Better Blogging

Better Blogging
A set of principles and best practices for more engaging and effective blogging. (This is for academic, group-based blogging, and not for commercially-oriented or solo blogging.)


  • Title blog posts meaningfully
    Titles are critical for helping readers navigate the blog and to decide whether to read further into a post. DO NOT FORGET TO TITLE. If there is no title, it is very hard actually to find or link to your blog post.
  • Visually design blog posts
    • Use an image or video at the top of your post
      Info on how to add imagesVideo on how to embed a YouTube video into a blogger post.
      • Personally created images or video have advantages, so consider using these.
      • Use public domain images or those licensed via Creative Commons. Give attribution. If you wish to use copyrighted photos that do not have a CC license, seek permission from the owner and give "used by permission" in the attribution.
    • Use "front page" design Follow above-the-fold newspaper writing style and use the "jump break" or "read more" feature
    • Break up the text
      • with visuals (images, videos)
      • with subheadings
      • with bulleted or numbered lists
      • with embedded hyperlinks
  • Talk to the public
    This is neither a diary, nor a report to classmates or the teacher. Face the public with your online thinking.
  • Give context
    Treat each blog post as something readers will encounter by itself, having no context from other posts or from your life or recent past. ("As I continue in my goal to ....." for example)
  • Link effectively
    • Don't copy a URL into a blog post. Instead...
    • Create hyperlinks from meaningful text OR embed linked content (such as a video)
  •  Keep it personal
    • Your person and personality are critical to keep people engaged. Show images of  yourself, refer to your life. Build your ethos all along the way. (Use judgment, though, and do not overdo it)
  • Support your ideas
    • Refer to and link to others' quality content
    • Go beyond linking to popular outlets or pop cultural content. Quote and refer to books, respected content, and (when appropriate) scholarly sources.

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