Project: Compile a handlist of weblog forms, tropes, and figures, along with short entries on topics of rhetorical interest in blogging.

On writing: We're writing a handlist - a guide that documents what we see and how it seems to be used, along with some consideration. BalconyView? and NeutralLanguage? make a handlist useful to others while keeping the focus on the messages rather than the messenger. Remember that BalconyView? is not totally objective; subjectivities are present and inform the writing, but the writer stands outside the rhetorical exchange.

Search models: We'll probably be drawing primarily on classical models in the main (S&P, chap 9, as well as online handlists). But I'll compile some search model materials that offer other perspectives: social, personal identification, kairos, genre theory, and the like.

Procedure: Choose a topic or create a new one. Form a wiki word. Go to the page and start sketching in some ideas. It's a draft. Expect it to be revised. Find examples and link to them. Sketch out questions for others to work with and address. Start in ThreadMode? and start working towards DocumentMode? when you can.

At the bottom of the entry, include this, which will place the page in a larger organization: Category:WeblogHandlist

And at the bottom of the page, add a contributer list: a horizontal rule (four dashes) followed by your WikiName?. If you contribute, add your name.

Search models

• Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog, Miller and Shepherd
• ...

Short entries

Need short essays on each of these, sketching in the variances possible and seen and a consideration of rhetorical implications (see Lanham as a model)

• LengthOfPost (from micropost to 24 hours)
• FrequencyOfPosting
• OccasionOfPosting? or PostingInstance?. time of post with relation to events (metalepsis, prolepsis, analepsis)
• length of time it takes to post
• place of posting
• level of formality
• audience addressed: audience awareness WeblogsAndAudience?
• revision
• typographical effects
• ethos in blogs
• pathos in blogs
• logos in blogs
• invention in blogs
• weblogs and sharing: weblogs are shared spaces, especially when set up to accept comments

kinds of weblogs

An easy (and so superficial) technique is to classify weblogs by subject or approach: academic, marketing, personal... A rhetorically-based schema would help illuminate weblogs. Looking at kinds (genres) doesn't become pigeonholing when it's done rhetorically because it focuses on patterns found in the weblog.

Kinds in Blood (6 - 8)

• Filters
• Notebooks
• Blogs

Have a look at 'Log Frenzy for a speculative / heuristic schema of forms based on narrative.

Purposes (Blood)

• information sharing
• reputation building
• personal expression

kinds of posts

need definitions, commentary, archetypical examples defining the range. also need to extend this list to include what else is out there.

• meditation
• list
• letter
• occasional essay
• link essay
• reposting
• confessional
• notebook entry
• commentary / critical response
• report
• poem
• prose poem
• rant
• ...

links

kinds of links / use of links

• illustrative link
• illuminative link
• friendly link
• identity link
• annotating
• contextualizing
• "hey, look at this!"

images

• how they are used
• when they are used
• relation of images to posting
  • illustrate
  • illuminate
  • decorate

Category: Project, Handlist