Using Canvas

Bi-Weekly Newsletter


A personalized bi-weekly newsletter can be a good way to let students know, in your own voice and style, how the course is going from your perspective. It can be not only a place to celebrate successes and address concerns, but a place to do so with a touch of humor. Here’s a selection from an older version of one such newsletter, titled “The Campfire.” It has five sections, and in one of the sections I used a short meme to help illustrate a student’s concern about writing. 


Welcome

Welcome to the first issue of "Campfire," our newsletter for First Year Composition. This issue is divided into the following five sections: 

  1. Instructor's Corner is where I reflect on topics that drew a lot of student response and highlight ideas that didn't get enough emphasis in the forums.

  2. Burning Embers. Here I include selections from one or two posts, or from one or two assignments, interjecting my own comments.

  3. Two Cents is where I provide some tips for the upcoming assignments.

  4. Shorts includes some brief excerpts from the forum postings and written assignments.

  5. Featured Forum Posts. Here I include longer discussion selections from perceptive posts. 

Sometimes I just can't find the correct word that will make sense in the sentence, but I also know that I can easily search up synonyms for all those words. . . . I also tend to not add words that are needed. In my last English class, we had to write a personal essay and once I saw my graded paper, the teacher had added words that were missing in my sentences several times.

Good writers struggle all the time to find the right words. Writing is hard work, really hard work, and several hours can potentially be spent agonizing over a single sentence, let alone whole paragraphs. So you’re okay - you’re right where you need to be. This is nothing new. 

What interests me about this response is how this idea (finding the right words) fits with the next idea expressed: that more words are needed to make good writing. Actually, the opposite is true. The best writing uses the fewest words. That is to say, it uses the best words possible to convey the deepest and most exact meanings. And most often, choosing the best words results in the smallest word count. Here’s a quick and rough example, from The Emperor’s New Groove:

Notice how Kronk goes through two drafts (panels two and three) before he finally arrives at a descriptor which more perfectly conveys the idea. He goes from four words, to seven words, then to just two words. Less words is better, not more. But remember that finding the fewest words which give the best expression can be really tough. Forgive yourself consistently as you write, and as you try to find the right words.


One thing to keep in mind if you elect to use a newsletter is the amount of text students already have to navigate in your online course. While we do want students to see the more human side of us, and even though this does give us a chance to indulge a little informality, we must account for information overload–especially if we’ve already sent out classwide emails and made an announcement or two. This kind of engagement strategy works best, therefore, when it is the only public thing students will see that week.  


Software that can be used includes any word processor, like Google Docs or Microsoft Word, as well as any blogging platform for a little extra style.

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