Overall, I feel blogging has become easier for me this quarter. First quarter, I had trouble coming up with topics to blog about, and sometimes rushed to come up with a post. Last quarter, I feel like I only blogged when I felt like I had a strong enough or interesting enough topic. However, that was also a negative factor because I sometimes waited over a week to blog. Although I still have a fair amount of posts, next semester I definitely want to work on blogging more frequently and consistently.
I have to admitt, at first I really dreaded blogging. I think the reason was because I was so nervous about putting my opinion out there, and worried what people would think. However, if there’s one thing that I know we’ve been taught over and over this year, it is that “writing is a process”, and there’s only room for improvement. The more practice I get, the better I will become at writing. While sometimes it can be scary and nerve-wrecking putting your opinion out there, it only helps. Take peer editing, for example. Once I write a rough draft, I’m always a bit hesitant about having others read my work. However, getting their feedback only helps me grow as a writer. I feel like blogging is so great about that. While with blogging people aren’t necessarily critiquing your writing style, they still are reading your opinion and responding to it, either to agree or disagree.
Speaking of people’s responses, I used to only think it was “good” if people commented “agreeing” with my opinion. However, now I realize I prefer when people disagree or challenge my view, because it makes it more interesting and really gets me to think, and see the issue at different perspectives. That is the great thing about blogging; the opportunity to have virtually any internet-user to comment on your writing. However, if I want classmates to comment more on my posts, I realize that I myself need to step it up and comment more on theirs. I feel like commenting is an important aspect to the blogging world, and I would like to be better connected to that “world” by commenting more next semester.
Looking back at my “Meta Post” from first quarter, I had three main goals. One was “creating more concise and to-the-point posts”. Reflecting back on last quarters’ posts, I think I only somewhat achieved this goal. I have definitely had some that are shorter, but some have been a bit lengthy. However, for the most part, I feel the longer ones were the length they needed to be to get my point across and to provide adequate proof.
Another goal I had after first quarter was to “extend the conversation”. Once again, I feel like I have improved on this some, but still find it something I want to continue to work on. For example, second quarter I had more comments on my posts, some of which led to a debate. In my “The Price of Awareness” post regarding a high school football player who was kicked of the team for wearing pink cleats in support of breast cancer, people commented on whether it was right for the coach to do so or not. One person agreed with my viewpoint in that the boy’s civil liberties were violated, while another took the coach’s side. And more recently I blogged about “Teen Pregnancy and the Media”. After mentioning a specific area where teenage pregnancy is so high and showing one reason people think it’s so high is because the media seems to “glamorize” it through shows like “Teen Mom” and “16 and Pregnant”. I ended the post with the following:
“That mom argues that these teenagers are getting so much attention over a controversial topic. Do you believe it is morally right to give such attention to these girls?”
By posing a question for the audience to respond with really opened up a conversation. One person allowed me to see the issue in a completely different light by giving a statistic that such TV shows actually “helps them [teenagers] better understand the challenges…and why they should avoid it.”
My last goal from first quarter was to vary my topic choice, and I feel like I’ve done that. I’ve written about strictly class discussion topics, as well as pop culture posts. I’ve written serious posts, and some that are more fun. I think having a variety is important, and I hope to continue writing all different types of posts next semester.
As this semester ends, it is hard to believe how much I’ve grown as a writer. While I still have plenty to improve on, I am thankful for the chance to practice blogging all next semester. A process is a "continuous action", and this writing process is one that I plan to continue working on, and to strive for improvement.
Brooks, Good job blogging this term. Beyond the irony of your lengthy explanation of a goal for conciseness!, you make some great observations about writing and your own progress. I liked your post on teenage pregnancy very much -- the links you cite and the conversation your post elicited. Surely teen pregnancy pre-dated TV, though. What other factors (poverty, education, healthcare) might be behind the alarming statistics you cite?
ReplyDelete