Commenting: Interchanges and Dialogue

First off, I figured I'd provide the information for the classes next week:

03-20-07 1:30 - 2:45 NF B39
3:00 - 4:15 CM 148

03-22-07 1:30 - 2:45 NF B39
3:00 - 4:15 NF B88

As you may note the 3-415 section on Tuesday, but not Thursday, will still be meeting in our regular room.



Image appears via a creative commons license from the flickr album of electracute.

A white board, or a dry erase board--what does this have to do with composition, with writing, with blogging? While it may seem unrelated, in due time you'll see that these dry erase boards have taken new forms, but first allow a brief narrative discussion.

I selected the above picture because it reminds me of my experiences as a student much like yourselves many, many, many years ago now. In our dorms we had either these dry erase boards, or chalk boards,(built into the doors). These became very important objects for many reasons. For instance, some students created a sense of identity by writing catchy quotes, or funny jokes, or drawing elaborate designs and pictures on them. Others used them more for inter-communication, getting your board "tagged" meant, that you had friends and that your were known. By "tagging" and getting "tagged" those of us helped to say, "hey I know you're out there, I'm here too, and you're not alone." It helped build communities and friendships.

Now, the comment feature on the blog allows for this same type of community building-- this co-substantial reinforcement of identity. Like the boards, when you leave a comment on someone's blog you say, "hey keep writing, you're important, you have something to say that is important, valuable, worth reading": as an audience member you say to the author, "you have not only a voice, but a voice that is heard."

So, for this week the plan is to accomplish the following tasks: Important directions, every student has a blog, and the blogs are listed spatially from top to bottom, so you have some one above you, and below you. 1) Read the blogs above and below your blog; 2) Read the blogs in their entirety, and then, pick one that is interesting, intriguing, otherwise appealing; 3) Post a comment of 40-60 words on each blog above you, and below you. 4) In the event that the blog assigned to you hasnt' been composed skip to the next one in that direction.


Good luck and good night,
tra