This course will become read-only in the near future. Tell us at community.p2pu.org if that is a problem.
Writing for the web is a new set of skills. Wondering how to make the shift? Interested in writing for a digital audience? Not sure about expressing your ideas and opinions in a public forum? This challenge is for you.
In this challenge, you’ll uncover differences in writing for the web, engage others in a dialogue, get up to speed on netiquette, and share your ideas. You’ll acquire instincts about web writing that will guide you as mediums and formats change.
Let's get to it.
Back in the day, what was your favorite outlet to read in print? Which print publications did you subscribe to, or seek out on a regular basis?
Is there a moment when you started reading that publication online, or only online? Do you remember that moment of transition? What was it like?
What do you expect from that online experience that's not there in the print version? What does the online version offer you that the print version doesn't?
Write an answer to these questions with an example of a print publication that's gone online.
Post the link to your blog post to this P2PU task.
Find an essay or an article that was originally intended for a print audience. It could be anything from The New Yorker to New England Journal of Medicine to National Geographic. Whatever floats your boat--just as long as it’s long form (longer than a page).
Summarize the article for a blog post.
Post the link to your summary to this task, along with answers to the following questions:
i think the informal tone is more human, and perhaps can help to make a link from someone else's interests to a paper they might not have otherwise read (by seeing my commentary or questions i asked "out loud" in my summary). so perhaps in that sense the "summary" is an extension, at least qualitatively.
By Regards
Thanks
Robert
Web: iPad 3 Cases
posting the link to my post: http://elrycbathory.tumblr.com
I was wondering maybe it's not the right place to post it but if i write an article, a post, i put a picture, something I created and i post it on tumblr can I protect it with a CC license and if yes how? I still don't get how it works.
when i read papers i try to post the highlighted and commented output online as part of my research notebook, and then summarize key points that i want to remember for my own projects, questions, things i disagreed with, key terms, etc.
in my case, the original is actually embedded in the post. but my additional commentary is very subjective. it's also much more informal, and generally less thoroughly thought out, since unlike the paper author i am not facing a paper submission committe. that said, i think the informal tone is more human, and perhaps can help to make a link from someone else's interests to a paper they might not have otherwise read (by seeing my commentary or questions i asked "out loud" in my summary). so perhaps in that sense the "summary" is an extension, at least qualitatively.
Posting highlighted text is a great Idea! and I like the idea of maintaining an informal tone to keep it accessible to new readers (I often find myself slipping into "academically distanced" speech)- P2PU needs a "Like" button
:) thanks! (and agree- i wanted to "like" your comment :p)
OK, here is Writing for the Web attempt 2.1
http://redclaytheology.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/the-road-to-damascus-in-reading-acts/
While I liked my original idea of an anthro/religious studies look at voodoo, I had to scrap it for now. Finally getting back on track and trying to balance my Open Education goals with classes I am taking for the next couple of semesters.
My post is about 25% as long as the original piece.
I also decided to include an image from the Baroque painter Caravaggio that pertains to the subject. This was not included in the original piece. From an asthetic perspective my looks darker and more solemn - the original was clean, minimalist, and included a small modern illustration of the subject.
Well, I haven't found a printed publication to read and synthesize for this week's challenge. But the challenge did prompt me to think about the kind of reading and writing I do now and how they're connected.
http://audreywatters.com/2012/03/25/reading-and-writing-for-the-web/
I have to admit, I'm challenged by this task. Mainly because I'm getting hung up - perhaps overly? - on the word "summarize." I feel like that's not necessarily an authentic blogging task for me. I could imagine writing a post in which I've analyzed a long-form piece of writing or synthesized it in some way.
That said, I was prompted by this task to write a post that incorporates a piece from a New Yorker profile of Shigeru Miyamoto, the guy who designed Donkey Kong and Super Mario Brothers for Nintendo. I originally read this piece via a print version of the New Yorker, but it also exists online.
Here's my post: Work and Play, Play and Work
Amusingly, I was wondering what to pick for this task when at work today I came across a discarded paper copy of The Atlantic and saw a photo of Ben Bernanke, which reminded me that I had recently bookmarked a long article about Bernanke for later reading: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/04/the-villain/8901/?single_page=true
So I will read this article, in the printed form; I have a habit of putting off or not reading long articles online!
"So I will read this article, in the printed form; I have a habit of putting off or not reading long articles online!"--->Interesting Franklin--what can we learn from that as writers???
What I have learned and applied, based on my own reading habits, is helping the reader by putting in a lot of headers to break up text into manageable chunks that can be scanned easily. This is one way in which my writing has changed with the times. Even if I were to write a full-length book, I would put in these navigational aids.
IMHO this is super important and relevant - it would be great to even pull this out into its own entire "task" within the challenge!
also learning to understand and improve things like "bounce rate" in term of your site's analytics. for example, i just have basic google analytics on my site and i noticed that people who arrive at the site through searches that match specific topics i have posted on, especially technical ones, have a much lower bounce rate (much higher time on the site), which i guess makes sense because they are usually trying to solve a problem or scratch and itch, so they are motivated. people who arrive at my blog just through browsing to my main site have a much higher bounce rate.
guess that is all fairly intuitive and i realize this isn't a challenge on SEO, but in as much as it reflects medium-appropiate writing i think it's interesting-- that is, if we format our posts more appropriately, we should get people spending more time with the content we generate.
Great idea, Jessy. I'd been thinking about building an "Intermediate" Writing for the Web Challenge--that might engage finer skills, like keywords, monetization and trolls.
Started a pad to jot ideas down here.
Challenge-folk, is this something you'd be interested in?
I would be interested. I think at least basic knowledge of how to optimize blog posts and online articles (or SEO) is important for any writer.
Few things make me geek out in the same way as pretty much anything from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Thus, this interesting report on who's writing and at what age (twitter, blogging, it's all in there).
If you've got a few minutes, the overview is enough to serve as a good conversation starter. If you've got more than a few minutes, well, then dig in. I'm still reading, but I'll post the link to my annotated version of the report when I'm finished.
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Social-Media-and-Young-Adults.aspx
That's interesting that you chose that as Pew's work strikes me as very much "writing for the Web" (or maybe "writing for technology bloggers to glean a few points from and re-write stories about the findings.")
Me, honestly, I am struggling with this assignment as it's forcing me to realize how very little I read that isn't on/for the Web.
I have just started reading Too Big to Know (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11581907-too-big-to-know) but not enough to it to synthesize into something bloggish.
Hey Audrey:
That's a totally *crazy* realization, right?
Maybe there's a chapter you could summarize, instead of a full-length book? :)
Or even take a long-form web piece, and recast it as a blog post?
Vanessa
