significant caution here.

Once you've chosen a topic for your blog, spend some time thinking of an interesting title for it, and get ready to publish your work. This part's actually simple (unless you're obsessive compulsive like a certain professor you know, who likes things to look just so). To create your blog, start at Blogger.

Take their tour just to get familiar with the process, and then go through their three steps to register with Blogger create your blog (this is free, by the way). As I've already said, don't use your real name when you set up your profile unless you understand that everyone in the world can then find your information. (I should mention here too that you need a recent browser for the site to display correctly. Netscape 7.0 or Internet Explorer 6 or higher are two you can use--but there certainly are others. Most browses can be downloaded free; if you need help with this, let me know.)

As often happens when you set up an email account, the user name you've chosen may have been already taken; just keep trying others.  The same might occur with the address you choose for your blog.  Blogger will post the pages for you itself, so you don't need to worry about that, but you will have to chose an address.  You'll have to provide an email address to set up the account, but this doesn't appear on the blog itself unless you set it up that way.

Once you've created the blog, click on the Settings tab. You can turn off the option to allow your Blog to be listed in Blogger's directory--but do note, your blog will still be available online and can be searched with a search engine like Google. You may also want to turn off the comment feature if you don't want your readers to remark on what you've written. Once your blog is posted, if you enjoy the site and want to do more with it, you can--just explore the options available throughout the site.

You don't have to change any other settings, but you are certainly welcome to do so if you choose; you can customize the appearance and options for your blog as you become more familiar with how it works.  You may want to consider turning off the comments function; this allows readers to post responses to your blog.  If you want to disable this function, click on the Settings tab, then on Comments.  Set Default for Posts to New Posts Do Not Have Comments. 

Your first post needs to address (and this can be relatively brief) your essential purpose in writing your blog.  Obviously your first purpose is that you've been assigned to write one for a grade, but let's assume that's a given and ignore it.  What are you going to talk about in your blog?  Why are you writing? 

You won't be able to actually see your blog until you make your first post. Click on the Postings tab, title your post, write in your text--and publish.  I recommend if you're writing long posts that you write them in a word processing program and then copy and paste the text--which will give you a spell checker and help you avoid the appearance spelling illiteracy (sometimes an unfortunate convention of the blog). 

My primary goal in having you write in this blog is to increase your writing time; practice makes perfect, you know? I also want you to think consciously about what being an author is like, since every author of American literature that we're reading this semester made choices and decisions that you might begin to recognize if you can learn to think about yourself as a writer. I am also hoping you might begin to enjoy it.

You will need to post at least two entries to your blog each week beginning 20 September 2004, so by the end of the semester, you should have posted at least 22 entries. I will evaluate this assignment based on whether you posted the minimum number of times (and I mean twice a week, not 22 times in the last week of class), and on whether your blog entries are substantial. Posts don't necessarily have to be long, but the observations there should be thoughtful and engaging. Posting your breakfast menu without comment twice a week will certainly fulfill the minimum of the number of postings required--but it sure won't make the cut as thoughtful and engaging. Neither will posting jokes or political commentary others have written on your blog--write your own material without copying and pasting from the web (although of course you may include a properly attributed quotation from elsewhere and comment on it).  Finally, I am willing to be flexible about one week when you post just once if you also posted three times in the week before or afterwards, but basically you need to stick to the two posts a week rule.

When you've created your blog, please email me with its title and URL. I'll add your information to our class blog list so you can read other folks' periodically (they can often be pretty interesting!). If you've chosen not to use your own name, please be sure you give me both your pseudonym and your real name; I'll post the pseudonym on the course listing.

You might get some ideas by reading a few blogs written by students enrolled in a Writing and Presentation for Digital Media course at the University of Washington; you can also search the web for any topic of interest and add the word blog to find others of specific interest.

Remember that I'm still learning how to use this too--but if you have problems, let me know, and I'll see what I can do to help.