I consistently find myself giving similar feedback on the blog content to many students.

I have listed these comments below in the hopes that this will better inform you of my intentions with the blog prompts as well as give you more detail about my expectations.

1. Overall the blog prompts should test your ability to analyze the readings/movies/episodes and respond critically. In other words, I want to get you “thinking”! In addition, certain prompts will ask you to utilize skills such as summary or identifying key concepts and supporting evidence as these are skills you will utilize in writing your essay.

2. “What” is a question of fact, the answer to such a question promotes comprehension and recall. “Explain” and “why” introduces questions of interpretation which encourages you to interpret the text and support multiple answers and meanings in your responses. Being asked “how” is used for constructing a synthesis of the information, in other words drawing your own conclusions. In addition, when you answer a question of “how”, your answer will require you to interpret the material you viewed, making your own conclusions. 

3. Don’t be afraid to take leaps in terms of your interpretation and analysis. Look at what you are given and really try to draw out all the possible meanings. 

4. The words you choose and the construction of your sentences represent your thoughts and ideas, in other words represent part of who you are. The written language is a symbol. Letters represent sounds, together form words, which can represent objects, sounds, or ideas (to name a few). These words are then put together in sentences, for example, to explain, communicate, or narrate. Therefore, take care that what you are posting is clear, well-written, and represents your perspective and your intelligence. This is partly why copy and pasting statements from other sources (plagiarizing) in lieu of writing an intelligent response yourself is so disappointing. In my opinion, it speaks to a lack of confidence in one's own ideas and leads me to believe that you are so insecure that you cannot formulate your own analysis but need to rely on other's words. Or, maybe you are simply lazy, and do not want to take the time to do a good job.

5. Sophisticated responses in these blogs can be demonstrated in utilizing your source material, not in place of your analysis, but to support your analysis, your ideas and/or interpretations.