Throughout this quarter, we were required to write several blogs. This was a good experience for me as I have never written a blog in my life. Looking back at all of my blogs, I can honestly say that there is a big change from the first one to the last one. Being introduced to this blog writing has allowed me to become a better writer as well as increasing my ability to take criticism and really make my project better. I have always seen different blogs here and there on different web sites, but I never knew that I would have my own blog page and write about issues that are effecting our environment. Having a blog has allowed me to express myself in a way I would have never thought of. During my blog experience, I have received as well as gave comments to others blogs and I have wrote on many different readings and films in the class that allowed me to understand them better.
Comparing my blog post from earlier until now, I notice a big difference within my writing. I took a look at the blog I wrote entitled, "Clean Cut Coal". This blog was very informal and the language I used made it a very easy read. Someone reading it may not be able to distinguish if I was even getting a college education. I don't know my reasoning for writing like this, I guess I was just writing as if it was a section in a journal of mine that I never had. This blog can easily be considered my weakest. I guess it didn't hit me until my later blog posts that people would actually be reading them and commenting. One blog of mine that I can honestly see my writing skills progressing was the blog I wrote on a environment issue which was the invasive animals for me. In this blog I was very informative with my information as well as using writing styles that helped to engage the reader within the blog. Having these qualities within my blog makes me consider this to be my strongest. I was giving a lot of information as well as writing in a way that I was actually engaging in a conversation with the reader. Asking questions and expressing the issue that invasive animals are a big problem to the environment and something needed to be done. Being under the impression that the whole class may view your blog will definitely change the approach you take on writing the blog as opposed to little to no one reading it.
When I realized that my blogs were actually on the web which allowed anyone to read it, I started to change my writing. The audience I wrote for was none other than my classmates. Reason being is that it was the only audience that was commenting on my blogs and I knew that they were also going to write blogs that I would read and comment on. I have never written a blog till now which can only put me under the impression that I was writing to inform my classmates on an issue or to just compare things between us. No one outside of my classmates were reading or commenting on my blogs. Knowing this, I wrote my blogs to try and capture the attention of a college student as opposed to a working class citizen that has an every day job and not in the college atmosphere. Having my target audience be my classmates allowed me to write on a more comfortable and laid back way instead of on a very professional level on some blogs.
Being able to comment on others blogs or to receive them allows for the writer to take a step back and maybe notice something they missed and did not touch on in their blogs. As I took a look back at a couple of comments I made on certain blogs, there was on in particular that stood out to me. I commented on a blog written by Wendy Goldfarb entitled "Lost Mountain". The comments I made on this blog let the writer realize a certain issue and how the law is unjust when it comes to mountain top removal.
Looking at comments that I have received on blogs gives me the opportunity to make my blog that much better. If there was something I missed or did not touch on as well as I should have, I can go back and fix it. I would have known nothing about it however if it was not for the comments that were made by me fellow classmates.
Not only was we instructed to comment on each other blogs, we were also asked to write blogs on presentations, readings, and films we watched in class. Writing these blogs did indeed enhance my understanding of these texts because it allowed me to actually take a second and analyze the reading or film. Break it down into portions that seemed important to me and elaborate on it. Since I am writing a blog on these topics, I am always able to look back at them when I am done and maybe feel the same or a little different. If we did not write a blog on them then it would be hard to remember what Fast Food Nation was about and how others perceived the film compared to my thoughts. Writing blogs is something I will continue to do as I strive to increase my writing skills.
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