Writing Project #1: The Food Blog Post

Write your blogpost.

You will create a blog post like one that you might encounter in a food blog. Often, such blogs will be themed; their posts may center around, for example, healthy eating, baking on a budget, meal prepping, or dorm-friendly cooking. For this assignment, imagine that your post, too, is part of a themed blog—one that centers around teaching about culture through food—one dish at a time. Thus, your blog post should include three key pieces:

The Personal Introduction: an informative and engaging introduction that primes the reader to learn about culture through food. Specifically, your introduction should make clear how the dish has personal significance to you, but also broader cultural significance. Your introduction should also give readers a sense of how the blog is organized, making it easy for readers to navigate the text.

The Body Paragraphs: In these paragraphs, you’ll do the majority of the educating work! You’re teaching your audience about the dish. While your Personal Introduction made clear how the dish matters to you, your body paragraphs should make clear how the dish matters to others. Your body paragraphs may be organized how you see fit, but they should include the following information:

Key information about the dish: Tell your readers some of the most important information about the dish–including, especially, the ingredients it is typically made of and who typically eats it.

The cultural significance of the dish: Tell your readers why this dish matters. What makes it unique and/or important to more than just you?

• The Works Cited: a list of four (4) or more credible sources that you cited in your blog post that goes at the very end of your project. (Imagine that your readers want to follow your research trail to learn more about your food/dish).

Use what you learned in “Big Idea #1: Writing Is Multimodal” and “Explore – Principles of Design and Multimodality” to make sure your blog post is visually effective.In your blog post, you will need to effectively incorporate three (3) or more images. Your images, according to the rubric, should be “illustrative.” An “illustrative” image actually helps readers understand something–as opposed to a decorative image, which only adds embellishment. For example, an image of an apple pie on a picnic table can help readers imagine the cozy contexts in which the dish is eaten. It can even persuade readers to cook an apple pie for themselves, if the dish looks delicious enough! A clip-art image of a pie, though, doesn’t do all that much to really help the readers understand where the dish is often eaten. An image of the kitchen set-up in a college dorm, for instance, can showcase the cooking constraints of college dorm culture. An image of the football field, though, may be less illustrative. In short: think of “illustrative images” as support or evidence.

It is 1,000+ words in length.

It includes (in both the text and in the Works Cited section) a minimum of four (4) sources. Note: you may cite any readings assigned in the course–but they do not count towards your minimum source count; all citations represent genuine attempts at proper formatting.

It incorporates a minimum of three (3) images.

• It includes meaningful discussion of the dish’s personal and broader significance.

Impress upon readers why the dish and/or its ingredients matter–to you, as well as in a broader cultural context. Ensure that this significance is explicitly and consistently expressed in the blog post.

It carefully and thoughtfully incorporates of research.

Draw upon clearly credible sources to support your claims about the dish (and/or its ingredients). When incorporating sources, your post should use language and in-text citations to clearly distinguish between your ideas and the ideas you learned from other sources. Sources are documented in a properly formatted  Works Cited page, as well as in properly formatted in-text citations.

It effectively integrates of visual design principles.

Your blog post should follow principles of visual design. Choices about color, contrast, space, and balance should be appropriate to the content of the blog post. They should enable readers to easily navigate the document. Images should be consistently illustrative, working to help readers more easily understand your blog post.

Its structure is purposeful, sensible, and easy-to-follow

• Group topics into cohesive units and signal how ideas are related to each other (e.g., through topic sentences and transitional phrases).
• Its language is situationally appropriate.

Word choice should be appropriate to a general audience. Write concisely and without undue repetition. Tone should be both informative and engaging.