Tag Archives: writing across platforms

What Happens When Students Write For BuzzFeed For A Class Project?

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Note: As noted in my previous post when I first mentioned this assignment, please know that this assignment is based largely on the work of Scott Cowley. See his post about when he ran this assignment in his class.

BuzzFeed in the Classroom Review

Earlier this semester, I wrote about a new opportunity and assignment for students in my Writing Across Platforms class: writing BuzzFeed community articles.

That post got a ton of shares and feedback. So I want to offer a follow up and reflection of how the project went. If you haven’t yet, I encourage you to first get some background about the assignment via my post “What’s Changing? My Writing Across Platforms students will write for BuzzFeed and More in Spring 2016. Oh, And here’s the syllabus!

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What’s Changing? My Writing Across Platforms students will write for BuzzFeed and More in Spring 2016. Oh, And here’s the syllabus!

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for details.

Each semester, I like to highlight something that I’m doing different in one of my classes (for example, see last Fall’s What’s Changing post).

This semester, I’d like to highlight my Writing Across Platforms class (the syllabus is at the bottom of this post). I’ve been teaching this class every spring for the last few years. So, what’s changing?

Continue reading What’s Changing? My Writing Across Platforms students will write for BuzzFeed and More in Spring 2016. Oh, And here’s the syllabus!

Why PitchEngine is Great For Teaching the Social Media News Release

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In my Writing Across Platforms class, students write a news release for the social web. We have used PitchEngine to help students learn the web features that can bolster a news release.

Continue reading Why PitchEngine is Great For Teaching the Social Media News Release

Teaching College Writing Using the Hemingway App

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If he were alive today, would Ernest Hemingway be great at writing Tweets?

I like to think that he would. After all, he is attributed with writing the famous 6-word novel: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn” (though his authorship of the story is speculation).

Continue reading Teaching College Writing Using the Hemingway App

Syllabi Spring 2015: Communication Research and Writing Across Platforms classes

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The semester is underway!

I have shared select syllabi every semester since I started this blog. A lot of people contact me asking me for my syllabi and for class assignments. And thus I am happy to continue the trend. You can find all past syllabi from the menu on the left! I’m so glad that folks enjoy these and find them useful!

Continue reading Syllabi Spring 2015: Communication Research and Writing Across Platforms classes

Why I’m Still Teaching My Students to Write For Facebook… Despite Everything

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There has been a lot of talk in recent months about the decline of Facebook’s popularity, particularly among teens and young adults. Coupled with that, Facebook announced that there will be a sharp decline in brand page content showing up in News Feeds starting January 2015.This begs the question, should we still teach students to write for Facebook?

Continue reading Why I’m Still Teaching My Students to Write For Facebook… Despite Everything

You Can Tweet a Quote Directly From a Pew Report

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I teach Comm 335 Writing Across Platforms (see syllabus), a class that in part looks at writing news releases and other content for the web. One tactic we talk about is creating Tweetable content for our social media releases assignment. PitchEngine – the social news release website we use for this assignment – enables users to write ‘quick facts’ that readers can Tweet.

So when I saw today a similar, more streamlined approach used by the Pew Internet project in their reports, I had to make a quick blog post about it. I was reading the Cell Phones, Social media, and Campaign 2014 report when I stumbled across this.

Continue reading You Can Tweet a Quote Directly From a Pew Report