Group e-Text Writing Project (Blogs)

This assignment is designed to fulfil the course requirement: group e-text writing project, worth 20%.

Groups = 4 students per group

1. This is a group project that will require collaboration and group participation, as well as individual effort in order to ensure its success. Each group is responsible to develop and maintain a blog. Professor Ogden will conduct a tutorial in lecture on how to construct a blog. Your group blog will be used for collaborative discussions on specific readings, texts, and assigned topics.

2. Your blog entries may vary in length (50 – 150 words per entry) and must address the literature or issues raised in this course. You are expected to post at least three literary entries on your blog, as well as respond to/comment on (at least) three other blog entries posted by your group members. Try to cover all the course texts in your group discussions. (Note: Each member may only write once (and respond once) on each course text.)

3. Each student must also write a 500-word blog entry on one of the topics listed below.
(Note: these topics are provided as a rough guide and can be re-worked to fit your own interests).

Bonus marks: Try to include in your discussions the critical terminology that is being introduced in lectures.

Exchange names, email addresses and any other pertinent information. Elect someone from your group to create the blog at http://www.blogger.com/start *This person will also have to create a name and password for the blog, so you should brainstorm a few ideas as a group. Email all group members the access information (use the “Add Authors” function so that everyone can post their work.)

I will be checking your blog periodically to note your progress. Please come and see me if you are experiencing technical difficulties or problems with group members.


Suggested topics for discussion:
a. Research a specific literary genre (i.e. Sentimental novel, realism, etc.) and discuss its defining characteristics in one or two of the stories discussed in class.
b. Discuss the correlation between genre or narrative styles and specific reading audiences.
c. Research a specific author and discuss the possible relationship between their personal, social, and political histories and their stories.
d. What representations of cultures have we encountered through these narratives of Vancouver history?
e. How do these narratives of Vancouver history represent culture, ethnicity, race, religion, etc.? (i.e. How do Pauline Johnson and Emily Carr represent the First Nations people in their stories?) In the stories we have read in this class, has the representation of the “other” changed over the last 100-150 years?
f. What have you learned about Vancouver’s history from these stories? How do you know what you are reading is accurate? Who makes “truth” claims in their stories? Provide evidence from other sources to support your claims of knowledge about Vancouver “history.”
g. How have these stories constructed Vancouver as a space? Has its representation changed over the past 100 years? To a reader unfamiliar with the local landscape and cultures of Vancouver, what impressions of Vancouver would they derive from these stories?
h. How are blogs similar and different in literary design to the works discussed in this course? Consider short stories, poetry, and novels in your discussion.
i. Do you think technology has altered the culture of reading? In what ways has print culture been transformed since the advent of e-media? How has language been effected by text messaging and msn? Do you think that the book is dead?
j. Propose your own topic for discussion. Topics must be approved before submission.