Exploring Public Writing

Interview Questions One aspect of the Public Writing Project is for students to interview those who do or do not use public writing on the web. As a class, after discussing the uses of public writing, ask the class what questions they would like to ask that would help them with their research. This interview document is the questions my students came up with, and I put it in a form for them to print and use when interviewing. You can use these, or have your class come up with their own questions. -- DarcyWebber

Web Project

Instead of a 1200 word paper, this project can be done with a short (800 word) paper and a web project. After researching and writing on a narrow topic of public writing online (i.e. Myspace, blogging in the workplace, blogging and politics, social networking and college, etc), have students in groups of 3 create a web site through wiki for public use. Some suggestions for web pages are a Home Page, Uses of Public Writing Online, Benefits of, Dangers of, Safety Tips, Links and Research, Blogging, and Social Networking. Students really enjoy using wiki and learning how to "pretty up" pages with pictures and videos from youtube.com. It can be graded for 5% of total grade. To grade, have group members grade eachother, instructor can grade quality of group's page, and have each student keep a personal wiki log of what they contributed and when to the group page. Here is a sample site my class created:

Public Writing Online (to access use login: english / password: !Wiki1234)

Journal Pages

DarcyWebber

Public Writing Analysis Some resources for a debate on where Public Writing stands today. -- CaitlinFahey