FAQ: Frequently Answered Questions

Last updated on February 4, 2007

Why won't Blogger let me log into my account?

Before you become paranoid about being hacked, attacked by terrorists, or whatever, please take a look at the following pages and see if your problem has a solution:

• Blogger Help: Logging In
• Blogger Help Group: Login Issues

The 500-word-and-5-entries-weekly minimum requirement is too much!

That's not a question.

Okay, okay. How do you suppose I could comply with the 500-word-and-5-entries-weekly minimum requirement for the blog project?

Stop wasting online time on online gaming, Friendster, or idle chatting on IRC, Yahoo!, or MSN. Instead, write your blog entries. A suggestion that has always worked among my other students: compose your drafts daily (write them on paper) and upload them to your blog over the weekend. Typing and editing your posts online shouldn't take you more than an hour or so.
You may even type and edit your drafts at LEADER.net.

How do I count the number of words in a post I'm about to publish on my blog?

Try the online word counter at WordCountTool.com. Copy the text from your entry onto the Word Count Tool form, then click Submit. You can also try using the word counting function of your word processor (most word processors have the function).

But, Sir! Renting computers in Internet cafes is very expensive. We come from poor families. What should I do?

Seriously, this is a very sensitive issue. For some families, 15 pesos is expensive. For most others, it is affordable. But, I trust that you are creative enough to find a creative solution. I'm sure you've already thought of a solution, but, according to Einstein, "If there's a better solution, find it."
A handful of students have shared to me their experiences in resolving this issue. Some have asked for help from their classmates who have computers at home. Some have taken up my suggestion (writing daily drafts and uploading during weekends). Some have chosen to go to cafes with faster Internet bandwidth—small bandwidth translates to longer wait periods for uploading and downloading, and, therefore, higher rental.

How can I avoid plagiarism in my posts?

If you have to quote text from a source, enclose the quoted text in double quotation marks and cite the author, title of the work, publisher, place of publication, year of publication, and the pages on which the quoted text appears. Do not quote any source without attribution; that is, do not quote anything without mentioning the source.
The simplest way to avoid plagiarism, however, is to write only original blog entries.

What will happen to me if I post entries that I copied from elsewhere?

I will recommend you for immediate expulsion. The University of the Philippines upholds academic honesty and integrity. Plagiarism is one of the high crimes that UP punishes with immediate expulsion.

Duh! Are you that smart enough to detect that I plagiarized my entries?

Computer forensics is not a science exclusive to forensic scientists. If I suspect plagiarism in any of your works, I might conduct comparative analysis of the suspected entry and your other previous writing outputs.

You have not assigned a topic to write about for this week. Do I still need to write 5 entries for this week, or just 4 entries?

Just 4 entries. But, if you write all 5 (or, maybe more than that), I won't mind. If a topic has not been assigned, you still need to post entries to your blog.

When is the deadline for our entries?

The deadliest deadline for the blog project is some time before the end of the school year. The weekly cut-off is every Monday, as it is on this day that I will collect all new entries that you posted for the week.

I have posted only 3 entries for last week. Will I get a failing grade?

YES! Kidding. Seriously, you will not get point deductions for failing to post 5 entries for any particular week. But, if at the end of the semester your blog does not reach the required number of total entries, you will get point deductions.
If, for example, you posted only 3 entries this week, you can still make up for the other two entries by writing 7 entries next week.

I have some questions about how to use Blogger. To whom should I direct my questions?

Visit the Blogger Help pages to check if your issue is addressed there. Or, join the Blogger Help Group and post your Blogger-related questions there.

Sir, you're so cool!

That's not a question. Next question, please.

I have a question about these questions.

That still isn't a question. But, do send your questions to me by e-mail.