Cesar Ruiz (ENGL 3360)

  In our course this week, we discussed different aspects of publishing online. During our session on Wednesday, we analyzed the differences between the old website versions of the New York Times and The Huffington Post. The reasoning behind choosing these two publications is that they are both examples of publications born in physical print (The New York Times) and those born online (The Huffington Post). Specifically, my group analyzed the New York Times Page in 2006 and the Huffington Post’s page in 2005. Although their composition had many similarities in how they were composed (crowded with little negative space), the nature of their content is vastly different.  The New York Times contained headings that sounded more neutral and professional. On the other hand, the Huffington Post’s headlines were more sensational and provocative.  In class, we concluded that these news’ sources' differing styles have much to do with the format they were originally founded in. Our g...

This week in class, we touched on different subjects. This week, we read an article by The University of Wisconsin - Madison Writing Center titled "Writing an Effective Blog Post." In this article, the author discusses one of the most valuable characteristics of a blog by stating, What makes blogs so different from journalism, as the authors of The Elements of \Blogging: Expanding the Conversation of Journalism suggests, is the discussion between writer and reader." This makes a lot of sense, considering most blog readers are individuals searching for a community with similar tastes. Furthermore, the author discusses other characteristics, such as block quotes, links, and images.  After discussing the findings from the reading, we had an in-class discussion of different blogs found online. The blog that captivated my attention was “Humans of New York.” This blog showcased stories of dozens of citizens in New York City. The blogs’ use of different characteristics made the...

 This week in class, we discussed different methods of posting on social media. In our weekly reading, the author discussed the importance of these 10 steps:  1. Optimize what you write according to your platform.  2. Adding Images  3. Keep your audience in mind 4. Keep it about other people 5. Become a master of headlines  6. Experiment with different content types 7. Address your readers 8. Cover trendy topics 9. Keep it concrete 10. Don't make promises you can't keep  In my opinion, keeping it concrete and the audience in mind is the most important. Writing content for social media in lengthy posts that only the author is interested in reading does nothing for the message being presented. This results in people scrolling past that particular post, and if done enough times, it leads them to unfollow the page it is posted on. Last but not least, writing about trendy topics is more likely to get views because it's a topic people are interested in learning a...

  This week Taylor and I began working on our iFixit page. Although we had many questions regarding the content and accuracy of the information, we were able to have our questions answered and found incredible sources of information. Some of those sources of information are the Lowe’s and Craftsman websites–both well-respected firms within the construction industry in the United States. So far, Taylor and I have completed the device page’s summary, tags, and background information. We look forward to finishing this project early next week and having it reviewed and edited one last time before submitting it on Nov. 6. Another thing we did in our course this week was read “The Politics of ‘Platforms.’” by Tarleton Gilespie. One of the author's main points was that YouTube strives to be a platform that equally presents all information on its site. However, I beg to differ, as I have stated in class. Like many other social media sites, Youtube does what it can to customize its consum...

This week, we have been working on our SEO projects for iFixit. As I decided on the product, I wanted to choose to create a landing page for Taylor Lindell, and I decided to work on our project together. I decided to collaborate with her on this assignment because of the friendly relationship and timely approach we both have to our coursework. Furthermore, we have worked together numerous times and have completed exceptional work.  The product Taylor and I decided to create our SEO landing page on is the Craftsman Nailer. We decided to create content for this product because of the high volume of people that this product is used by. From massive construction sites to a typical home renovation, nail guns are helpful in a wide range of projects. So far, we have completed our product's table of Contents and summary. Although we have quite a bit to work on, I’m excited to see all we can contribute to this product and the lives it’ll improve.  The ability to access manuals to fix e...

This week in class, we had a guest speaker from Zonos, a company on tech ridge. He walked us through his process in writing for Zonos’ online consumers. I appreciated this emphasis on the fact that even if we study and have SEO in mind when writing, many factors affect an individual's search results beyond our control. To go along with this, I loved his encouragement to the class to continue one’s search beyond the first page of search results. A lot of the time, many excellent sources of information simply don’t fit a search engine’s preferred algorithm formula to make it to the first page. As an English student researching, this advice brought me much-needed hope and relief!  Amongst other insightful things we did in class this week, we read an article by Moz.com about SE Research. There were many fascinating points in this article, but one that stood out to me was when the author talked about putting ourselves in place of individuals that would be consuming the text we’re writin...