Your contribution to Inflammablog5 counts for 40% of the course grade, so it is the easiest way to ensure a good grade!
The blog replaces a term paper, which takes lots of time, covers only a single topic, and is not interactive. Why write all that if only you and the (harrassed, hurried, bored) teacher get to read it? And if you've never contributed to a Blog before, this is your chance to try something that is surely part of your future.
25% of your grade will come from your posts, the "lead articles" on the blog. You could get that with one SUPERB post, but doing 2 or even more is added insurance. Posts should be kept to not more than 400 words; more gets difficult for others to follow. Practice cutting down on detail and concentrating on the ideas. Remember, most of us are not experts, so explain the background, reasons the work was done, or why we should think it's important.
15% comes from the comments you make on other people's posts. Some really enjoy this; 3 years ago, one student commented 67 times! Three GOOD comments can get full marks, but comment as often as you like. It does not matter whether you comment on our 7630 posts, or on posts from the 495/595 Arizona course. They should have some substance. Example:
POST: ...although all AIDS patients make antibody to HIV, it is rarely neutralizing, unlike, say, measles antibody, so antibody is not protective.
COMMENT 1: Why is that?
COMMENT 2: Is it possible that the Ab most people make is not against the part of the virus that binds the target on T cells? In fact, I found a paper (ref.) on PubMed that says just that. It shows...
Comment 1 is not likely to gain many points, but Comment 2 will.
Short titles are better.
Topics:
•A story of something immunological that happened to you, or someone you know (you don't need to identify who if you don't want to.) Especially interesting would be what life is like for the person who has rheumatoid arthritis, or lupus, or celiac disease, or...
(Example: "Is it really gluten-free?")
•If you have clinical experience, you could tell us about a patient, or a problem, a disease, or a new treatment, or what tests you use, or...
(Example: "What is Guillan-Barré syndrome?")
(Example: "How to diagnose immunodeficiency")
•If you do research, can you tell us about it? Remember, this is not the same as writing an abstract for a journal or a meeting; we are not experts! So imaging you've been asked by your High School annual, or a relative who is a lawyer, to write a summary of your work.
(Example: "A new antigen in diabetes")
(Example: "Why I care about Jak/Stat signaling!")
•A brief readable review of a paper that you think we would find interesting. Use PubMed to find papers. I have compiled a list of suggestions, with some comments on why I thought they were interesting. I'll add to this list whenever I find another good one.