Idea To Topic

If you can think of ten possible posts for an idea, chances are its worth pursuing. Remember you'll need to write a total of 40 posts. Students often think themselves into corners when it comes to pursuing a topic.

Start thinking about your topic from two perspectives; what interests you and how many people share your interest. When you're writing posts, let this mantra float through your head: why should we care?

HowChow is a great example. Chow blogs about food in Howard County, Maryland. I've even asked Chow about the pho at An Loi. Easy 10, 20, there's plenty of places to eat in Towson.

J-School student Nicole Rossi blogs about places to eat in Towson. Cory Twibell blogs about the New York Rangers. Daron Savage blogs about Upper Chesapeake sports. Pick a team or an area.

Do journalism about your area like Kiel Mclaughlin, editor of the Towerlight.

Remember that posts usually run anywhere from 50-250 words. Longer posts can be as long or longer than 500 words.
More examples of blogs.

Generating Ideas

The first thing you need for a blog is an idea. So go grab a pen and a notebook and start thinking.
In her book The Only Grammar Book You'll Ever Need, Susan Thurman discusses ways to generate ideas. I've listed two of her methods from pages136-137 here:

1. Freewriting is one of the most effective methods of cultivating ideas. Begin by writing your topic at the top of the page. Write anything related to your topic--words, phrases, or complete sentences, whatever scraps of thought come to mind. Give yourself a time limit of about ten munutes. Don't:

• Be comcerned with spelling or punctuation
• Go to the time or trouble of grouping your ideas
• Bother erasing anything
• Worry even if you digress from your topic
• Stop if you can't think of a specific word (just write ??? or XXX or some other shorthand)

If you get stumped, just keep your pen moving on the paper or your fingers moving on the keyboard; chances are you'll come up with a new idea. At the end of your time allotment, look over your work. Decide what best fits with the direction of your work and cross out what doesn't. The go back and underline the key parts of the most workable ideas.

You can repeat the process to expand on the ideas that you like. Since you're working in ten-minute sessions, the assignment may not seem as overwhelming as it first did.

2. Questioning is another method to help you develop ideas. Suppose you've been given a very general topic like "relate a terrible dining experience you once had." Begin by asking yourself variations of the reporter's fundamental six w and h questions (who? what? when? where? why? how?)

• Who was involved? (You and your date Pat)
• What started the "horrible" part of the evening? (You both became sick while still sitting at the table)
• When did this happen? (on a summer evening in 2001)
• Where did this happen? (at Sally's Scrumptious Shrimp Shack, in Seattle)
• Why did this happen? (you had eaten seafood that hadn't been cooked long enough)
• How did the evening end at the restaurant? (the manager gave you a complimentary dinner and a gift certificate to return another time)

After asking yourself other who? what? when? where? why? how? questions, you'll have compiled lots of details to give your readers a more descriptive picture of what happened that night.

Think about what interests you, what you're passionate about and start there. Good writers write what they know. If you can come up with at least ten post ideas for your idea, it's worth blogging about.