Perhaps you already are familiar with online journals, diaries, and newsletters known as Weblogs or blogs. You may find that this simple, free way to publish online is appealing for personal as well as academic and professional writing. At the same time, you will be communicating in an increasingly popular format. See selected Educational Weblogs and Resources for some definitions, some history, and examples from several disciplines and classes along with Acknowledgments.

Basic Weblogs at Blogger are free, and you can access and control your own Weblog anyplace you can browse to the Web. You need no special software. You can add some formatting and hyperlinks to Web sites with a few clicks. A spellchecker is included. You can give the Weblog address to anybody you wish. Because you are publishing on the Internet, your posts are never truly private, so keep in mind your intended audience as well as other unknown audiences who wander to the Website.

How might you use a blog? On the road, stop at libraries and cybercafes to post a travelogue for friends and family. While conducting research or participating in a project, share your findings and thinking with others. While planning an event, provide updates to prospective guests.

Whether you are blogging for a class, for a personal project, for work, or for other purposes, always be aware of your immediate, intended audience as well as the wider less apparent audience of the World Wide Web. Your writing will be visible to many readers, and your online writing may be logged or archived or forwarded without your knowledge. You might consider composing blog entries in your word processor so you can review, revise, and save them before you post them online.

To establish an individual Weblog for our class:

1. Go to the Blogger Website (a separate browser window should open).
2. At the Blogger home page, follow the link to Create Your Own Blog.
3. Fill in the form to establish a Blogger account with your own name.
4. Follow the online steps to establish your class blog. These steps may be updated at Blogger more often than I update them here, so do follow their guidelines.
   • Give your class Weblog any appropriate name you like. I used CompOnline for first-year composition, LitOnline for literary genres, and TechArts for computers and the humanities. You will be able to change this feature later. Active links for these blogs come later on this page.
   • You can decide whether to make your blog private or public. Even a "private" Weblog will be accessible to anybody you give the Web address to; and nothing on the general Internet is truly private.
   • Select "Host it at BlogSpot."
   • At the Create a New Blog page, insert the name you want to appear in your Web address, for example, Pat Smart named a new blog Pat Smart Blog and uses the Web address http://patsmart.blogspot.com.
   • You can select any of the templates you like. You will be able to change this feature later. If you know hypertext markup language (HTML), you can personalize the template.
   • A window will open for you to input your message. Then you can preview it, edit it, and when you are ready, you can publish the message.
5. After you've established the blog, you should test it with several postings.
   • I figure about half an hour of experimentation will give you the basics. I used the Support or Help link from the main page a lot at first.
   • The blogger editing area is not the actual published blog. You and others will view your actual blog in a separate browser window. Enter the Web address, for example http://patsmart.blogspot.com/, and Refresh/Reload the Web page to see the latest version.
6. You can add format features and hyperlinks. Highlight the text you want to format. The next two screen shots show highlighting a text, clicking the link icon, and pasting a Web address to create a hyperlink. If you want to encourage feedback or comments, select Yes for Allow New Comments at the bottom of the box.

1. Post any required entries for your class. As with other important compositions, you should compose first with your word processor and save as a document file on your own computer.
2. Post any additional entries as you wish.
• Use the Weblog as a reflective writing journal or notebook to record thoughts related to class topics.
• Use the Weblog as a research journal or log to keep a record of your investigation process and results for class projects.
• Use your Weblog for getting feedback from your readers using the Comment feature.
• Post annotated links to other online resources related to class topics and projects.
3. Take advantage of the help provided at the blogger Support link. I used this support to find out how to change the name of my blog and how to try out different templates.
4. To return to the Website for managing your blogs: While you are logged in, click on the Blogger logo .

1. You can establish a separate personal Weblog without giving up your class Weblog.
2. Blogger allows you to set up multiple blogs.