"The Blue Turtles" - Section 012, Group 6

Shark Attack


I feel like our blog is a legitimate blog for many reasons. First, we have it well organized and everyone's post corresponds with our other posts in the blog. We also have legitimate information that is easy to comprehend which I think is due to the fact that our sources gave us the best possible information on our topic. Our blog, which dealt with shark attacks, gives a reasonably possible situation with an obvious outcome. The boy, although was very young, would not have survived the attack that he had experienced in reality and that is why we had to end the story with the tragedy. This makes our blog look a little more realistic and can be seen more as a non fiction story. All of these details go a long way in making our blog look organized and reasonable. --Sam

This blog is good because it is very well written. We looked at numerous resources to find out how certain genres are written to make this blog. Also, by researching different types of articles we were able to make our blogs articles look very realistic. All of our stories tie together really good and make our story about Chad Purple flow. Our blog is also easy to flow, by following the table of contents you can get to any part of the blog very easily. Our blog is very detailed and all of our articles are well written for the genre they are in. Each article has the same information just given in a different way. --Jaclyn

Group Members:
Sam, Rachel, Jaclyn, Mike



Instructor Feedback - Student Feedback
I like how your link exchange explains the content relevance of your blog - you describe the kind of research you've done and then talked about how you've made the story realistic.  You've also made a point of tying the posts together, and your classmates have noticed this - this is a great way to provide a coherent experience for your visitors.

Going to the tabs, I found the Table of Contents to be nicely organized.  The About tab is very succinct, but it might help to tell us more about what the blog as a whole is about.  How will you relate the story of Chad Purple to the larger context of shark attacks?  Why is his story important for us to read?

With the research, I like the approaches Rachel and Mike have taken in describing what they've found.  Rachel, How to Avoid a Shark Attack, you've described how each resource contributes to your research.  Mike, in Where They Occur you've taken all the research as a whole and then written about the overall message it provides.  Something I would like to see more off in all the research on the blog are descriptions of how the individual resources helped your research - this is especially important when pointing out how reliable resources may or may not be.

Rachel, in the Obituary I like the emphasis on Chad's activities and the natural transition to his next-of-kin and funeral arrangements.  You may consider going into more details on the activities, mentioning which specific awards he won and where (e.g. "The Silver Surfer Medallion at the Honolulu 'Catch the Wave' Competition.")  Mike, in the Magazine Article, the first paragraph provides a good "hook," telling readers why the article will be interesting.  To expand on this, you'll want to perhaps give some quotes from bystanders or other details about when Chad was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead.  Jaclyn, in the Police Report, you've developed a solid, matter-of-fact tone very fitting to the document.  You may want to consider point of view, though, in terms of how much the witnesses actually saw.  Do the mother and the lifeguard agree on what they saw?  How far out did they think was Chad when he was bitten?  Sam, you face a similar question in the Newspaper Article.  You'll want to bring in a few more specific details while also maintaining the strong "hook" that you've developed here.

Something to consider is the way the articles provide similar but differing views regarding Chad's swimming and surfing abilities as well as his distance out from the beach.  Although I could see an obituary exaggerating a bit and a magazine article trying to heighten the risk, you'll want to consider which facts would have to reported by both sources.