blogs
[ gateways: 1A | 1B | 1C | 1E ]
grading criteria | instructions

Rules

Entries must each be between 250-300 words (roughly one typed page). Entries which fall short of the minimum length will be penalized.

All entries must have titles.

You will post 10 original responses and five peer responses during the course of the semester.

• Each original entry must provide an answer to one of the discussion questions listed on the handout for the week (linked through the online schedule). These entries MUST be posted on your individual blogspace by Wednesdays at 5:00 p.m., and they MUST answer a question about the film we’re discussing that week.
• The peer response requires you to think critically about the comments of your classmates and engage one or more of their ideas in the online forum. Peer responses are due by Sundays at 5:00 p.m..

Entries posted late will not count toward the required number of responses, so please be diligent about accessing the blogs on time.

Guidelines

Your blog for this course is where you should record your informal responses to the reading and films. By informal, we mean more “spontaneous” (and thus less finely crafted and self-conscious) than typical writing assignments in literature/film courses. This does not mean, however, that you do not need to put much thought or care into writing these entries; we’re judging you here not so much on grammatical or stylistic concerns, but on the energy and care with which you engage both the course readings and the films. To do well, you need to also demonstrate that you are understanding the basics of film language; thus, as the weeks progress, your entries should incorporate more and more cinematographic terms from this course. Each entry—even your first one—should incorporate at least ONE such term.

Your answers will also be stronger if you focus on a key scene or sequence of shots to discuss. This is why it is important to read through the discussion questions BEFORE you watch the film. As you watch the film, you can thus keep the questions in mind, thinking about a particular scene or sequences of shots you may wish to focus on.

We strongly recommend that you purchase Timothy Corrigan’s Writing about Film (available at the University Bookstore), a short and incredibly useful handbook with lots of tips for analyzing and writing about movies.

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Grading Criteria

These entries will be graded on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest.

A response evaluated as a ten would include all of the following:

1. The correct use of at least ONE term from the readings or lecture
2. A length of 250-300 words
3. A focused response to ONE of the handout questions
4. Clear evidence that you have watched the film carefully
5. Coherent paragraphs
6. Correct use of grammar and no typographical or spelling errors
7. Stylistically strong sentences, including rich vocabulary and phrasing
8. The posing of an independent argument or interpretation about the film
9. Evidence that, as the semester progresses, your ability to analyze film has progressed dramatically —i.e. an increasing use of cinematic terms and concepts

A response evaluated as an eight would include the following:

1. The correct use of at least ONE term from the readings or lecture
2. A length of 250-300 words
3. A focused response to ONE of the handout questions
4. Clear evidence that you have watched the film carefully
5. Coherent paragraphs
6. Correct use of grammar and no typographical or spelling errors
7. Clearly written sentences
8. Evidence that you have attempted, if not quite succeeded, in posing an independent interpretation or argument about the film
9. Evidence that, as the semester progresses, your ability to analyze film has progressed steadily

A response evaluated as a six would include the following:

1. An attempt to use at least ONE term from the readings or lecture
2. A length of 250-300 words
3. A focused response to ONE of the handout questions
4. Clear evidence that you have watched the film
5. Paragraphs that may not be entirely coherent
6. Occasional errors in grammar, a few typographical or spelling errors
7. A few sentences that are unclear
8. A descriptive response rather than an argumentative one
9. Evidence that your ability to analyze film has progressed somewhat

A response evaluated as four or below would be lacking in FIVE or more of the positive criteria stated in the descriptions above.

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Basic Instructions for Blogging with WordPress

Adding peer users to your blog

Before beginnging the peer response blogs, each blog owner will need to register his/her peers as blog users.

1. Look at the blog gateway page and record the full names of the classmates in your peer group.
2. Click on your blog space and login using your id/password.
3. Click on the users tab in the WordPress toolbar. Options here allow you to revise your profile (and password) or to add new users.
4. Select authors and users to manually add your peers. The top panel shows various information about the current users. The lower panel (right) allows you to add new users. Use the following model--based on the hypothetical student named clark gable--to enter each of your peers. Note the use of all lowercase characters.

   Nickname: clark
   First Name: clark
   Last Name: gable
   Email: clark@mizzou.edu
   Website:
   Password: clark

5. Click the add user button. Continue to the next peer.
6. Promote each of your peers to user level 8. This action allows them to edit their responses. Once you promote them to user level 1, they'll be added to the current users panel at the top of the page. From this point, use the +/- links to get to 8.

Posting peer responses

Now that you're set up on your peers' blogs, you can login and post responses to their original posts. As a user on their blogs, you can also edit your password and change your email address, etc.

1. From the gateway page, click on your peer's name to read his/her post.
2. Select login under the Meta tag on the bottom right. Use the model above to login to your peer's blog. Note that this login is not the same as the username and password you set up for your own blog, but it's a good idea to change them to all be the same thing. It's easier to remember that way!
3. Click on the users tab in the WordPress toolbar. The your profile option allows you to change your email address, password, etc.
4. Return to the main page by using the view site link at the top of the blog window.
5. To post a comment , read a post and click on the comment link after it. Enter your response in the leave a reply space by typing or copy and pasting from word and click the submit comment button.