Sending direct tweets

For Tuesday, you want to finish reading Davis's "Life in the Iron Mills." You'll also be tweeting me with discussion questions. You must tweet your discussion question before 6 p.m. on Monday.

What is a discussion question? After you've finished Davis's narrative, sit back and relax a bit. Think about narrative episodes, character actions, the narrator, the language of the text - - anything that strikes you as odd, confusing, intriguing, or frustrating about the text. Formulate a question. Tweet the question to our class twitter account (@english630). Your discussion question should probably be open-ended, e.g. not a simple yes/no question (like: was Rebecca Harding Davis born in 1831? etc.); and, the questions should be authentic, e.g. reflect a real response to the text.

How do I tweet directly to our class twitter account? If you're using the Twitter website, you'd normally tweet by simply writing something in the box under the question "What's happening?". This tweet will be sent to all of the people who are following you. A direct tweet will only go to the twitter user whom you choose. It's a bit like the difference between a chat room and an instant messenger.

Direct tweeting is simple. Instead of simply writing something under the "What's happening?" box, you make a couple of simple changes. Before your message, you type "d+[username]+ [message]." In other words, to send a direct tweet to our class account, you would type:

d english630 What year was Rebecca Harding Davis born?

(NB: if you are using a twitter application - - like TweetDeck or Nambu, etc. - - on your desktop or mobile device, you should be able to use the same syntax [ d+username+ message]. Some of these applications do offer shortcuts.)

If you'd like, try a direct tweet test before you tweet your discussion question. I'll try to reply to it.

Thursday (August 26)

For Thursday, we'll start Rebecca Harding Davis's "Life in the Iron Mills." Try to read at least half of this short novel/long short story, originally published in 1861. You might find it interesting to review Davis's biography, even in its shortened web form.

Time to set up your twitter account

Here's a good, easy guide to how to start tweeting, i.e. join twitter. After you've created your twitter account, be sure to follow @english630. This is our class twitter feed. Once you've signed up and started following @english630, fire a direct tweet at @english630 to make sure everything is working.

One great feature of twitter is that you can tweet from your desktop, your mobile phone, or your laptop. Here's the twitter guide to integrating twitter and your phone. If you're interested in using a twitter client for your desktop - - so you don't have to log into the twitter page to check and read tweets - - here's a video that reviews some of the more popular and free clients (standalone applications):

Welcome!

Welcome to the class blog for our Literature of Labor class! Here, you'll find a copy of our syllabus, announcements, assignments, updates, and a variety of other items. Check in often!