GRAMMAR POLICE

Since this is directed at me, I figured I'd go ahead and respond. First, I didn't chew you out on your HPV post... I simply offered you some constructive criticism. I wasn't being rude, nor did I or those I asked about it feel it came across that way. I'm sorry that you were unable to take the advice for what it was and instead got all up in arms about it. I even added the not intended to offend bit to affirm from the get go that it was meant only to help you.

Secondly, the blogs here are, indeed, part of a contest. I would hope that everyone here would be aware of that by now. If you wouldn't turn in something for another scholarship, we certainly hope you'd think twice about posting it here.

And finally, I did not belittle you nor personally attack you. I am a moderator here. It is my job to give you advice, especially when you have went to the blogs of others and left comments about how you wished you could get comments. If you don't want the advice on how to make that happen, then perhaps you should stop posting such comments on the blogs of others, hmm?

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Like writing? So do we!
~Fallon~

"If I fall asleep with a pen in my hand, don't remove it - I might be writing in my dreams."- Pace
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Hi!

It seems pretty obvious that you're new to ProgressiveU, and since you seem to be in need of a bit of a map, I thought I'd give you a hand.

ProgressiveU, as you may have noticed, is a blog site for scholarships. How this works is through a combination of creating content (blogs, forums topics, etc), commenting on others (either through the blog or the forums), obtaining reads (yes, the number of people that read you blog does count and can make a huge difference), and participating in bonus point opportunities. At the end of the scholarship "semester," the ProU team goes through all the blogs and does a final count of eligible blog entries, comments, and reads to find a final number and winner.

Now, what makes an eligible blog? Well, for starters, the blog needs to be on topic. On this site, "on topic" is pretty broad, but generally refers to things like current events, ideas for change, new ideas in general, and so on.

Also, a blog has to be your own work. This is a legal thing. ProU is based in the United States and therefore falls under jurisdiction of United States Copyright and Fair Use laws and policies. In other words, don't copy and paste an entire article or even half an article and expect to get points. Actually, if it's been found that you've copied most or all of an article, you're more than likely going to have your entry pulled and you'll be told why it's been pulled and given the opportunity to fix it. Repeat offenders will probably get banned. Yes, copyright laws are that serious, especially since the Associated Press has gone RIAA on bloggers.

Third, the blog has to be written on an upper high school to college level. Now, this doesn't mean you need to go through your Thesaurus and pull out words that you would only find in the world of academia, but there are standards. This is an upper high school to college level web site. That means that the lowest common denominator--the reader with the lowest education level--is most likely to be a High School Junior. The median is closer to a College Sophomore.

Okay, so what does that mean? Well, that means the blogs shouldn't be written like a newspaper article, which writes for a LCD of a 5th grade reading and comprehension level. It also means that you are expected to have strong knowledge of spelling, grammar, and mechanics. This is especially the case if English is your native language. Now, we're not expecting perfect paragraph development or having your entry completely devoid of fragments (particularly when it's clear that they're intentional). However, you shouldn't have run-on sentences, lack of punctuation or capitalization. Your entries should, at the very least, follow basic grammar rules. You're at or near a college level, write like it, or at least try. There is an obvious difference between those who try to write well and those that don't.

While it may sound almost like it, we're not asking for perfection. We're all human, we all make mistakes. A typo, spelling mistake, or even missed punctuation here or there aren't going to make or break an entry. However, if the entry is riddled with such errors, not only will you not get reads, but you'll also probably have someone (most likely a moderator) ask you to revise and proofread your entry. Why? Because it's hard to read wen sumon rites liek thise al teh teim.

If you have trouble with spelling or grammar, write it in a word processor, first. Not only will you be able to check your spelling and grammar, but you'll also save yourself from the risk of your browser eating your entry (we've seen that happen countless times and have had it happen to ourselves at least once or twice). It will also allow you to write something over time, so you can work on your entry even when you only have five or ten minutes.

Keep in mind, though, that the members here on ProU can be very harsh critics. Some good examples of such include Blackout, Darwin's Beagle, and Lancekates (especially conversations between any of the three of them). So while a comment or two may make you feel like you're being singled out for something, you're not. Most of us would do the same thing to each other.

Finally, who's who on ProU? You may have noticed that some of us have badges on our comments and in our profiles. Those different badges mean different things.

Just the little ProU bubble - This one, like what you see on my comment here, is for members of the ProU Alumni Association. People with this badge have been here for at least one complete semester. They're seasoned members that will often give you good advice.

ProU bubble and a title (such as Alumni Director) - These ones are members of the ProU team. They are your moderators, development team, team leaders, and so forth. Not only have they been here for at least one semester, but they've volunteered for a position at ProU. Not only are they seasoned members that will give you good advice, but they generally have the ability to moderate both a blog entry itself and any comments if something gets out of hand. Moderation of entries and comments are done in a group manner, so one mod can't just arbitrarily pull an entry or comment, though they may hide it from public view, depending on the circumstance.

Hope this helps you, and happy writing!