How to write a blog essay

With the blog essay assignment, you get to share with the online public what you saw, learned and thought about a particular farm or other agricultural destination in the Hudson Valley.

You'll post two essays to our course blog for this course. With one other student, you'll be assigned to write about one of our six course fieldtrips. By yourself, you'll write about a trip you make outside of course time.

 

Conducting research

For suggestions and guidelines to selecting a field site for your independent expedition, click here.

Each farm or destination will have a different relevance to the region's agriculture. It's up to you as to how you choose to think about these, but here are some general questions to think about.

1. What agricultural niche or marketing strategy does your farm pursue?

2. Where do its products end up: farmers markets, grocery stores, packaged for shipping and export, as ingredients for further processing by food manufacturers? In the Hudson Valley or further away?

3. How is your farm connected to the local economy? Is it located in a primarily agricultural community? Does it do business with local operations: other farms, packaging and distribution entities?

4. How does your farm contribute to the local landscape? Is it particularly scenic or attractive, and if so, from what perspective? Does it fit in with other features of the landscape? Does it visually convey an activity or cultural value (open-space preservation, environmental sustainability, local charm and idiosyncracy, etc.) associated with a sense of place?

When you go to your field site, be sure to bring with you a notebook or clipboard for note-taking and a digital camera for photography. Dress appropriately for the weather and the activity.

Don't be shy! Ask questions of farmers and employees about what the farm does, how it's organized, what its philosophies about food and agriculture are, and how these folks came to work there. Strike up conversations with other visitors and ask them how they heard about this place and what they think of it.

When you return to campus, don't forget to share your photos with the rest of the class, especially if you went on a solo expedition. Another student might find your images useful in another assignment.

 

Writing blog essays

The format of your essay is entirely up to you. So is the division of labor on co-written essays about the course fieldtrip. As a rule, we'll write in an accessible style for a general (non-academic) audience, while at the same time convey trying to explain useful questions and ideas from the class.

Each post should be a minimum of 500 words and include around 3-5 photos.

If your farm has an official website, be sure to hyperlink it somewhere in your essay — for instance, a concluding sentence: "To learn more about [fieldsite], click here." If other students' blog posts are relevant, then hyperlink those somewhere as well. Take advantage of the interactive nature of blog posts.

Tag your blog posts with appropriate classifications, including the name of the county and the general category of activity ("dairy," "cows," etc.).

When you've published your essay on the blog, please publicize it on Facebook (public setting), Twitter, and other social media you use that can circulate your writing and images on the internet. The same goes for pictures that you or other students have taken. Use the two hashtags #HudsonValley #es291, and whenever possible embed the relevant Twitter accounts or Facebook pages so that relevant groups or organizations will be notified about your essay. For an example of what this might look like (including a separate photo attachment), see this tweet.

All blog posts, whether individually or co-written, are due within one week of the fieldwork date.

Finally, a paragraph or so of text from your blog essay will be used to record voiceover in a video this class will produce on Hudson Valley agriculture. We hope you're excited to have your words and voice on film!