Setting up Your Writing Rome Blogs

Dear Readers of Rome,

As mentioned in class today, between Friday and Monday please set up your Writing Rome blogs, which you will use to submit your writing assignments during the travel seminar.

Below I'll offer some guidance on setting up a blog, if blogging is new to you. But no matter what your level of experience, your blog should observe the following requirements:

• It should be, at the very least, accessible to those with the URL (no passwords or special accounts required for access). We'll be posting the links to your blogs on a sidebar of the Writing Rome blog, so it's important that access be open.
  
  
• If you already have a blog, make a new one just for Writing Rome -- a nod to our blogging as an educational endeavor.
   
• Email all three members of the instruction team with the name and URL of your blog once you have it.

That's it. Watch for Friday's assignment, coming sometime tomorrow.

DC

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First of all, the term blog is an abbreviation of web-log, or a diary kept on the web. Now you know.

The three most common blogging services are Blogger (which hosts this blog), WordPress, or Tumblr. All are free, though you will need to register to use them; if you already have a Google account, then you can begin using Blogger. Generally speaking, neither one of these services is far superior to any other, though each has its advantages and disadvantages -- and its own loyalists and detractors.

All of them permit a high degree of personalization, but don't worry about perfecting the look and feel of your blog just yet. You can tinker with it after the semester is over and before the trip begins.  The important thing is to get your blog set up so we can create our blogroll (roster of blogs) in preparation for Writing Rome.

You will, however, have to name your blog. For all sorts of reasons, it's probably advisable not name it something like, "[Your name] Spanks Rome's Booty," not least because a future employer might find it. But do be appropriately creative. And no, "Roman Roaming" and its variations are NOT creative, in case you were wondering.

As noted, make sure that your blog is publicly viewable on the web. It's up to you whether you want comments to be enabled. We will not use them to offer feedback (we'll do that by sitting down and talking with you in Rome). If you do allow comments, take care to guard your privacy and to set some restrictions on who may comment, lest your posts get spammed.

If you need help setting up a blog, your instructors or your peers will be delighted to help you.