My literature courses frequently employ blogs to help students gain a personal appreciation for literature and the insights it can provide into their own lives and the world at large. Ideally, this life-long appreciation for literature will foster a sense of existential awareness and interpersonal empathy that will  provide value at all stages of students’ lives. The course uses class blogs to help students connect literature to their own lives and the “real world.” In this variation of the assignment, each post includes one key term from any point in the semester, a correctly integrated quotation, and a reflection on how the topic of their post offers some insight into their life or the world. The posts slowly introduce students to the study of literature, allow them to find personal value in the course, and prepare them for the larger research essay. In this way, the blogs function as a scaffold that allows students to progressively grow as writers and critical readers. 

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