Book name (1-60)

This post is a model of what you must include in your reading blog posts. You will begin your post by putting the quotation in context. This means telling us what we need to know about the novel, the plot, or the characters so that we can understand the quotation. You might also want to tell us what to notice as we read, so we are ready to understand the point you will make afterwards.

You must include a block quotation in each post. Block quotations are used whenever you quote at least four lines of text. Use block quotations when you want to discuss a section of text in detail -- your discussion will generally be at least as long as the section you quote. Block quotations are seldom appropriate in essays you will write for class, but they are perfect for blog posts because they give us a real feel for the prose of you book you are reading. Note the citation's punctuation: in a block quote, the page number goes outside the punctuation of the quotation itself. (123)

After your block quotation, you will respond to it or comment on it. Make sure you are not just summarizing the quotation. When you start new paragraphs, you may choose to indent the first line, as is traditional in print, or you may choose to skip a line, which is more readable on the screen. Choose as your subject one of the following:

• Ask and answer literal questions: What did you like about the excerpt or what did you notice?
• Ask and answer interpretive questions: What is the author trying to say? How do you think the characters feel here? What kind of reaction did you have?
• Ask and answer thematic questions: What is this passage about? How does it connect to other parts of the book, other books, or your life?

Finally, end each post with a bibliographic citation, so we can find the book if we want to read it:

Lastname, Firstname. Title of book. Publication city: Publisher, Year of publication.