First, subscribe to the discussion group by sending this message "subscribe summ97 your-login-name@youraddress" to majordomo@condor.depaul.edu.  Don't use quotation marks in the message text.  For example, the message I sent to subscribe was "subscribe summ97 dsorsa@condor.depaul.edu"  Journal entries will be sent to this address. but your multi-draft papers will NOT be sent to this address.

One journal must be written every week (see course schedule for deadlines) and submitted to the online discussion group summ97@condor.depaul.edu  Please do NOT send your journals to me personally; I'll be reading everything from the online discussion group, so sending the journals to me is NOT necessary. Each journal should be from 3-7 paragraphs long.  Please remember that these journals are public documents and can be read by anyone with access to the Internet. The journals will go to the mailbox of everyone subscribed to summ97 and will be stored "permanently" on the discussion group archive.

• Journal #1: Write about your experience as a writer: What do you do well?  What is difficult?  What do you want to improve?  What do you like/hate about writing?  Write about your experience with technology:  What do you know about email and the Web?  What do you know about word processing?  What do you know about using the electronic resources of the DePaul Library?

• Journal #2:  Read some of the on-line articles about the media listed below. Choose ONE article and write a journal about it. The journal should have two parts: first, a short summary of ONE article; second, a one- or two-paragraph personal opinion or analysis or evaluation of that article. What did you learn from the article? What did you agree with? What did you disagree with? Please remember to include the URL for your specific article in your journal.

• Center for Media Education
• Mother Jones magazine

• Media criticism articles from the Media Watchdog

• Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting

• Media Literacy Resource Collection
  There are many other sources for articles, and if you find some you like, please let me know the URLs and I'll add them to this list.
  

• Journal #3: Read the journals written by your classmates and choose one of the online articles that was summarized and evaluated. Read that online article and comment on your classmate's summary and analysis. Add anything you like to the summary, and then give us your opinion about the article. (Remember to include the URL for the specific article you are rereading.) The idea for this journal is to add information to a classmate's summary and opinion and then give us your own summary and opinion about the article.

• Journal #4: Choose a different Internet article, and repeat Journal #2

• Journal #5: Read the fourth journals by classmates and repeat Journal #3.

• Journal #6:  Write a Webliography of an interesting/important/relevant site on the Web that is NOT a mainstream web site like CNN or Time Magazine or Disney.  You should explain why this would be a good site to visit, what is located on the site, and who would find the site useful.  Remember to include the URL and the name of the site. Sample Webliographies are right here. I'm changing this assignment a bit to exclude any commercial Web sites. So, sites ending with ".com" are no longer eligible for Webliographies. Of course there are still a couple million sites sponsored by educational institutions, governments, militaries, and various organizations,including special interest groups, so please explore those and let us know about the useful, interesting places you find.

• Journal #7:  Find another Web site and repeat #6.

• Journal #8:  Write about this course:  What did you learn about writing?  What did you learn about technology?  Will you take other online college courses?   What advice would you give someone considering taking this or other online college courses?
  

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  First timers - I suggest Writing Topics next.