How to

General Guidelines

The activities on the blog are meant to generate consistent engagement with materials, provide an opportunity to practice writing, and create conversation among classmates. To this end, your four posts and six comments should occur on different readings.

Instructions

All SPAN365 students are “authors” of the present blog; YOU DO NOT NEED YOUR OWN BLOG FOR THIS COURSE. If you are not an author of the blog, write Tamara via email/Canvas inbox with your email address (see screenshot below), and she will add you as a user. All students must sign up by Week 2. To create a new post, click on the “+New” button at the top of the blog, which will open a new entry page.

  1. Write your post, reflecting on your selected week’s readings (see prompt ideas below under “Blog Posts”).
  2. Your post should not include summary and mere observation. You should think critically about the materials for that week, which means you might: make connections between form, genre, and content; think about the text in relation to context and the literary tradition; consider how the text might critique social norms or power structures and note how it undertakes such a critique; select a literary device to analyze in relation to the work as a whole, etc.
  3. After you’ve written your post, create a short, descriptive title that encapsulates the post in a few words.
  4. Use heading, font, etc. strategically to make your post more dynamic.
  5. TAGS: In the righthand column of your in-progress post, you’ll see an option for tags, which you should use to make your post easier to navigate. You are required to include a tag for the appropriate week in the following format and author last name: semana1 (no capitalization, no space, no punctuation, no quote marks), Bolívar. You may use other relevant tags as well, such as genre, country of publication, main themes, etc. See Tamara’s sample post for an example.

Tamara will create a sample blog post during the first week of class to give you some ideas on how to write a dynamic, conversation-starting post.

TROUBLESHOOTING FAQ:

If you are ever unable to post or comment, please go to https://blogs.ubc.ca, and sign in again. Users are occasionally signed out automatically for security purposes, so this will be necessary once or twice in the semester. If you are having major issues with the blog, visit the amazing WordPress support people: https://blogs.ubc.ca/support/

Blog Post Requirements & Expectations

  • Deadline: any time BEFORE class discussion (these are your thoughts on a reading before we discuss them in class)
  • 200-300 words, en español
  • 4 required: 2 before reading week, 2 after reading week (one of these is an assigned post to ensure there are reflections on every reading). Sign up for assigned post here.
  • 6 comments required: 3 before reading week, 3 after.
  • Note: Posts and comments must occur on different readings. (not necessarily different weeks). Please do not wait until the last week for your posts/comments, as that week is 1 single reading, and thus only eligible for 1 blog activity.
  • Late posts and comments will not be accepted, as these are rolling assignments and you have many class periods to choose from for each one.

Content

Here are some ideas for what you might post on:

  • Select one quotation (1-3 lines of poetry; 1-3 sentences of prose) from an assigned reading and paste at the top of your blog post. Comment on and analyze fragment in relation to historical context, the rest of the reading, genre norms, etc. (Quote is not part of word count)
  • undertake a literary analysis (the function of metaphor, allegory, symbolism, etc. in a text); offer initial interpretation of narrative voice or style
  • given that we are in a course about Latin American literary movements, make observations about how the text relates to the literary tradition that precedes it (whether conventions are observed or broken)
  • Offer a comparison of two readings, focusing principally on a reading from that week.
  • Pose a critical reflection question about the reading and propose some initial thoughts on how you would answer it. Your question and post should open a dialogue, not close it, so the question should be fairly thought provoking.
  • Bring to light current events (in local or national news) in relation to a reading.
  • Dive deep into a particular concept or term; bring in etymology.
  • Note if your opinion changed about something due to a literary text we read and explain why.
  • Discuss a reading in conversation with something you learned in another course.
  • Relate a literary reading to the historical context
  • Engage in depth with a classmate’s post (link to it if you do this)
  • Home in on an intertextual reference and investigate it further, then relate it back to the reading.
  • Look at the literary movement category on the syllabus, indicated by bolded text (e.g., modernismo, post-Boom, etc.) in the course calendar. Look up details about the movement and provide a definition (with citation!) and read the literary work in line with this definition.
  • Avoid “like/dislike” judgements; we can learn from a text even if we did not like it!
  • Avoid: Summary. We all read the same materials, so jump right in to thinking critically about the works!

As noted in the syllabus, posts are generally marked on a complete/incomplete basis. If they are deeply unoriginal (pure summary, merely overlap with class discussion, or repeat what another student says in a blog post) or they are difficult to understand due to poor grammar or logic, you will lose points.

Comments

  • Deadline: Sundays at 11:59PM (before the following week begins)
  • 75-100 words
  • 6 total (3 before reading week, 3 after)
  • Please note that you should comment on a post that relates to a reading that you have not published on. For example, if you write a blog post on José Martí, you may NOT also comment on a post about Martí. (This does not mean you cannot comment on a different Week 2 post on Echeverría, though!).
  • Please be respectful, even (or especially!) in disagreement

To comment:

  1. click on the relevant weekly tag (semana1, semana2, semana3, etc.), which will bring up all of the applicable posts.
  2. read some posts and find one that you would like to engage with and respond to
  3. at the bottom of the post(s) you want to comment on, click on “Leave a comment.”
  4. Engage respectfully and substantively with the post. Avoid “like/dislike” or simple “agree/disagree” statements. Take the poster’s observations a step further, nuance or complicate something they say, add to their literary analysis, bring in relevant historical context, etc.
  5. Be accurate. If the person includes their name/pronouns at the end of the post, make sure to get those correct if you state their name/pronouns.

Bonus: Respond to each other’s comments! When someone makes a comment on your blog, consider reading it and responding constructively.

TROUBLESHOOTING: Click on the “Howdy, NAME” at top right, then scroll down to “email (required)” and send Tamara that email address. Then she will add you as an author to the blog.