Recommended reading

Below are excerpts from several articles on blogging (plus one on journal writing–just substitute blog for journal while you’re reading). You can read them at any point in the process. To go to the original article, click the more link at the end of every excerpt.

If you want to skip these for now and get started creating your blog, go to Day 1 Assignment – Start.

I’m providing these articles as guidelines that you can take or leave depending on whether they work for you. For example, I don’t agree with the rigid writing methods presented in the journal article. But it does have some good ideas about how journal (read blog) writing can help writers.

(All of the grammatical errors below are theirs, not mine.)

Weblogs: A History and Perspective by Rebecca Blood

The blogger, by virtue of simply writing down whatever is on his mind, will be confronted with his own thoughts and opinions. Blogging every day, he will become a more confident writer. A community of 100 or 20 or 3 people may spring up around the public record of his thoughts. Being met with friendly voices, he may gain more confidence in his view of the world; he may begin to experiment with longer forms of writing, to play with haiku, or to begin a creative project–one that he would have dismissed as being inconsequential or doubted he could complete only a few months before. more…

Why Good Writers Keep Journals by Ruth Folit

Skilled writers have developed their own voices — unique ways to express themselves. They have learned to open the windows to their inner workings for insightful perspectives into themselves and the rest of their worlds. How do writers record these everyday flashes of insight and noteworthy musings that might otherwise evaporate into oblivion? A Chinese proverb states, ‘The palest ink is stronger than the most miraculous memory.’ more…

How To Blog About Everything Right by GirlCapitalist

If you’re going to blog about your life successfully, you’ve got to be a good enough writer that we care about what you’ve got to say. Your writing itself, which is your medium, should sparkle and give the reader something that will keep them coming back. Your personality should come through your writing. more…

The Secret to a Successful Blog Post by Darren Rowse

Are you looking to start a blog but have absolutely no idea how to write a blog post? On the outside it may seem simple as if you were writing a short essay. Unfortunately, that’s not exactly what you are doing. One thing I’ve learned and helped others learn is that blogging is actually quite different than what Mrs. Talbot taught us in the 10th grade. Instead of worrying about the placement of your concrete details, take a look at the following key elements that can make a great blog post: more…

How to be a conversational blogger who people listen to by Brian Clark

The reason why a story works better than a simple statement of opinion is because it in turn evokes vivid mental imagery in your reader’s minds, based on their own memories of experiences. You’ve now created a relational bond with your readers that makes it more likely that they will see (and agree with) your point of view. Don’t tell them that you’re right; let them tell themselves that you’re right, based on their own similar experiences. more…

Tell a tantalizing story to kick off your blog post by Brian Clark

We’ve talked a lot about the power of stories to connect, captivate and persuade, and that’s why they are such a great way to grab hold of a reader right away before they become distracted by something shinier. more…

10 Reasons Commenting is Good For Bloggers by Chris Garrett

Blogging is partly a networking activity. People are more likely to link to you (or more) if they have heard of you. Get yourself out there, make friends. more…

Rhetorical Strategies/Literary Devices

Rhetorical Strategies for Essay Writing 

The History of Hypertext by Shahrooz Feizabadi – For those who might be interested in how hyperlinking in text imitates the cognitive functions of the human brain.

Day 1 Assignment – Start

Welcome to blog school! I’ll start by telling you how to use this blog.

After the first two class meetings you have assignments. Links to today’s assignments are in this entry. You can also access all Day 1 assignments by clicking the Day 1 Assignment category in the sidebar on the right.

The assignments and links for the second class are in Day 2 Assignment – Start. You can also access all Day 2 assignments by clicking the Day 2 Assignment category in the sidebar on the right.

If you click the Optional category in the sidebar, you will see entries about topics that are not required for the class. These include extras that you might want, such as instructions for adding images to your blog entries and changing the look of your blog.

