Final Blog Project

The final project for World Literature will consist of a WordPress blog about something related to the topic of your class presentation.

That topic should be related to some text or biographical information you learned about in class.

For example:

Let’s say that a section of the text from Monkey has drawn my attention because it suggests something about the lives of women in China:

“My name,” he said, “is Kao Ts’ai.  Old Mr. Kao has a daughter about twenty years old and unmaried.  Three years ago she was carried off by a monster, who since has kept her as his wife, and lived with her here on the farm.  Old Mr. Kao was not pleased ‘To have a monster as a son-in-law in the house,’ he says, ‘doesn’t work very well.  It’s definitely discreditable to the house, and unpleasant not to be able to look forward to comings and goings between the two families’  He did everything in his power to drive away the monster, but it was no good; and in the end the creature took the girl and locked her away in that back building, where she has been for six months and no one in the family has seen her” (Monkey 21).

So, in a Blog Entry on the front page of the blog, I would write an introduction to my research, discussing the focus of my research, quoting the text, and explaining how my blog is organized:

In Monkey, by Wu Ch’eng-en, Monkey is faced with the challenge of taking on a monster who has kidnapped the daughter of a farmer:

“My name,” he said, “is Kao Ts’ai.  Old Mr. Kao has a daughter about twenty years old and unmaried.  Three years ago she was carried off by a monster, who since has kept her as his wife, and lived with her here on the farm.  Old Mr. Kao was not pleased ‘To have a monster as a son-in-law in the house,’ he says, ‘doesn’t work very well.  It’s definitely discreditable to the house, and unpleasant not to be able to look forward to comings and goings between the two families’  He did everything in his power to drive away the monster, but it was no good; and in the end the creature took the girl and locked her away in that back building, where she has been for six months and no one in the family has seen her” (Monkey 21).

This section of the story seems to suggest something about the role of women in rural China during the time of Wu Ch’eng-en (1502-82).  In this blog I will present research about Chinese women during this period in order to provide context for this section of Monkey.

I have organized this blog into pages.  First, I have included some information about the author and work with some links for further study.  This should help contextualize the quotation.

Next, I have sections discussing the laws regarding women in the Ming Dynasty under “Laws,” information about women’s lives in general under the heading “Lives,” and some of my research finding involving marriage customs and family structure under the heading “Roles.”

The blog you create should be as narrow a topic as a research paper would be.  Don’t be afraid to be creative, to include lots of illustrations (with captions in MLA style, of course), and to link text whenever possible.

This is a multi-media production, so embedding videos and related music is also welcome.

Finally, you should make sure to cite your sources in MLA style, and to include a full and correct MLA Works Cited page on your blog.

The requirements for the blog assignment are:

1. Opening “post” that introduces the blog, it’s source text, and how it is organized.
2. At least three pages that explore different aspects of the topic.
3. A Works Cited page with at least five sources.

Some Things to Watch Out For:

Cite Your Sources!

Be very careful to cite all the sources you used in the creation of this blog.  Remember, if you didn’t witness it, experience it, of have an opinion about it—> You need to CITE IT!

“Why is the Sky Blue?” (Lansing State Journal, January 15, 1992)

Example:  If you say the sky is blue, you don’t need to cite it; but if you say WHY the sky is blue, you need to cite a source (even if you don’t remember where you got this information–find a source and cite it!)

Don’t forget that you need to cite EVERYTHING from another source–even if you put it in your own words.  You still got the information from someone else.  Give them credit!!

Rubric

CATEGORY	Excellent	Good	Average	Below Average
Introductory Post 20%	Opening Post introduces the blog, it’s source text, and how describes how it is organized. Post is well written, organized, and uses proper grammar and spelling.	Opening Post introduces the blog, it’s source text, and describes how it is organized. Post is well written and organized, but may contain some minor errors.	Opening Post introduces the blog, it’s source text, and describes how it is organized. Post may contain some distracting errors.	Opening Post introduces the blog, but may omit important information about the topic or the organization of the blog, or post contains some serious errors.
Sources 20%	Source information collected for all graphics, facts and quotes. All documented in desired format.	Source information collected for all graphics, facts and quotes. Most documented in desired format.	Source information collected for graphics, facts and quotes, but not documented in desired format.	Very little or no source information was collected.
Content 30%	Covers topic in-depth with details and examples. Subject knowledge is excellent.	Includes essential knowledge about the topic. Subject knowledge appears to be good.	Includes essential information about the topic but there are 1-2 factual errors.	Content is minimal OR there are several factual errors.
Mechanics 10%	No misspellings or grammatical errors.	Three or fewer misspellings and/or mechanical errors.	Four misspellings and/or grammatical errors.	More than 4 errors in spelling or grammar.
Attractiveness 10%	Makes excellent use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. to enhance the presentation.	Makes good use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. to enhance to presentation.	Makes use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. but occasionally these detract from the presentation content.	Use of font, color, graphics, effects etc. but these often distract from the presentaion content.
Originality 10%	Product shows a large amount of original thought. Ideas are creative and inventive.	Product shows some original thought. Work shows new ideas and insights.	Uses other people\’s ideas (giving them credit), but there is little evidence of original thinking.	Uses other people\’s ideas, but does not give them credit.