3.3 Writer's Workshop: Blog Post
| Site: | Cowichan Valley School District - Moodle |
| Course: | ELA8, CSS, Sferrazza |
| Book: | 3.3 Writer's Workshop: Blog Post |
| Printed by: | Guest user |
| Date: | Thursday, 16 May 2024, 9:29 PM |
Preview-The Writing Process
Writing Goal: Resource Blog Post
When it comes to writing about a specific topic, it is valuable to summarize what people in the field have written about. In this way, you will be a true content curator. You won't be creating new content on the topic, however, you will be creating a valuable post that will be an excellent starting point for someone interested in your topic.
In this unit, your task is to selectively share the most valuable resources on your topic from around the web with your audience in a blog post.
Workshop Overview: Don't forget that the Writer's Workshop consists of 2 parts.
1. Writer's Notebook: Open your writer's notebook or start a new document and complete 3 student-directed activities. Note that there are no teacher-directed activities for this unit, thus there is no template.
2. Major Writing Piece: Blog
- Look at examples of a resource blog post
- Plan your own post
- Learn how to properly cite resources that you are including and create hyperlinks.
- Write the first draft.
- Revise your writing.
- Submit your final draft.
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Writing Targets: By the end of this workshop you will have worked toward incorporating the following criteria into your piece:
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Your writing will be assessed out of a six-point scale.
Ideas and Content: (6/6)
Discuss at least three well chosen, valid resources from your Zeef board in an interesting, informal way that gives a reader a good overview of the topic.
Organization and Supporting Details: (6/6)
The post has a catchy title, interesting introduction with a hook, sub-titles, summaries that include a hyperlink and properly formatted quote for each resource and ending with a thoughtful conclusion.
Sentence Fluency: (6/6)
A wide variety of fluent sentences are used that vary in length and how they begin.
Conventions: (6/6)
Work has been proofread and there are almost no errors in basic punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.
Revision Mark (6/6)
The student has very successfully revised the piece based on all feedback provided by the teacher.
3.1 Mentor Text
Look at the following blog post for two reasons:
1. As an example of a list post. The title often is something like "Top 10...." and includes numbered examples.
2. As an example of a blog post to generate traffic that isn't necessarily a good source of reliable facts.
3.2 Mentor Text
Let's take another close look at the article you read earlier on content curation. These are all features you will include in your article. The author has taken her topic and written an essay based on the work of other people.
1. Introduction: Her introduction poses a question and then describes what content she will be presenting.
2. She has summarized and organized the content and links into sections using headings.
3. She has embedded links and a date right into her essay so that the reader can follow those links to deeper reading. Notice the different ways she does this:
a. At the end of a quote (copied word for word),
b. After a phrase (according to...) or
c. At the beginning of a sentence using her own words.
4. Conclusion: Key points are mentioned and the reason why this is important are given.
5. References are listed.
Writer's Notebook Entry 3.1, 3.2, 3.3
Don't forget that for each unit you are to make a minimum of three entries that are your own.
Note: These entries do NOT necessarily need to be about persuasive writing or effective speeches but you may get some inspiration from other sources while doing this unit and decide to write them down here.
Again here are some possible sources of inspiration:
- point form
- drawings
- diagrams
- pictures
- explanations
- questions
- ideas
- responses to readings
- parts of a draft
- clippings
- poetry
- dreams and aspirations
- anything that you might use someday in a piece of writing
Or try a prompt or challenge from here.
Submit your writer's notebook (via template provided or pictures of pages out of a hand-written notebook or drop off in person or a link) to the dropbox "Writer's Notebook Unit Three"
Mini-Lesson: Using Information Ethically
Before you start your own blog post it is important to consider the topic of plagiarism and copyright. You are essentially summarizing the work of a number of people in your blog post so it is important that you do it correctly. In that way, you are creating new content yourself based on the work of others.
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What is plagiarism?
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In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward.
Find out more about plagiarism
Click through the images below to learn about plagiarism:
Click through the images below to learn about research:
Click through the images below to learn about citing sources:
When to cite ...
Things that are common knowledge do not need to be cited. Decide whether the examples below are common knowledge or whether they need to be cited.
Adapted from https://library.acadiau.ca/sites/default/files/library/tutorials/plagiarism/
Copyright and Fair Use
1.Read here carefully to learn about copyright and fair use.
2. Click on the image below to test your knowledge on copyright and fair use.
Planning
Now is the time to start planning your own blog post (note: You don't need to have your own blog).
For each step of this workshop you will use this template to complete your writing and hand in the same file each time you add to it.
Open the template and complete Step 1: Planning:
Choose one of your categories from your zeef board to write a blog post summary of the resources that you found. You will choose at least three resources from your board in that category. I chose the subtopic of tiny homes from this Zeef board on Housing the Future Population.
For each resource:
- Create a catchy subtitle.
- Add the URL of the resource
- Summary Notes: As you review the resource for your reader, make short notes of what you summary will include.
- Choose a quote that you will include your summary of the resource.
Examples:
Subtopic 1 Title: What is the Tiny House Movement?
URL of resource: Blog: The Tiny Life https://thetinylife.com/what-is-the-tiny-house-movement/?utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ZEEF&utm_source=https%3A%2F%2Fhousing-the-future-population.zeef.com%2Fpaige.diggle
Summary Notes: Good starting point. Content: What it is, why you should join the movement, what it looks like, articles on living the simple life, videos on designing a tiny house and a checklist for building. Links to other resources. Posts on challenges
Quote: Simply put, the trend toward tiny houses has become a social movement. People are choosing to downsize the space they live in, simplify, and live with less. People are embracing the tiny life philosophy and the freedom that accompanies the tiny house lifestyle. (Martin, 2018)
Subtopic 2 Title: Living with a family of five!
