Blogs at Penn State Community

Once you have activated your Blogs at Penn State Account, you may be wondering what to write. Below are some tips to get you started. After you have decided what to write, you can see how to Create a Blog and Write an Entry for full how-tos.

Decide Your Theme

There are lots of good blogging models out there including personal diaries, social commentaries, news updates, research notes, notes on different hobbies, project announcements and corporate update blogs. However, it's generally recommended that you pick a theme and stick with it. Below are some samples of typical blogs.

Course Examples

• Sociology of Race/Class/Gender (U of Minn) - course announcements, news and student tips
• Student Blog for ENG 1012 (U of Minn) - A student reflects on various topics from the course
• University of Minnesota Blogs - an eclectic collection of blogs from the University of Minnesota

Other Examples

• Kevin Morooney Liberty Road - Comments on information technology at Penn State
• Cole Camplese - Comments on instructional technology
• Russian Chronicles 2005 - Travel log of a trip across Russia.
• Jeff Siarto's Trip to Japan - Another travel blog which includes Flickr photos.
• Language Log - Linguists comment on languge usage and linguistic issues in modern life
• Science Blogs - Multiple blogs covering different topics in science
• Your Daily Art - Commentary on a single artwork each day
• Botony Photo of the Day - A botanical museum shows and describes a new plant everyday.
• Peter Murphy's Panoramic VR Weblog - List of Quicktime VR's made by the author
• Dave Barry's Blog - A "typical" personal blog with links to amusing stories

Once you pick a theme for your blog, you may find it is easier to start writing. One of the nice features of the Blogs at Penn State is that you can begin more than one blog, so you can decide if you want to separate different aspects of your life or keep them together.

One Blog or More?

The Movable Type system at Penn State allows you to create multiple blogs for multiple topics. Which is best?

If you want your blog to be a journal or diary, maybe one blog is best. Some of the "hottest" blogs are based on people writing about their lives in interesting ways. But there may be times when you may want more targeted blogs. For example:

• You may want one blog to discuss your research, course work or work projects, but another for your friends and family talking about your basketball team, wedding day or knitting projects.
• If you're interested in hits, then a specific topic blog may also be a good idea. Some research suggests that many users like to follow blogs on specific topics and want to find other "experts" or "enthusiasts" in their interests.

Fortunately, the Blogs at Penn State gives the option for either.

General Writing Tips

1. Use standard English spelling or punctuation. These conventions make text easier to read and scan.
2. On the of the other hand, you want may your blog style to be a little "looser" than a formal academic or work writing genre...even if your blog is course or work-related. People are hopefully reading your blog to see what YOU think.
3. Include links to other sites to verify facts or back up your opinion. If you believe Joe Paterno is the greatest football coach ever...link to some sports articles to back you up.
4. Length is tricky. Short entries are good, especially for quick news items or links, but many successful bloggers write entries about the size of a front-page Daily Collegian article. If you writing as an "expert", you do want to provide enough detail to show your knowledge.
5. Use subsections for longer entries.
6. Remember that blogs are public. You are free to write whatever you want, but remember that a future employer (or a parent) could be reading your entries.
7. Now go ahead and write. It may take you a while to find your "voice," but it will usually come in time. If it's a personal blog, you may find yourself deleting entries, but that is part of the learning process.
8. The Unpublished Status setting is a great tool for drafts. Some blog entries may take a bit of time to compose, but if your entry's Status is set to Unpublished, you can saveyour text often without posting it to the public.

Tips for Course-Related or Work-Related Blogs

You may choose (or be asked to) write a blog for a course or some aspect of your work at Penn State. Here are some tips that may help you get started.

1. If you are asked to do a blog, ask what kinds of information the person is looking for. An instructor may even provide style guidelines.
2. Maintain a professional tone. It's OK to express an opinion, but you may wish to be careful of how you frame negative comments. These are public blogs, so you never know who may be reading...
3. Longer posts may be OK. In many blogs about research, course work, or work-related issues, the reader may be looking for a more detailed analysis than if he or she were reading a personal blog.
4. Use tags or categories. This will help readers find previous articles in the topics they are interested in. The more professional a blog's theme is, the more important it is to archive content by topics.

Links

• Top 7 Tips for an Effective Business Blog
• Top 10 Blog Writing Tips
• Blogging Tips Condensed
• Angela Booth's Tips to Help You Write More