Connections

1. writing warm up: What comes to mind when you see this picture? Please "free write" for five minutes based on this image or anything else that you have on your mind. The goal is to not stop typing. This is a great writing warm up. Go!





2. What are five types of connections that you can make online? In partners please tweet me your answers:
i.e. You can connect your _____________ with your ______________.

You can connect your friends with your personal updates.

You can connect songs with their lyrics.

connect your blog with your twitter account Connect your blog with videos, pictures, press articles, audio file ...





3. Please write a three "paragraph" post about some website or blog that is connected to your main interest. In the first paragraph write about how the website/blog looks visually (i.e. How atttractive are the images? Are there any videos? etc), then in the next paragraph write about the content (How often is new information posted? How long are the posts? What's a new word you've learned from the site?), and finally write about the overall connectivity of the site (i.e. How many links are there on the site? What do they link to? How useful are the links?)

What is good writing?

I've been interested in writing ever since I was five years old. I remember very clearly holding a pencil in my hand as I played at being a great writer. I sat at a small table in my bedroom and covered an entire page in loops that resembled - to my five-year-old eyes - cursive. As I "wrote" blue loops on the pages, I felt as important as an adult with great thoughts to share with the world. I imagined thousands of people reading my insightful prose.

At the time I had one thought: writing is a way to communicate with a wide audience.

These days I write on a daily basis. I write poems and short stories. In a year I hope to have a book published. It's taken me almost forty years to work towards my goal of communicating with a wider audience, but it's been worth it.

What do you think good writing is? Let's brainstorm as a group.

correct grammar
formal writing (when you need to be formal)
KNOW WHO YOUR AUDIENCE IS!!
clear / clarity //
A variety of sentence lengths and structures.

Writing in clear and simple sentences results in excellent writing.

Good writing is a series of sentences that build towards a strong paragraph.

We need a specific topic and a wealth of detail for writing to be interesting.

You are a good writer when you can understand your audience.


In our opinion, coherence is the most important thing for writing and the topic has to be attractive for the readers.


How does writing for the web differ from writing in a diary? Please work in partners and tweet me your suggestions...

When you write in you diary, it's private, but when you write on the web, everybody can read it.

Please read through your partners' first post. Send him/her any corrections on twitter and then finish with three questions you have about his/her experience.


B. Find one other blog that's similar to your own and respond to a post. Do you agree or disagree with the content? How does it make you feel?

C. Writing involves change. When you read something you expect to be changed in some way and when you write you also want to learn something new about the process of writing. For blog post#2 find two pictures that show two very different attitudes people have about your topic. You will write a five paragraph article that explains the change from one attitude to another. It might be about how your attitude changed towards your topic or someone else.