Summary Notes: Short video on inside look at a functioning tiny house. For example how the wall shelf folds down to become a table.
Quote: “Because it’s so small everything has to do more than one thing” Mother of the family.
Subtopic 3 Title: Tiny House Building Series.
URL: Youtube Playlist 80 videos Tiny House Building Series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_RlSJlbk9U&list=PLlUOuqspk4WGpGZPIOKrCti363Eu0MSTl
Summary: 80 videos showing step by step construction of a tiny home by a young couple. Each video also comes with links in the transcript to their website, social media page and resources they have used. Etc. Entertaining well produced.
Quote: “We are both 28 and having been renting our entire adult lives and a regular house has always seemed out of reach, but this tiny house concept seems really appealing and like something we could actually achieve.”
Complete Step 1: Planning. Save your document and submit in the dropbox: Expository Planning: Unit 3.
When your teacher has marked this step, continue on to drafting your piece.
Drafting
Now that your outline has been approved by your teacher, you can begin your draft. Don't worry about getting things perfect. You will have a chance to get some feedback and work on editing before you submit your final draft.
Organizing your blog post:
1.Title: A good title is important for a blog post as it needs to catch the reader's eye after it is posted and the title might show up in a social media post, a menu of blog posts or as a link in another article. PLEASE! Remember to capitalize all main words in a title.
2. Introduction: When writing your introduction, you want to keep one question top of mind: How can I establish credibility and get my audience to care and be interested about the resources I plan to share with them?
Feel free to leave the introduction for last, too. Sometimes it’s easier to introduce your post after you’ve written the real meat of it. Your introduction should hook the reader. Introduce your overall topic and it relates to the theme of future trends and gives a short summary of what will be covered in your blog post.
3. Body:
Remember, the body follows through on what you promised in the introduction. Each resource you listed in your planning will have a short paragraph. Write an introductory sentence describing the resource, a summary of the resource and include a quote within your paragraph also. Blog posts often have subtitles as well to chunk up the text as a reader is scrolling through the page. Make sure to include titles which are often bolded and in a different font.
4. Conclusion: Your conclusion is where you’ll briefly comment on the effects of your futuristic topic and the importance of knowing about it. Sometimes you can leave your reader with a question or thought.
5. Hyperlinks and quotes: Remember in this assignment you will be required to create a hyperlink to the resource and a properly formatted quote. The next two pages will help with that.
Here is an example of a blog post:
Is a Tiny House for You?
By the time you reach the age where you want to own your own home, the cost may be way beyond your reach or perhaps there will hardly be any land left to build something on! One trend of housing in the future seems to be that of tiny homes. If you are curious about what exactly a tiny home is, if you want to see a glimpse inside a family tiny home and maybe even get serious about building one, listed below are several resources to get you on your way.
What is the tiny house movement?
A good place to start is a website called The Tiny Life, which supplies a range of information and resources about tiny homes. The site explains what exactly the movement is all about,
" Simply put, the trend toward tiny houses has become a social movement. People are choosing to downsize the space they live in, simplify, and live with less. People are embracing the tiny life philosophy and the freedom that accompanies the tiny house lifestyle." (Martin, 2018)
Living with a family of five!
Check out this short video from the BBC that gives an inside look at a functioning tiny house that holds a family of five! As the camera moves throughout the house one can see how everything in it must serve an important function. For example we see how the wall shelf folds down to become a table as the mother of family says “Because it’s so small everything has to do more than one thing.
Building a tiny house
A young couple have recorded 80 short videos on the construction of their tiny home. The videos show step by step construction of their tiny home. In the first interview, they explain what motivated them: “We are both 28 and having been renting our entire adult lives and a regular house has always seemed out of reach, but this tiny house concept seems really appealing and like something we could actually achieve.” Each video comes with links in the transcript to their website, social media page, and resources that they have used. The videos are entertaining and well produced and for anyone serious about building or just curious to learn how they are built these videos are a good find.
In the future, it will be interesting to see if more and more people make the choice to simplify and downsize, including where they live.
When you are finished your draft submit it under the drop-box: Expository Draft: Unit 3.
Once your teacher has marked your draft and given you some feedback on suggestions for revising in your template, complete the mini-lessons that follow, make your revisions in the template and submit your work to the drop-box: Expository Final Draft: Unit 3.
Revising: Personal Revision Task
Revision is where your writing is taken to the next step.
1. Your teacher has given you feedback on one or more items to revise in your writing.
Return to your template to revise based on those comments and any other revisions you might want to make. This is an important part of the writing process and you will be marked on whether or not you were able to make the necessary revisions.
Editing
Before you submit your final draft you need to edit your draft.
Your teacher may have included some editing marks on your draft or you might get a parent or friend to proofread your paper.
In any case you should check for the following:
Capitalization
Organization: Paragraphs? Include a new paragraph when there is a new "scene".
Punctuation
Spelling
Publishing
Once you have:
- completed the mini-lesson and incorporated it into your writing
- revised your first draft based on feedback from your teacher
- edited your work for COPS
- checked the rubric to make sure you have included all necessary elements
- you are ready to submit your final draft!
Submit under the dropbox: Expository Final Draft: Unit 3