I’ve had a couple questions about how to use this blog. So here’s an overview:

• Under the blog’s title (Journalism 61), you’ll find a row of buttons that serve as links to this blog’s web pages. These pages are where I put information that doesn’t change very often, such as the syllabus and class schedule, etc. Here’s how to navigate these pages:
  • Click on the Assignments button, and it’ll take you to the assignments page which describes the major assignments and provides links to writing exercises and assignments.
  • Click on the Class Schedule button, and it’ll take you to the class schedule, which tells you what to read/review this week and which assignments are due when.
  • The Syllabus button takes you to the syllabus for this class, etc.
  • To go back to the main page of the blog, click on the Home button.

• The wide center column is the “blog” part of this site. When you’re on the blog’s main or “Home” page, you’ll see a chronological listing of my blog posts in the center column. But if you click on one of the buttons (say, the Syllabus button), that information will appear in the center column. To get back to the main page of the blog, just click on the Home button.

• The narrow columns on either side of the blog are called sidebars. These stay the same, no matter what’s showing in the center column. Here’s what you’ll find in the sidebars:
  • Categories (in the left sidebar) are organizational/search tools. Whenever I write a post on this blog, I label it with one or more categories. (This one, for example, I’ll categorize as “class info” and “how to’s.”) If you click on a category, such as “Class Info,” it brings up all the blog posts I’ve labeled with that category. That way, even if you don’t exactly remember the title of a blog post or when it was published, you can probably still find it.
  • Recent Posts (left) are just that — a list of the titles of recent blog posts I’ve published on this blog. The titles are active links, so clicking on one takes you to that blog post.
  • Blogroll (right) contains links.
  • Blogs – Section 80 (right) lists links to your class blogs
  • JMC Links will take you to JMC web pages and blogs, and other JMC class blogs.
  • JMC Student Blogs provide links to blogs by some former students of this class.
  • Meta: Lists the links that take me to the WordPress login page so I can manage this blog/site.
  • Subscribe: Click here to subscribe to this blog. Of course, you’ll need a way to track your subscriptions to make this work. I use Google Feed Reader. (More on this a bit later.)