Website Customization Help Links
(I originally posted these links in my domain post, but thought they get more traffic here) I found a couple of online tools that really helped me in coding/ customizing my domain and I wanted to share them here in case anyone else is planning to do further customization to their site moving forward: I LOVE font icons (you might be able to tell from my site) – Font Awesome has a comprehensive… Read More
Link to Specific Quotations in Web pages
Hey- I didn’t have the time to write a tip for this, so here it is. http://citebite.com/ It doesn’t work for all websites, and it takes a bit, but it does let you create a link directly to a specific part of a news article (and “The Case for Reparations” does work with it). Hope this helps! -Chris
10 Steps that Will Help You Write a Great College Essay
Preparation: Grab a handful of different colored pens, pencils, and/or highlighters. Print out a draft of your paper. I don’t know why, but you can see your writing better—or at least differently—when it’s on paper. Put a squiggly line under your thesis statement and ask: Where does the statement come? Is it precise and arguable? Does it require evidence and analysis to defend it? Go through the draft and underline the topic… Read More
Passive Voice & Paper-ease: Do’s & Don’ts
Academic writers are often addicted to “paper-ease”—or “pompousese,” as comic Stephan Pastis calls it—the temptation to use pompous or imprecise words such as “expounds,” “commentates,” “contests to,” “utilize,” “parallels,” and “elaborates on.” Never use a long word when a shorter one will do the same job just as well. Avoid unnecessary words and phrases that sap the energy and humanity from your writing: Don’t: In Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, the author depicts… Read More
Tip: Syndication
Here are some steps to follow if you want to pull all your posts from Building Stories to put them on your new WordPress (Sorry if the numbering of the steps is a little confusing. I have it formatted properly in my post with letters and roman numerals, but some of the theme files are overriding my formatting). Download and install the plugin FeedWordPress You can download FeedWordPress here. Next go to your… Read More
Other Application than WordPress
When developing your own domain sometimes WordPress is not the view that you want to display. In Digital Studies we explored other applications and some of my favorites are here: a. WordPress a. Examples: https://wordpress.org/showcase/ b. Tutorial: ‘WordPress Essential Training’ on lynda.davidson.edu b. Omeka a. Examples: http://omeka.org/codex/Sites_Using_Omeka b. Tutorial: http://programminghistorian.org/lessons/up-and-runningwith-omeka c. DokuWiki a. Examples: https://www.dokuwiki.org/dokuinstall b. Tutorial: https://www.dokuwiki.org/manual d. Joomla! a. Examples: http://community.joomla.org/showcase/sites.html b. Tutorial: ‘Joomla! 3 Essential Training’ on lynda.davidson.edu e…. Read More
Tip: Recording
Hey guys! So, a few weeks ago you may or may not have seen my charrette for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, where I recorded myself singing the nursery rhyme from Ken Kesey’s title. I thought I’d describe how I went about doing that, just in case anyone plans on recording audio for their last multimedia essay, and wants a pretty simple way to get the job done. So the way I recorded… Read More
Ask the Thesis Doctor
Dear Thesis Doctor, I worked a little bit on developing my new crux, and this is what I have so far: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey is regarded as an important spark in starting the American counterculture, an inherently secular movement. But the novel is full of Christian imagery and pushed forward by the Christ-like sacrifice of McMurphy more so than anything else; is Kesey’s work, thought to… Read More
Four Obvious Rules for Choosing a Thesis Topic
Italian novelist, children’s book author, and semiotician Umberto Eco is well known in the U.S. for his best-selling novel The Name of the Rose. What’s not so well known here (yet) is a little book he wrote for his students in 1977, called How To Write a Thesis. Now in its 23rd edition and translated into 17 languages, this handbook has finally been translated into English this year (2015). in it, he… Read More
Good news about stress!
Good news from a real-life Professor McGonigal, but this one lectures at Stanford about the positive effects of stress. In her book, The Upside of Stress, McGonigal argues that approaching stress as something positive that we can learn from can change the way it affects us physically and mentally. She says that the “three most protective beliefs about stress are”: to view your body’s stress response as helpful, not debilitating – for… Read More