Today your assignment is to:

1. read About Je Blogue (3 minutes)
2. create a blog (about 30 minutes)
3. create your About Me page (as long as it takes you to write it). You might want to look at the About pages of some of the blogs you read in step 5 to see what other people do.
4. leave a comment on this post to let everybody in the class know the address of your blog (about 5 minutes)
5. go to The Paris Blog and peruse the blogs in the category Other Paris Blogs (in the sidebar on the right) to see what some local expats blog about. You’ll find a nice variety of style, look, and subject matter there, as well as a sampling of creative names people choose for their blogs. You could also look at the blogs on BlogHer.org. Click Blogrolls tab at the top of the page and search blogs by category (as long as you want to spend doing this)

Before you create your blog, it’s a good idea to have a few ideas in mind for the name of your blog. You can change your blog title (Je Blogue) at any time. However, you can’t change the blog domain name (http://jeblogue.wordpress.com); to do that you would have to create a new blog.

Keep in mind that you can easily modify or delete any content on your blog at any time. You can change your theme (see Change the look of your blog) as often as you like without losing the existing content. You can also delete your entire blog.

So feel free to go crazy. Blogger’s remorse is easily cured… (Caveat: It’s entirely possible, however, that there could be a copy of what you posted saved somewhere…)

WordPress refers to the light blue bar of the Dashboard as the Administration Panel. The dark blue bar below it is the sub-panel.

I will only be discussing basic WordPress functions in this blog because the goal is to get you started. For more detailed instructions, go to http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons. For complete WordPress help documentation on using the Dashboard and advanced topics, go to http://codex.wordpress.org/Administration_Panels.

Create a blog on WordPress

To create a WordPress blog:

• Go to http://wordpress.com/

• Click Start your wordpress Blog.

• Enter a username and e-mail address, check Gimme a Blog and click Next.

• Choose a blog domain name (can’t be changed), title (can be changed later), language, and click Create Blog. If the domain name is available, you’ll get a new page displaying “yourblogdomain.wordpress.com Is Yours.” If the domain name is not available, you will get an error message and be prompted to try a different domain name.

• Click My Dashboard at the top of the page. This takes you to the administration page (where you will write your blog posts and manage your blog).

• Click View Site at the top left of the page. Your blog appears! By default it is in the standard WordPress blog template. You can leave it as is for now, or you can go to Change the look of your blog for instructions on customizing your blog.

The Day 2 assignment will include writing your first entry, but you don’t have to wait till then to start if you don’t want to! (Write a blog post)

To log back in to your blog after logging out, go to http://yourblogname.wordpress.com/wp-login.php. (Note that you need to replace yourblogname with your actual domain name.)

It’s a good idea to bookmark the login page!

Create your About Me page

Unless you want to be completely anonymous, which is entirely up to you, you might want to add an About page to your blog. WordPress blogs have an About page started for you.

The About page can be useful if you want to add personality or credibility to your blog. If you plan to blog about a specific subject, whether it’s knitting, organic gardening, or model airplanes, you might want to mention that it’s a passion and describe your expertise in your About page to give your readers confidence in what you have to say.

To create your About Me page:

• Click Manage in the Admin Panel.

• Click Pages in the sub-panel. The About page is listed below.

• Click Edit and make any changes you’d like.

Day 2 Assignment – Start

Today your assignment is to:

1. write and post a blog entry
2. leave a comment on another blog
3. add other blogs to your blogroll
4. moderate the comments on your blog

Have at it!

Write and post (publish) a blog entry

From the WordPress Dashboard, you can write a blog entry (also called a post). You can delete entries at any time.

To write a blog entry:

• Click Write in the Administration Panel.

• Enter a title for your entry in the Title field. (You can change this later, even after you’ve published it.)

• In the Post window, enter some text. (Note that the window can be resized. To do so, hover your cursor over the lower right corner. When the cursor becomes a black, two-sided arrow, click and drag.)

• Click Save and Continue Editing at the bottom of the window.

• Click the Preview link at the top right of the Post window. Your preview appears in a new window. Take a look at the preview of what your post will look like when you publish it. Use the back button on your browser to go back to to the Post window.

• Click Save. The Post window closes and a draft of your entry is saved. The title appears the top of the page to the right of the label Your Drafts. You can edit this at any time.

• Reopen your draft by clicking the title.

• Write some more. When you’re ready, click Save and then click Publish.

• Click View site at the top of the screen. Your test entry appears on your blog.

