During the first week of classes, I will share some additional information about the course in my daily posts. I know that there was a lot to read in yesterday’s post, so the daily posts this week space some additional information out a bit.

Starting next week, Tuesday through Saturday, I’ll post additional resources on the course website every day. Today, I want to tell you more about how those posts work and how you can respond to them.

What I Will Post

During the week, I post advice articles, how-to webpages, relevant infographics, and other resources. The idea is to share additional readings that will help you in the workplace. These posts meet three goals:

• to give you information that relates directly to projects you are already working on.
• to cover topics important to workplace writing that we are not covering in the major projects.
• to share resources that help with writing generally (such as writing strong sentences or techniques for document design).

I organize these posts around a series of hashtags:

• #TuesdayTutorial
  These posts either demonstrate or tell you how to do something. It may be how to write a specific thing (like a memo) or how to revise something you have already written (like revising for concise phrasing).
• #WednesdayWrite
  Each post asks you to consider how you would handle a specific situation in the workplace. As an example, you might consider an ethical scenario and discuss the various options available.
• #InfographicInspiration (on Thursdays)
  Every post will present an infographic about communication and writing in the workplace. The infographic on yesterday’s post is a great example of the kind I will share.
• #FridayFact
  These posts will share a specific fact about writing in the workplace, which you can compare to what you know about your field. Usually these facts have an accompanying article that supports the fact.
• #WeekendWatch
  Every weekend post (usually on Saturdays) will share a video that presents something relevant to what we are covering in class or something else related to writing in the workplace.

There may be other kinds of posts, of course. Sometimes there will be announcements about something important or something that needs to be clarified or changed, for instance.

How Do These Posts Work With Grades

These additional posts supplement the projects that you are working on. I encourage everyone to read through them, especially when they relate directly to the projects you are working on. They’re short. I believe most of them will take 2 to 3 minutes tops. The one exception is the #WeekendWatch posts, which may have videos that take a bit longer to watch.

Reading and responding to these posts is completely optional. You decide whether to participate and how to participate. If you are working toward a grade higher than a B in the course, you can respond to these messages as part of the extra work you do to build community in the course and share ideas. They are just one of several options.

How To Respond to the Posts

Responding should be relatively easy. If you can comment on YouTube videos or Facebook posts, you will do fine responding to these posts.

What should you write in response? Respond with significant, well-explained comments. This is not the place for “yeah, I agree” or “me too” kinds of comments. Instead, aim to contribute ideas, engage with others, and extend the conversation.

How do you respond? Just use the comment form at the bottom of the posts. You do not have to enter your real name. I understand that you may not want to have your name come up in a Google search. Do, however, use your vt.edu email address so that I can confirm you are a member of the course. Your email address will not appear on the site. Remember to keep track of your comments in your Labor Log.

When will your comment appear? The first time you post, I have to approve your comment before it appears on the website. After that first post, as long as you use the same name and email address, your comments will appear automatically.

Photo credit: Winn Army Community Hospital Pharmacy Stays Online During Power Outage by MC4 Army on Flickr, used under a CC-BY 2.0 license. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons.