How to contribute
Hey there!
Looks like you have come to the Boston University College Democrats Blog! I can't begin to imagine what it is you are looking for, wait, yes I can! I am going to imagine that you came to this blog because you were wondering, no! you were thirsting for insights as to what the members of BUCD (I am just going to abbreviate it from here on out) are thinking about. Well you've come to the right...er... the correct place for that (I am going to keep the 'right' out of this, they've pretty much taken over all the other medias).
Now I am legally only allowed to speak for myself, although I often feel like I could speak for others if only they'd sign those last pages of the contract..., but I find this blog is a good place to dump all the news I've been reading and then sort it out right in front of the readers (all 2 of you!).
Don't like my style? Tough! I have access to this blog and you don't! Unless you want to have access to it, in which case you should contact us @ bucollegedemocrats@gmail.com . But once you have access, do you know what you want to write about? Do you know how blogs works? Do you want to avoid the pitfalls that I often find myself in; avoid writing a post like this? Well below I am going to go into some topics that you may or may not be interested in, and ways you might go about using them for blog posts.
Types of Blog Posts:
1. Break News. This type of blog post would be done when you find out something really interesting and really undercovered. A key member of the city council is resigning? Blog it! The mayor of a nearby town or city is slashing education funds? Blog it! You found your keys in your roommate's trash even though s/he told you explicitly they weren't there? Don't blog it! Seriously, this is a political blog, and those types of discoveries, while interesting to some, don't belong here. Some rules you should keep in mind, especially when blogging about breaking issues: Use citation! Are you taking this from a print source? Let us know! Are you taking it from another blog? Link it! From a stranger on the street? Well you should definitely disclose that, and maybe if that's your only source... seriously reconsider the idea of posting it. Citation is very important in breaking news. Its not news if its not cited; its rumor. And if its rumor, it probably shouldn't be posted on this blog, at least not as news.
2. News Analysis. This is a more common type of blog post. You read something in the newspaper and want to talk about it. How do you do that? Well first you should introduce your piece with some fancy words:
You can then go on to talk about the piece, quote various passages for specific points. The key here is that you are not simply reposting the article. That would be stealing of the author's content. You are creating your own content by commenting, in long form, about the content of the article. Remember to put quotes " " around sentences, and if you are taking more than one sentence use block quotes. What are block quotes? They are an intent quotation form that allows the reader to see that the whole passage is taken from another source. Note how the above sentence is set off. The block quote command is <+++blockquote+++> <+++/ blockquote+++> without those "+++'s" on either side of the command. Oh I just realized that there was a button for blockquoting on blogger, its right next to the spell check (which I never use, thus my not knowing blockquote was there). See how I could just go back and pretend I never wrote how to do it? Well that wouldn't be honest, and god forbid, you ever use a service that doesn't have those nifty buttons; well you'll be prepared. But I digress...
If you wanted to write a blog post today, what could you write about? Well...
things you might see on twitter about Republican hypocrisy regarding the stimulus or
things you might see in the boston globe in regard to Governor Patrick's taking a stance on health care regulation in MA or
things you might see in the phoenix about how there is a musical about Sen. Scott Brown or
things you might see in national blogs about how the 1956 Republican Platform is something that dreams are made of.
or local blogs on what Governor Patrick is doing in environmental policy,
other newspapers like the Washington Post and its coverage of the capture of the highest ranking Taliban leader since 9/11.
If you're feeling adventureous, you could use cable noise..I mean... news about how tough it is to be a centrist democrat...
or get a different perspective with foreign news sources about the UN envoy's trip to Myanmar
magazines 's discussing the difficulty in turning populism into policy or politics or whatever the new yorker is talking about. Or if you want to go really high brow, you could talk about an interesting journal essay about President Obama's ability to make significant change in foreign affairs.
3. Photo Blog. Another form of diary is the photo diary. An example of this can be seen a few pages back by Nora about President Obama. But, just to make this as comprehensive as possible, I'll do a demonstration.
Its winter at the White House!
Look at Bo! He's really enjoying the snow!
All of these photos are from the White House Flickr stream
4. Commentary. Now this is probably the least productive form of blog post. You basically are just full of whimsy and want to share it with the world. Maybe something in politics has been bugging you, not any specific incident. A feeling, a tone, whatever. You could express your frustration at the fetishistic obsession with bipartisanship or gloat about the power and vitality that having a majority in both houses gives you. Its really up to, just keep it relevant.
So there it is. Writing a blog post isn't that scary, and it doesn't take that much time. How long did this take me? About an hour, but that's only because I had to teach myself how to add photos and google forced me to change my account password in order to find out that I didn't actually need picasa to add those photos, just the .jpg file name from a website. Relevant? Not in the slightest.
If, after all this, you are interested in becoming a blogger on this page please let us know!
Looks like you have come to the Boston University College Democrats Blog! I can't begin to imagine what it is you are looking for, wait, yes I can! I am going to imagine that you came to this blog because you were wondering, no! you were thirsting for insights as to what the members of BUCD (I am just going to abbreviate it from here on out) are thinking about. Well you've come to the right...er... the correct place for that (I am going to keep the 'right' out of this, they've pretty much taken over all the other medias).
Now I am legally only allowed to speak for myself, although I often feel like I could speak for others if only they'd sign those last pages of the contract..., but I find this blog is a good place to dump all the news I've been reading and then sort it out right in front of the readers (all 2 of you!).
Don't like my style? Tough! I have access to this blog and you don't! Unless you want to have access to it, in which case you should contact us @ bucollegedemocrats@gmail.com . But once you have access, do you know what you want to write about? Do you know how blogs works? Do you want to avoid the pitfalls that I often find myself in; avoid writing a post like this? Well below I am going to go into some topics that you may or may not be interested in, and ways you might go about using them for blog posts.
Types of Blog Posts:
1. Break News. This type of blog post would be done when you find out something really interesting and really undercovered. A key member of the city council is resigning? Blog it! The mayor of a nearby town or city is slashing education funds? Blog it! You found your keys in your roommate's trash even though s/he told you explicitly they weren't there? Don't blog it! Seriously, this is a political blog, and those types of discoveries, while interesting to some, don't belong here. Some rules you should keep in mind, especially when blogging about breaking issues: Use citation! Are you taking this from a print source? Let us know! Are you taking it from another blog? Link it! From a stranger on the street? Well you should definitely disclose that, and maybe if that's your only source... seriously reconsider the idea of posting it. Citation is very important in breaking news. Its not news if its not cited; its rumor. And if its rumor, it probably shouldn't be posted on this blog, at least not as news.
2. News Analysis. This is a more common type of blog post. You read something in the newspaper and want to talk about it. How do you do that? Well first you should introduce your piece with some fancy words:
Whilst leisurely peering into my latest issue of the New York Times, I did gander an interesting piece titled "Senior Somali Official Survives Suicide Attack" link to it
You can then go on to talk about the piece, quote various passages for specific points. The key here is that you are not simply reposting the article. That would be stealing of the author's content. You are creating your own content by commenting, in long form, about the content of the article. Remember to put quotes " " around sentences, and if you are taking more than one sentence use block quotes. What are block quotes? They are an intent quotation form that allows the reader to see that the whole passage is taken from another source. Note how the above sentence is set off. The block quote command is <+++blockquote+++> <+++/ blockquote+++> without those "+++'s" on either side of the command. Oh I just realized that there was a button for blockquoting on blogger, its right next to the spell check (which I never use, thus my not knowing blockquote was there). See how I could just go back and pretend I never wrote how to do it? Well that wouldn't be honest, and god forbid, you ever use a service that doesn't have those nifty buttons; well you'll be prepared. But I digress...
If you wanted to write a blog post today, what could you write about? Well...
things you might see on twitter about Republican hypocrisy regarding the stimulus or
things you might see in the boston globe in regard to Governor Patrick's taking a stance on health care regulation in MA or
things you might see in the phoenix about how there is a musical about Sen. Scott Brown or
things you might see in national blogs about how the 1956 Republican Platform is something that dreams are made of.
or local blogs on what Governor Patrick is doing in environmental policy,
other newspapers like the Washington Post and its coverage of the capture of the highest ranking Taliban leader since 9/11.
If you're feeling adventureous, you could use cable noise..I mean... news about how tough it is to be a centrist democrat...
or get a different perspective with foreign news sources about the UN envoy's trip to Myanmar
magazines 's discussing the difficulty in turning populism into policy or politics or whatever the new yorker is talking about. Or if you want to go really high brow, you could talk about an interesting journal essay about President Obama's ability to make significant change in foreign affairs.
3. Photo Blog. Another form of diary is the photo diary. An example of this can be seen a few pages back by Nora about President Obama. But, just to make this as comprehensive as possible, I'll do a demonstration.
Its winter at the White House!
Look at Bo! He's really enjoying the snow!All of these photos are from the White House Flickr stream
4. Commentary. Now this is probably the least productive form of blog post. You basically are just full of whimsy and want to share it with the world. Maybe something in politics has been bugging you, not any specific incident. A feeling, a tone, whatever. You could express your frustration at the fetishistic obsession with bipartisanship or gloat about the power and vitality that having a majority in both houses gives you. Its really up to, just keep it relevant.
So there it is. Writing a blog post isn't that scary, and it doesn't take that much time. How long did this take me? About an hour, but that's only because I had to teach myself how to add photos and google forced me to change my account password in order to find out that I didn't actually need picasa to add those photos, just the .jpg file name from a website. Relevant? Not in the slightest.
If, after all this, you are interested in becoming a blogger on this page please let us know!