The Good Post
Students often ask about writing a good post. Essentially, a TypePad entry should be three to four paragraphs—roughly 400-500 words or the equivalent of 1–2 double-spaced pages. You might want to draft your entry in a word processing program first and copy and paste after you have finished. Use a plain text editor, such as Notepad on a Wintel platform or Tex-Edit on a Mac, to avoid pasting in all sorts of weird characters. Although we will discuss the elements of a good post and comment post extensively in class, these paragraphs are offered as a reference and a detailed summary of how your posts will be evaluated.
Format
Online writing and reading differs from print for a variety of reasons. Clarity is the name of the game. Each post should conform to the following format: Post number, post title, underlined or bolded thesis sentence, and space between paragraphs. Titles of books should be italicized, titles of articles or documents should put in quotation marks, and so on. Any links to comments should use the author’s name. Do not simply use a URL.
Title & Introductory Paragraph
A good post begins with a good title. A good title gets the reader's attention immediately and sets the tone for the rest of the entry. A title, such as “Entry #1,” is not particularly effective or even interesting. Since this is a class, you must number the entries so that the reader knows which assignment you are addressing. Examples might include: “#1: Edenton’s Women: Early Politics” or “No. 8: SimUtopia: Pleasantville.” You can be much more creative, but your post must have a number. And if you use a catchy title that might be confusing or ambiguous, be sure that the document title(s) is indicated in the first paragraph.
Thesis
A thesis is a proposition or statement of an argument. It is not “stage direction” (e.g., “In this post I will tell you about the British and American attitudes toward pre-revolutionary activism, and then I’ll show….”). An adequate thesis is a clear, precise, declarative statement: “The British cartoon ‘Women of Edenton, North Carolina,’ suggests that the British attitude toward patriot activism was _________ and _________.” Obviously, your interpretation of the source will determine what you put in the blanks. Note, too, that this statement identifies the source. Since some of the assignments for this class call for lists, a thesis may be a stretch, so you can use your best judgment in this matter.
Content
For the purposes of this course, the content of the post fulfills the requirements of the assignment. If the assignment asks for a list, you should have a list. If an assignment asks you to comment on another student’s post, you should provide a link to the comment.
Grammar
Grammar and mechanics are important for a variety of reasons—all of them good. All your posts should be grammatically correct in all their particulars. Correctness includes spelling, punctuation, diction, and mechanics. A list of common grammar errors and suggestions for correcting them appears elsewhere.
Bonus
Bonus points are awarded for an especially creative, original, or stylistically sophisticated post.
Grammar for Historians & Others
Here are some common grammatical problems that arise in history papers, listed with the correction mark for each and a solution to the problem. You will find these abbreviations used on your papers, so it is a good idea to look these over. Grammar for Historians can be found online.