Guest blog post (100 points)
As we learn about effective blogging strategies and practice these on our course site, you will also have an opportunity to create a blog post based on your interests on a topic not necessarily related to the course content. This blog entry should be written to be posted on an existing website or blog site as a guest post and can be based on local events, a hobby, or specific area of knowledge.
Guest blog post description
You will explore possible guest sites for your blog and join the blogger community of your chosen blog site. This might require pre-approval by site admins or can be as easy as placing a post after joining a community. Before you can write an effective blog post for the site, you should analyze the writing conventions of this community, so that your blog post will share the same purpose as other blogs on the site and will appeal to the audience targeted by this site. At the time of your posting your blog entry, you will also submit a written rhetorical analysis of your target blog site that provides the context for my evaluation and a rationale for the choices you made when writing your blog post. This Rationale will also include the description of your process of pursuing to be a guest blogger on a site and will address your degree of success with actually having your post published. Be sure to have your selected site approved by me well before the due date of this blog post. The points for this post will be based on how effective your guest post is for the specific site (see Guest Blog Post Evaluation). If you are successful by having your post published by the time of final exam, you will receive 10 points as extra credit.
If you do not have time to post your Guest Blog Post on your target site, you can post it in the Blog section of our course website. Be sure to indicate in the title that it is a Guest Blog Post the following way, Guest Post: The Life of Plants (Basically the words Guest Post followed by your title).
Guest blog post requirements
Your guest blog post will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
- Starts with a descriptive title that connects to an overarching, well-defined theme
- Illustrates a clear understanding of audience and purpose
- Is written in a style appropriate for your chosen blog site
- Applies effective structure for blog posts with headings, subheadings, lists, and short paragraphs
- Incorporates relevant images such as screenshots or photos with Creative Commons license
- Has a word count between 500-1500 words (depending on the requirements of your site)
- Is accompanied by a rational describing your selected blog site’s audience, purpose, style, topic focus, commonly used structure and
Rationale requirements
Your rationale needs follow the following requirements:
- Describes your selected blog site’s audience, purpose, style, topic focus, and most commonly used structure of posts
- Explains and argues for your topic choice, writing strategy, and design decisions
- Discusses the process of posting as a guest blogger on your selected site describes your experience/success with this process
- Is written in the form of a memo to your instructor with descriptive headings and subject line.