Welcome to Pop Write World!

(This site was used in a previous semester for a different class. Feel free to check the archives for past posts. For a better understanding of Pop Write World, take a look at And So It Begins... The first incarnation of this site-- and its posts-- can be found at Pop Write.)

And So It Begins... Again!

What you are viewing right now is the central blog site for a writing experiment. True, for the students posting here, it is not an experiment so much as a graded assignment, but since the nature of this project is fluid (as all communication is...), much of what we do here is uncharted territory!

How Does This Work?

Simple: This site is the hub for students in two expository writing classes at Davidson County Community College. From this site, you will be able to access over 75 student blogs!

Over the course of the spring 2009 semester, these students will be posting a variety of things based on topics and guidelines established by their instructor-- me. In addition to posting on their sites, they will be encouraged (er, required!) to read and comment on their classmates writings.

The end results should be very interesting!

Oh, and there's a twist! A significant portion of the student bloggers (one course) are in a deployed National Guard unit. These gentlemen will be posting from... somewhere else! Interestingly enough, in talking with their commander, I discovered that as long as they don't post information that is too specific, they have a surprising amount of freedom to write. I look forward to hearing what they have to say!

That leaves me: While my students post on their blogs, I will monitor from the hub. I will post prompts for their blogs here, and then I will link to a real-time blog roll (to the right of the page). That way, you can check in, see what's on the menu for the week and then peruse the postings at your leisure! I also hope to cull interesting blogs from the masses and offer them in a "This Week, This Now" post.

What Happens Next?

This week marks the beginning of the spring 2009 semester. Blogging will begin as soon as all of my students get their blogs set up-- and I give them their first prompt. That should happen sometime next week.

Until then...