So, what kind of things get credit on blog posts?
Most things.
First off, WRITE. Just about anything gets more credit than nothing, and one can always write another post.
Like the previous paragraph, posts can relate to issues of class administration.
Posts can relate to critical thinking issues do not directly relate to the specific readings of the class. For instance, students in the instructor's Spring 2007 class blog posted extensively about fallacies (since I shamelessly coerced them into doing so). A lot of the earlier fallacy entries have comments about fallacies by other students and by the instructor.
Advertisements are rich sources of fallacy, as are most political speeches and statements that actually do take a stand, and most corporate position statements.
Just about any kind of comment on class readings has to be relevant. You can comment on previous readings, future readings, or current readings; the credit will be equal in any case. So, for instance, someone might point out Reznikoff's use of color in "Suburban River: Summer," with the gulls that are white twice and the water that's blue twice before the introduction of the sewers in the second stanza. If I'd found something interesting about Reznikoff or about poetry or about this poem or about pollution or about gulls or even about sewage, I could post that relevantly.
If I found some link somewhere that seemed useful, I could post that. For instance, I just now googled "Charles Reznikoff," and I got, among other things, the Electronic Poetry Center at SUNY Buffalo at http://epc.buffalo.edu/. That's a pretty useful link for people interested in modern and postmodern American poetry.
Even if you don't know the HTML to set up a link, you can give us the link, and your colleagues can copy and paste it into their browsers if they want to follow up on what you're saying. So, I googled "East River" and "water pollution," and I came up with an artistic presentation at http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/06/12/river-glow-water-pollution-monitor-urban-art-installation/. Comments on that would be welcome.
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One of the fallacies that I wanted to bring up in class, but was never given the chance to, was an ad-hom on a particular Internet Forum that I frequent. I am an avid beer "enthusiast" as I choose to refer to myself as. Snob is more appropriate most of the time, but I digress. I drink a lot of beer and post my impressions of beer. The nuances of the types of malts used, the yeast strain, water source. Etc. I have become very adept at noticing certain flavors dependent on those above factors. There are tastes of Pine, green apples, grapefruit, musty flavors that remind myself of rustic truffles, etc. There is a particular beer that I tried that even I found nearly undrinkable.
To provide some background. Hops are a type of dried grain that is one of the main ingredients in beer production. It is used both as a preservative and bittering agent for the beer. The more hops used, the more sugars there are for the yeast to turn to Alcohol, and the more stalwart the brew becomes. The more hops, the more alcohol and especially the amount of bitterness increases. Measured by the term IBU; International Bittering Units. Continuing, there is a beer from Dogfish Head Brewery that makes and sells a 120 Minute IPA, IPA is an India Pale Ale, a beer traditionally brewed with a lot of hops originally for shipment from Britian to India. A lot of hops are added to make a beer to endure the trip, sending the IBU's skyward.
This "beer" is continually dry hopped for 120 minutes, then wet hopped every day for 120 days from the first date of production. To provide a background example, your normal run of the mill mass produced american crap lager from Budweiser or Coors is somewhere in the low double digits, 15 IBU's, your high IPA's and Double IPA's can reach the 70's to 80's, which is already very very bitter. The 120 Minute IPA has a IBU rating of near, you guessed it, 120 IBU's. This is so profoundly bitter that all but the most experienced and aged of beer drinkers can stomach that much bitters. The type of Hops used in this beer is predominantly Cascade Hops, which is grown in the Pacific Northwest. Because of that, it imparts a strong pine needle flavor to the beer along with the incredible amount of bitterness and Alcohol (Alcohol level is 20%).
I stated, very plainly, that this is like drinking fermented tree sap. I was attacked for not being a "man" and not being to handle such a fine ale. That someone with my name (coincedentally, that is also pocky is god) that someone with such a childish name, named after a candy, doesn't have the palatte necessary to have an opinion.
Which is a typical ad-hom fallacy. What does my name have to do with what I think a beer tastes like? It serves no purpose other than to make the attacker open to criticism for using an ad hom attack. We argued back and forth and eventually we "agreed to disagree". Which is a cop out at best.
Remember kids, beer is good but don't be intimidated by bullies. Try different kinds, I'm sure there is something for everyone.
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