Note: If you have created categories for your blog entries, they are listed at the right of the Dashboard page. Choose which categories you want to label your entry with before you save (if you forget, you can go back and do it later (see below: To edit blog entries…).

To return to the Dashboard page at any time, click My Dashboard at the top of your blog. Note: This link only appears when you are logged in.

To delete blog entries, click Manage in the Admin Panel. The Posts page opens and all your posts are listed. Click the Delete link to the right of the post you want to delete.

To edit blog entries, click Manage in the Admin Panel and click the Edit link to the right of the post you want to change.

To format your blog entry (add bold or italic text, hyperlinks, block quotes, etc.), see Format your blog entries.

About copyrighted material: If you are going to use other people’s material in your blog posts (images, music, videos, writing) be sure that you give credit. Provide the name and source. Link to it. If it’s art, contact the artists and ask for permission. You can send them a draft of the blog entry to show them the context in which their art will appear to be on the up and up. It’s easier than you might think these days, and they usually don’t mind the free advertising.

Leave a comment on another blog

The comment feature of blogs allows members of blog communities to hold conversations.

To leave a comment on a blog entry:

• Click the Comment(s) link under the entry. (Some bloggers change this to different things, like “Say It” or any imaginable clever substitute. You can usually find the comment link at the end of an entry, although sometimes it is at the beginning. Bloggers generally want to get comments, so you’re likely to find it somewhere.)

• Fill in the information requested in the comment form.

• Click Submit (or whatever the button is; they might differ with different themes).

Add other blogs to your blogroll

The blogroll displays blogs you visit often or want to share with your readers. Your WordPress blog already has two WordPress sites listed in the blogroll.

To add a blog to your blogroll:

• Click Blogroll in the Admin Panel. The Blogroll Management page opens. (You can delete the WordPress sites via this page by clicking the Delete link to the right of each.)

• Click Add Link in the sub-panel.

• Enter the name of the blog you want to add and its URL address in the appropriate fields. Description is optional. Ignore the rest of the page.

• Click Add Link. The blog Name will appear in your sidebar under Blogroll.

Manage comments

In this class, I’m asking you to comment on other blogs. In order for comments to show up on your blog, you have to approve them. This process is called “moderating comments.”

By default, WordPress sends you an e-mail when you have a new comment to moderate. (You can change this by clicking Options in the Admin Panel and Discussion in the sub-panel.)

You will also get what’s known as “comment spam.” This is junk mail that is usually caught by Akismet, a program that WordPress runs for this purpose. You still have to manually delete comment spam.

To moderate comments and comment spam:

• Click Comments in the Admin Panel. If there are any comments to moderate, the number will appear in parentheses next to Awaiting Moderation in the sub-panel. Any comment spam that Akismet has caught will appear next to Akismet Spam.
• Click Awaiting Moderation in the sub-panel. Go through each comment and approve, delete, mark as spam, etc.
• Click the Bulk Moderate Comments button. Those comments you have approved will appear on your blog below the entry with which they are associated.
• Click Akismet Spam in the sub-panel. Review the spam (if you want to) and delete.

Format your blog entries

It’s very easy to format your blog content (add bold or italic text, hyperlinks, block quotes, etc.) from the Post window, where you do your writing.

There is a formatting toolbar along the top of the Post window. Hover the cursor over each icon to see what it does.

From left to right you have icons for the following styles: bold, italic, strikethrough, bullets, numbers, outdent, indent (gives you a block quote), left, right and center justification, add hyperlink, remove hyperlink, insert image, split post, spellcheck, and help.

The last icon to the right, after the help icon, opens an additional toolbar with more formatting options. Hover over the icons to see what they do.

To format text, select it and click the button in the toolbar for the style you want to apply.

The insert image icon allows you to insert an image that appears somewhere else on the Web by linking to it. This way your server space isn’t taken up. To do this, you need to enter the URL of the image, which you can get by right-clicking on the image and choosing Properties. See Add images to your blog entries to insert images from your hard drive.

You may have some long entries on your blog and want to display only the first couple of paragraphs on the main page. You can split the post using the split post function, which automatically inserts a More link that readers can click to read the whole blog entry (example). To apply the split post function, insert your cursor where you want to split your post and click the icon.