Posting to WordPress

Photo by Bruno Martins on Unsplash

In many ways, posting your writing to WordPress is a simple and mechanical task.

• Go to this site.
• Click on the +Write button in the upper right-hand corner.
• Insert your text on the screen that appears. Think of a title and click on Publish.

But there are a number of other things you can do that will make your post more interesting and readable. For the most part, they involve shifting from Block to Post in the right-hand menu before you click on Publish. When you do, you’ll notice that several options appear for how you can present your post. These include:

Categories

Select Responses. There is no other correct answer. This will help all of us find your post. Deselect any other box that is checked.

Tags

These are far more interesting. Tags are a more flexible and specific way to help readers locate your post. I would like you to come up with at least three good tags that help to identify your position in your post. The best way to generate these tags is to look at the post you’ve just written. What are the keywords in it? If you had to somehow reduce everything you had to say to three words, what would they be?

Remember that, in this course, 43 other people will be posting responses to Jenny Odell. So selecting “Odell” or “How to Do Nothing” as your tags will not do much to identify your specific post. Try to highlight some terms that will stand for your response to Jenny Odell.

Featured Image

And this is where things really get fun. A “Featured Image” is just that—an image that will run at the top of your post on this site, and to some degree, set its tone. I want you to come up with one. (You can also always embed other images or videos throughout your post as you find useful.) Other than cautioning that these images must obviously be Safe For Work, I encourage you to be imaginative. Find an image that comments humorously or ironically on what you’re writing about, or that otherwise refers to your topic. Think of your Featured Image as contributing to your line of thought, and not just illustrating it.

One other thing: There are a lot of photographers, illustrators, and graphic designers out there who are trying to make a living. You wouldn’t use the words of a published writer without attribution. Try not to do so with images either. If you can credit the source of your Featured Image, do it.