FINDING AND REVIEWING POETRY WEBSITES

Each of you will be required to review ten poetry links on line. Check the number next to your name and you will see which series of the poetry links you are to review. I've listed you all numerically on the students page. The first person in the list will review Google items 1 through 10. The second will review items 11-20. the third person has 21-30 and so forth so that this term we will review at least the first 230 links in our search. I have published your link numbers next to your name on the student page.

Note: When I say "review Google items 1 through 10" (or whatever numbers you have been assigned) I do not mean that you must necessarily write 10 separate reviews. Rather, from the first ten links, you must prepare a list and report to me the name and hyperlink only of each of the 10 items listed on your page. From that you must then select only the actual on-line magazines and review each of them. If your 10 links all happen to be actual on-line magazines then POOF! you are assigned to write 10 reviews. But  if, when you click on each of the ten links, only some of the 10 items you are assigned happens to include actual on-line magazines, then you will do fewer or no actual "reviews." It's the luck of the draw.

Send me a list of the 10 items you look at and review any/all that are actual on-line magazines.

But be careful! You are sending me the names of the ezines and their 10 links so I will quickly check each link. If you goofed off and didn't review a link that was an actual on-line magazine, I'll see that and you will have to go back and do the work that was assigned or lose credit on the final grade for the course!

Once more, slowly: Use Google as instructed below to find on-line magazines to review using the guidelines and sample below. You will send me a list of 10 items that you found with, presumably, anything up to 10 full reviews.

HOW TO SEARCH  

If you do a search on Google typing in just the word "poetry"  here is what pops up:  

"Results 1 - 10 of about 36,900,000 for poetry [definition]. (0.05 seconds)"

Count the places and yes, that is thirty-six million, nine hundred thousand links. Nice of them to round off! And that is what they located (on June 23, 2005) in just five-hundredths of a second! Imagine if we told the search engine to take its time! Now you see why I want you to start reading poetry on-line. Clearly a lot is happening you would want to know!  

But just as clearly we need to limit our search!  To do so, do this:

1. Go to Google's  "advanced search"at

http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en

and type the word    poetry   into the first line that instructs "Find results with all the words."

2. under that, type the words    magazine ezine zine    where it instructs "with at least one of the words."

3. Select "English" as the language.

4. For Date, "past three months" and

5. Occurrences, "in the title page."

Now hit the search button and we will all be on the same page!  

On the day this lesson was written there were only:

"19,300 English pages over the past 3 months for allintitle: poetry magazine OR ezine OR zine. (0.24 seconds)." 

That is still pretty overwhelming but it is a place to start.

HOW TO REVIEW LINKS  

The objective of this assignment is to build a list of links to poetry magazines published on line so that future students--and the general public--can refer to the list to find what is being published on-line in the world of poetry.  

NOTE: When doing the review, I guess the safest thing to do is try to be informative more than "opinionated." You may not have the perspective to judge the quality of the work but you could pick a sample you think is typical. You may not be able to say if the website is "interesting" but you can say if it easy to navigate or colorful. Your not liking the work on a website is not as important as letting others make an informed judgment. I guess my asking you to do a "review" might better be characterized as asking you to report on poetry websites

The review you write will be kept on line and made available to all future students and to the public as a service through Writers Unlimited Agency.

That means you should try to do a thorough and clear description of the sites you check. What  you do will become a part of on-line history!

Clearly, the search elements we use will produce an enormous number of links. Therefore, it will be your job to further limit and select and review only links for actual on-going, on-line poetry publications that a web-user can click on to read poetry.

Here's some of what you can do for a suitable review:  

1. To start with, provide the link itself so that others can find the same poetry magazine and read it on line.

2. Post any "warnings" that you think a viewer of the link might need before viewing the site.

3. Describe the layout of the web pages they will view; characterize the tone.

4. Try to characterize the kind of poetry--even if it is to state whether it rhymes, or whether it has formal or slang or even "controversial" language or subject matter in the poetry.

5. Select a list of author names appearing in the magazine--and if you see a name you think is "known" in the poetry world, then check to be sure and list that name.

6. Select a single poet and poem and copy that into your review of the website (or provide a direct link to the poem) as the best example of what the poetry magazine is publishing.

7. Mention how often the magazine appears and where it is published.

8. Be sure to say if it asks for submissions (a real plus for poets looking to publish their work) or offers contests.

9. Add any insights you think may help guide those who could visit the website.

10.  Sign your name to your review and date it.

Do a good job so folks can judge the quality of the website!

CLICK HERE FOR SOME SAMPLE

REVIEWS I HAVE DONE:

SAMPLE REVIEWS