Be Conscious of Your Digital Citizenship

Blogging is a vehicle for sharing your thoughts and experiences with a larger audience. However, don’t ever forget that words have power. With your words you can be informative and uplifting, but you can also pass on misinformation, whether intentional or not, and hurt others.  Be conscious of what you are posting and the content of your comments. Make sure that your writing reflects positively on both you and our school. In short, be kind.

Privacy

Nothing is private. Your posts and comments have the potential to be seen by people outside of our classroom. Therefore, you need to make choices that keep you safe online. When making posts or comments, do not include your last name, images, or any personal information.

In addition, remember that there isn’t really such a thing as a delete button on the Internet. Whatever you post can linger forever. Ask yourself if you are cool with your mom or future employer seeing your post or comment.

Accuracy

The information and even the opinions you share should be based in fact. Your writing should reflect a clear understanding of your topic. Also, you will inevitably share information or an idea that did not originate in your brain. That is totally fine! You just have to give credit to the person who did think it up, publish it, or share it. Otherwise, you will be plagiarizing. Being knowledgeable and citing your sources will go a long way in establishing your writing credibility.

Be Kind and Constructive

I want you to have conversations about your writing. I want you to comment on your classmate’s posts and talk about both the content and its construction. You are totally allowed to disagree with what someone says. I want to see you be passionate about topics. However, you are not allowed to be rude or unkind. In order to avoid this, consider the tone of your comment and be careful with sarcasm. Make sure that any feedback you offer is helpful and constructive. Be kind and help each other to be better writers.

Content

A blog post isn’t exactly the same as a formal writing assignment; the structure of your writing in a blog isn’t as limiting as an essay. You are free to interject more of yourself into a blog post, and I want to be able to hear your voice in my head when I read your writing. That being said, do not be overly silly or fake with your blog posts and comments. I want to see some thought-provoking, original thinking in your writing. Do keep traits of good writing in mind. Make sure that your writing is focused and on topic. Edit your writing before you post it and try to eliminate silly spelling and punctuation errors.

Blogging is a way of creating a community, and in my community I want kind, knowledgeable, encouraging, helpful people. Have fun writing and be safe.