USING THE CLASS BLOG (Custom WordPress) | Digital Writing 101

WRONG WAY Pasting a plain URL is the wrong way. WordPress will not automatically turn URLs into clickable links, the way Facebook and G+ does, so pasting a plain URL is not particularly helpful to readers. RIGHT WAY Turning a …

These instructions show you how to create an embedded audio player that plays your audio file. FIRST follow these steps: Make sure your audio file was correctly exported to mp3 format. Double-check the instructions for GarageBand or Audacity Create a …

Finding the Right Code on SlideShare (1) After you upload a PDF or presentation to SlideShare, view it as it appears on the “front end.” (2) Click the Embed link at the top to see the box below, but DO …

Composing Long and/or Formatted Posts If you’re planning to write the kind of blog post you’re putting so much work into that you’d be devastated to lose it, I HIGHLY recommend that you compose the analysis in a text editor …

EMBEDDING VIDEOS FROM YOUTUBE OR VIMEO Embedding a video from YouTube or Vimeo is super easy, as these are by far the most popular video hosting sites. For details on how to embed videos from other sites, scroll down the …

These instructions show you how to create a click-through slideshow that features images you uploaded to the blog. Our class blog has two options for slideshow layout, standard and carousel, and you can see both options at the bottom of …

When you first log into the class blog, you’ll see the Dashboard, but you don’t really need to do anything here. Just ignore the Dashboard and instead follow the steps below to create your first post. CREATE A NEW POST …

After you register for an account on the class domain, you’ll be able to log into the class web site and edit your WordPress account settings, which will allow you to: change your display name upload a user photo choose …

READER FRIENDLY WRITING While you’re in school, most of your writing is directed towards a teacher who is obligated to read it. But after college, most of your writing will need to entice readers to invest the effort, given that …

Wondering if you’ve posted all the required comments for earlier calendar entries? See the steps below the screen shot. (1) Go to the blog dashboard and click on the Comments tab, as shown above. (FYI: my dashboard has a few …

If you spot a problem with your blog post or simply want to add more material to it, you can easily open it again and edit it. FRONT END ACCESS If you see something you want to fix after you …

For long blog posts as well as drafts and final versions of projects, put the content of the post behind a “read more” tag. That way the long content won’t clutter up the blog front page or category archive page, …

RHETORICAL AWARENESS “Rhetorical awareness” refers to a writer’s ability to write in a way that’s appealing to readers, particularly for those readers who aren’t obligated to read the writer’s message. For more info how this concept applies to my students, …

NOTE: In a recent update, WordPress changed the toolbar interface, so the options shown below may no longer apply. For current instructions on embedding images, see this help page on WordPress.org: Inserting Images into Posts Original entry: IMPORTANT: Before you …

Draft vs. Published The most common reason why you might have trouble viewing a post you submitted to the class blog when you try to find it from the front end is that you didn’t actually publish it but instead …

FORMATTING TEXT IN COMMENT BOXES When you comment on a blog post, you’ll notice that you don’t have a formatting toolbar like you do when you create a new blog post in the Visual editor. If you want to format …

If you want to restrict a blog post to only those who have a password, follow these steps: (1) On the post editing page, look in the Publish box in the upper right corner and click on the Edit link …

NOTE TO WRTG 3020 STUDENTS: Follow the steps below first, to learn about appropriate content for your header. Then follow the instructions on: HOW TO – Create a Header Image for a Blog or Web Site OVERVIEW Most of the …

NOTE: I wrote this page for my WRTG 3020 students, who have the option to customize a blog as part of one of their projects. The layout of the study guide bog includes elements that impact how readers move around …

This screencast provides a short overview of how to manage links in the sidebar of a WordPress blog. FOR STUDY GUIDES As I noted in the first Study Guide Blog Overview screencast, all WordPress blogs come with a default set …

You’ll need to decide what elements to include on your study guide sidebar and how to customize them, if needed. At a minimum, you should probably use the following widgets, in whatever order you think makes the most rhetorical sense: …

As you already know, blog posts should be assigned to categories, typically only one category per post (although you might see a reason for using more than one category in some cases). The categories are for the readers’ benefit in …

If your blog is on WordPress.com, see this list of “Shortcode” embed codes you can use to embed content from other sites, such as presentations you’ve uploaded to a presentation sharing site like Slideshare.net If your blog is on one …

If you want to edit one of your blog posts but are having a hard time finding it on the Posts page on the Dashboard try sorting the list to show only your posts. Click on Mine from among the …

If you have any trouble with the media content on the class web site or class blog, or if either site doesn’t look on your screen the way it looks in my screencast videos, the likely culprit is your web …

To make a post “stick” to the top of your most recent blog entries page, even after you’ve posted newer entries, make it “sticky.” (This option is only available on blogs where you have sufficient permission, so depending on which …

This screencast gives you a brief overview of how to customize the sidebar on your study guide blog (applicable only to WRTG 3020 students). WRTG 3020: Study Guide Blog: Sidebars from Amy Goodloe on Vimeo.

Short overview of choosing a theme for your study guide blog. (Mainly for WRTG 3020 students.) Study Guide: Choosing Themes

If you want to include a quotation in a post that will span more than two or three lines, or if you want to use special formatting to call attention to a bit of text, use the “block quote” tool …

IMPORTANT NOTE: These instructions apply to an older version of WordPress. I’m leaving them here in case they’re of use to anyone who’s still using the older version. I tend to keep my class blogs updated, so students in my …

VISUAL MODE TOOLBARS When you first open a post editing window, you’ll most likely only see one row of tools in the formatting toolbar, which will look like this if your post is in Visual editing mode: If you click …

An easy way to embed PDFs and presentations into blog posts and other web pages is to use a free hosting site like Scribd.com (1) Sign up for an account on Scribd.com (or use Facebook to connect) (2) Upload your …

Wondering what happened to the Visual editor tab on your post editing page? Try checking your Profile to see if you have the box shown below checked. If you do, uncheck it and scroll to the bottom to Update the …

Short guide to editing an image after you’ve uploaded it to a blog post. Editing Image after uploading

On the class blog for WRTG 3020, you can upload and attach files as long as they’re under 10mb and saved in one of the following formats, with the appropriate extension at the end of the file name (which should’ve …

I strongly recommend that you compose your discussion posts in Word or another word processing program and save them on your computer, so that you always have a copy available if something goes wrong with your post to the blog. …