Blog Reflection

I have never used a blog as a writing tool for a class prior to this one. I think it was a beneficial experience because it forced me to put into words my thoughts on the different readings throughout the quarter. Even though I know that blogs are public forums, I never really thought of anyone reading my blog outside of our professor and my classmates; therefore I wrote my posts with them as my intended audience. This affected my writing because I tried to make the blogs as clear and easy to read as possible. Also, when critiquing the readings from class, I tried to comment on pieces of the writing that I thought my classmates would also notice.

Being able to view other classmates’ blogs and read their thoughts and compare them to mine was helpful. I feel that the comments from the professor were more helpful because they were directed towards the rhetoric of the writing; where as the comments from fellow students usually focused on the positive things and didn’t offer much criticism.

I think my writing did improve from the beginning posts to the more recent ones. I think my worst post was my first post about a place I know well. When I wrote this post I wasn’t really thinking at all about rhetoric, I just wrote the post how I would have verbalized the description to someone. I understand now that while I captured the overall essence of the place, it would have been a stronger piece if I had created a very descriptive vision for the reader that would put them in my place.

I feel my best blog posts were the posts on Monbiot and Cradle to Cradle. First of all, I think it was easier to write these posts because the expectations and criteria of what to write were much more defined than in earlier posts. Also, after we had discussed rhetoric for a few weeks in class, I understood more what to look for and it helped my posts to better show my understanding of the rhetoric.

I feel that course readings helped my blog posts. Reading the essays and trying to understand the rhetoric is one thing, but when you have to then analyze the readings through writing, it adds an extra challenge that made me read the selections more closely.

I definitely think being required to write a blog post every week over the readings caused me to read more closely, therefore improving my understanding of the readings overall. The blog posts also improved my understanding of the readings because I was able to compare my ideas with what others took from the readings.

Applying ethos, pathos and logos to the readings was easy for me to do. Being a Communication major, we study these rhetorical concepts in depth, therefore applying them to the readings from class was something I felt that I did strongly.

Overall, I am happy with my blog writings from this quarter. Obviously, there is always room for improvement but I can see improvements from the beginning of the quarter to the end.