• clearly delineate the requirements of this assignment early in the course
• make sure students understand ground rules: Netiquette
• make clear that electronic discussions are graded
• outline how the student is to be evaluated for her postings
• provide samples of good and poor postings
• indicate deadlines for the work to be submitted

Below find one sample assignment for semester-long nonsynchronous discussions:

Electronic Posts on EN120, Approaches to Lit, Blackboard Discussion Board

Assignment
You will be responsible for writing and posting ten email messages during the course and ten replies to other students' emails. Your messages should be done as part of your weekly homework assignment, and will be graded on a weekly basis. All posts and replies are due for the week by Thursday midnight. If you miss your weekly postings, you will lose your points for
them. You cannot makeup a missed electronic post and late posts will not be graded. Early posts for the week are, of course, welcomed and recommended. I am always aware of when a global problem develops with our Blackboard software. Personal problems with posting at the last minute are not excused.

Points Earned
This assignment is worth 150 points for your ten electronic postings (10 points each) and your ten replies (5 points each).

Content, Length and Evaluation
The email messages you send should include concise critical commentary or observations about a work from the syllabus covered during the week. They should be over 300 words in length but generally not exceed 500 words.  Each post should demonstrate that some time and thought was dedicated to the topic you have chosen to write about.  They should not be indicative of a hasty attempt to fulfill the assignment.  Electronic postings should take some care with spelling, punctuation and grammar.  

Specific Content and Style of Headings
The message should include concise critical commentary or observations about a work from the syllabus covered that week. The email message should almost always start with a quotation of two to four lines of poetry or two to four sentences of fiction or drama. Then the email could include a continuation of a class discussion, a curiosity about an aspect of a work, a critical interpretation, a challenge or disagreement to what has been stated concerning the work in class or other material of an academic nature. Avoid merely posing questions that offer no answers--you should express an intellectual stance or position of some sort!!! Make sure your subject line identifies your post as the official post to be graded by beginning with "Post One: Baldwin's Plot," "Post Two: Hawthorne's Symbols," etc., the post number should be followed by the subject of the post, as shown. 

Replies: Length and Content
Replies to other students' works should also be of an academic nature. If critical, they should be academically critical. If in agreement, they should add to the conversation and not simply make a statement of agreement for agreement's sake. Your responses to other student's posts should be thoughtful and worthy of typical college classroom discussion. Try to add to the student's comments or observations by adding some of your own thoughts. Replies should be concise, between 100 and 200 words in length. 

Additional Postings
"Unofficial" posts are also always welcomed if you wish to add more than one post to our electronic discussions during the week. Extra posts show the mark of a superior student.

Example of Typical, though well developed, Posting
Post 8: Optimism in Fitzgerald's "Babylon Revisited"
When reading the ending of Fitzgerald's "Babylon Revisited," I found it, similar to Sarah's views, to be rather optimistic. Even though we can imagine that a recovering alcoholic may have difficulty dealing with his past disastrous behavior, I see Charlie Wales as on the path toward a more positive and rewarding life. First, we read where Charlie has adopted the one drink a day rule. Throughout the story he does follow it. This certainly shows perseverance of dealing with alcoholism. Even though he is situated in a bar at the beginning and end of the story, this shows that he is now capable of controlling and handling himself in this environment and with his former desire to drink. Second, his wanting to see his daughter at the beginning of the story displays a change in his past behavior. Even though we are not provided with much information regarding his past relations with Honoria, I think it is very honorable that he is so determined to see her at the start of the story. Similarly, throughout the story, his main focus is primarily on her. In regard to his past partying life, he notable withstands the pressure of giving into meeting with his "old drinking buddies." This, in a sense, could be seen as rudeness on his part, but perhaps it is necessary for him to direct his attention from the alcohol. Turning now to the end of the story, I read it to be a very optimistic resolution. Even though Charlie has received the very discouraging news that he cannot gain, just yet, the parenting rights of Honoria, he still sticks to drinking just one glass of whiskey. I read the lines, "No, no more" and "What do I owe you?", to prove very meaningful to the story. These lines can perhaps be read that on one level, he refuses to have another drink, and on another, that he refuses to ever go back to excessive drinking. Likewise, the second line not only has the literal meaning, but also suggests that he has accepted that he must pay for his past life. This includes having to wait a little longer to have Honoria. The following lines are just as optimistic: "He would come back some day; they couldn't make him pay forever" and "He wanted his child." I read these lines as clues that Charlie is going to work even harder to live a positive life and to get Honoria back. Overall, I can sense Charlie's "honor" and determination that will be crucial in the act of "paying for his past." In addition, he displays an admirable mentality for wanting to get back the one thing that means the most to him, his daughter Honoria.

Example of Typical Reply
Reply 5: Sandra's Comments on "Theme for English B"
Like Sandra, I also feel that Hughes did a good job of getting his point across to his readers. He puts forth racial ideas in a way that makes me imagine his situation, and see what life for African Americans would have been like during the Harlem Renaissance. I really liked how he mentioned that we are all part of each other, and in turn learn from one another. Hughes seems to do a good job of not putting anyone on the defensive, which is a good way to make people see one's point-of-view. This poem is quite different is tone and subject from "I, Too," where Hughes quite obviously splits the world up into the us and them of blacks and whites. Here, his tone is much more accusing about the wrongs done to African Americans, as in "sending me to eat in the kitchen When company comes." He proudly proclaims, like the Walt Whitman he is imitating that "I, too, am America." 

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