Blog: WEEK ONE

Congratulations! You made it! Welcome to English 263: Introduction to the Novel, The IRISH Tradition. Below is your first blog assignment. I thought we would take this week to get to know each other and troubleshoot any problems we might have. If you have questions, please direct them to the CLASSROOM SUPPORT discussion forum on our class's D2L site.

Happy Blogging!

Your First Blog:

(For ease of reading comprehension, I’m placing my questions in a numeric list. I recommend, though, that you write your first blog in paragraph form)

1) Write a brief paragraph that will introduce yourself to your fellow bloggers. Give us at least three interesting facts about you.
2) Explain why you signed up for the course and what you hope to get out of it (please refrain from just saying it fulfills a GER credit. That’s pretty obvious).
3) What is your favorite novel and why? (If you do not have a favorite novel, describe a movie that you particularly like). What certain kinds of books do you find yourself drawn to and why? What are your expectations of a novel? In other words, when you open a book, what do you generally hope to get out of it?
4) What is your personal history with English classes? What sort of English classes have you taken and what sort of literature have you read? How do you think this online literature class might be different from other literature classes you have taken?
5) What sort of perspective or point of view are you bringing to this class? In other words, what do you already know about Ireland, Irish literature, Irish history, literature in general? If you don’t have any background in these things, what about your background will help contribute to discussion?
6) What sort of online communities do you belong to already? (i.e. facebook, chat forums, etc. do you already keep a blog?). What’s your experience with online communication?
7) Post a picture of a place you’ve been or a place you’d like to visit. Explain why. (Let’s keep these next few things somewhat PG-13, please).
8) Post a link to a website you tend to frequent. Explain why you like it.
9) Post a youtube video that you like or you think is particularly interesting. Explain why you like this video.
10) Remember, by January 28th at 11:59pm, you must comment on at least THREE of your peers’ blogs. Your comments must be at least 250 words EACH. I will be checking.