Blogging tips...writing on the web

Dear Students
I know that working online in the public domain is very foreign to most of you and that this may be the first time you have created your own blog. So I thought it might be helpful if I posted a few tips to help yo feel a little more comfortable writing in this strange new environment :)

Blogging tips for writing on the web...

1) Don't underline your headings or other text.
Why? Underlining on the web commonly indicates that the text is a hyperlink. If you underline words that are not hyperlinks this will confuse your reader.

2)  Do include hyperlinks :).
How? Link to anything that will help your reader learn more about what you are discussing.  For example if you mention the author of an article or a book, include a hyperlink to the article (if possible).

• Blogger-Create-a-hyperlink [Flickr, jennip98, 2016]
  Image + instructions in the description below.
• Edublogs: How to insert links in your post [Edublog support] 
• Wordpress: How to insert a hyperlink into a blog post [Amy Goodloe]

Flickr futureatlas.com (2010)
Citation needed  CC-BY-2.0

3) You still need to acknowledge others ideas and indicate if you "quoted" or paraphrased the original authors to avoid plagiarism (similar to referencing).
How? On the web we do this by inserting a hyperlink to the original work. This helps your readers to know the title, author etc. of the readings we are discussing and also acknowledges where you sourced your ideas. On the open web instead of linking to the readings that are provided by Murdoch library it is better to use a link that anyone can access on the open web - even if they cannot access the full article.

Following are a few examples: 

Example 1- Paraphrase (Summary of key concepts):
Concepts related to knowledge and the information age in which we live include: the information society, knowledge-based workplaces, knowledge workers, academics as knowledge workers, scholarship of application, scholarship of integration, scholarship of teaching, and the role of universities in developing knowledge workers (Candy, 2000). 

Example 2 - Quoted from Koffells blog:
"As stated in Candy’s article, graduates must have disciplined inquiry, be able to apply their knowledge to problem-solving, and must bear insights and explain their knowledge, thus also serving the community" (Koffell, post 3/8/16, para. 1).

Note: Quotation marks around the entire section indicate it is a "quote" and the in-text reference at the end acknowledges the author, when it was published, and the paragraph number. If the quote is taken from a book or article then the paragraph number would be the page number.  The in-text reference is a hyperlink to the original post. Therefore, on the web we do not need to include an end-text reference list.

Example 3 - Paraphrase: Note: The paragraph below is a direct copy of a paraphrase from a student post and is provided here to explain how this could be attributed (referenced) correctly on the web.

There is also a clear distinction between practical and academic intelligence. Academic intelligence is more abstract and revolves around theoretical tasks. Practical intelligence revolves around efficient and organised real-life everyday tasks and situations (Tennant & Pogson, 2000). 

The original writers' ideas were paraphrased well. It simply needed the attribution and hyperlink at the end to acknowledge where this idea came from.

In her blog post Citing others: A quick and graphic guide (06/2012), Kate Hart provides a good infographic that explains how to avoid plagiarism when writing on the web :) You can also find more information about copyright and acknowledging others work on the Technology Toolbox for Educators >> Copyright page.

I hope this information is helpful! Keep on blogging...