Requirements for Your Blog

• Create links on their pages, some of which must use words instead of raw URLs.  
• Create at least one picture or iframe on their page. 
• Create a link or an iframe to a Google Docs file. 
• Remove any of the preset gadgets that their site doesn't need.
• Show evidence of a design concept; a pattern that they use to order their site.
• Use links IN THE BODY OF THEIR TEXT in their blog post.
• Use at least one picture in their blog post.
• Provide a link to at least one downloadable file (can be from Google Docs)
• Use traditional grammar, spelling, and punctuation throughout
• Comment on the website of each other student in class.  

You will be writing a short paper explaining the purpose of every element of your page. Your purposes don't have to be "important", they just have to BE. This paper has no specified length; it is done when you have finished explicating your site. You may post this paper to your blog instead of turning it in in paper if you wish.


The project is due May 20th.

The Meaning of "American Literature"

Here's a question that bothers some people late at night when they're standing in front of the open refrigerator door, their midnight-snack run interrupted by an unwanted thought that has been nagging at the back of their mind all day:

- Just what does "American Literature" mean, anyway!? -

Now if that person happens to hold a degree in English, they may have some luck: they know they've got to understand each of those largish words separately (it's late, after all, and half their attention is focused on the cheese, inspecting it for mold). "Literature" is perhaps the easier of the two. To the English student, "literature" denotes a collection of art. It has connotations, too: "literature" is usually thought of as written art, and often considered to be somehow superior to other examples of the same art form(s). This means that "American Literature" must be a collection of American art, with an emphasis on well-written examples.

The only thing left standing in the way of the student's understanding is that first and more formidable word, "American." What does that mean? But it's late, and they've got the cheese in their mouth, and at this point most people shamble off to bed, their nocturnal hunger sated. Yet the refrigerator door is left hanging open, just like this question -

What does "American" mean?