Writing better blogs
As more of you consider getting into blogs we want to pause from time to time to look at what makes a good journalistic blog. I don't know, I'm learning as we go.
But I ran across a posting from the
Media in Transition blog that gives 11 tips for better blogging that seems like a good read. Read it for explanation of these tips.
A blog entry is a stub for conversation.
Think about the perspectives of your audience.
Write tight headlines that encourage interest.
Make points or lists and make them scan-friendly.
Link to the context.
Quote indirectly and link
Format long documents for print.
Never delete anything.
Troll the blogosphere for secondary conversation.
Be active in your own conversation.
Create buzz everywhere.
Lists online
It is really great to see some of you incorporating bulleted lists online. It adds to the readability of stories, just like in print. But it is clear that it is time to learn the HTML code that will help your lists look more like the bulleted lists in the print edition.
Learning a few HTML basics is good for all the students in class to learn.
There are two types of "lists" that you may want to use online: ordered or numbered lists and unordered or bulleted lists.
In both cases you have to start with an HTML tag to start the list and then use a closing tag to end it when you are done. And in both cases the lists will be indented. If the item in the list spills over one line it will indent properly, just like we do with hanging indents in the print edition.
An ordered list looks like this:
Item 1Item 2Item 3
An unordered list looks like this:
To start an ordered or numbered list you use the tag <ol> at the beginning and end with </ol>. To create an unordered or bulleted list you start with <ul> at the beginning and end with </ul>.
Each item in the list must be designated with an <li> and end with an <li>.
(Or you can take a shortcut and start each line with <li /> and skip the ending tag.)
