Blog Discourse Reflective Essay

Throughout this quarter I have been lucky to explore a field that I previously avoided - blogging. Despite the increasing popularity of blog sites, I had never taken the step to start my own. However this quarter I was introduced to many of the benefits of online blogging, especially since it strengthened my writing and gave me new insight into readings and projects from class.

I have been able to notice many differences between my early blog posts and my most recent ones. In my earlier writings, my thoughts were not as focused and they lacked concrete points. My later posts have a more definite purpose and my conclusions are easier to understand. There are a couple reasons these differences occurred in my writing throughout the quarter. First, as the quarter progressed I developed a better understanding of the rhetorical concepts we were studying. This made it easier for me to incorporate them into my writing and to find examples of these concepts. Second, I became more comfortable about writing about these concepts and discussing the effects of using them to strengthen an argument.

The fact that blogs are very public had a large impact on my writing style. More specifically, the fact that many of my classmates would be reading my work affected my writing style and the topics I chose to write on. Usually my audience for writing assignments is my professor only. However, with a blog the audience grew to include classmates and possibly outside readers. The audience that most impacted my writing style was my classmates; this perceived audience encouraged me to be more direct with my writing because we were reading many people's work and wanted to know the writers' assertions and proof quickly.

Another benefit of blogging is the ability to comment on other's work. I think this was one of the most beneficial parts of blogging. As students we don't have the chance to hear feedback from our peers very often. However, I found that my classmates often had very good insight and comments on my work. They often encouraged me to reevaluate a position I took, or suggested ways in which I could take my writing farther and develop it more. This helped me take my writing, especially the longer essays, in different directions than I originally anticipated. Considering the benefits I had reading other's comments on my writing, I would hope that my comments on other's writing would help them develop their ideas as well. It was evident while reading other's work where their strengths and weaknesses were and I was able to bring them to their attention through blog comments.

Overall I am satisfied with my blogging throughout this quarter. I learned a lot and believe that my writing has improved through the process. Because this blog was a learning process there are some posts that are much stronger than others. My strongest posts include the major projects we had during the quarter, such as my post on the Kanawha Environmental Literacy Project or the Ecological Risks of Dam Construction. These works were stronger because we had plenty of time to revise them and lots of feedback on how to improve. When considering my posts that were not assigned writing, I believe that my strongest posts included the Pollan post and the Cradle to Cradle post. Some examples of a moderate post were the Argumentation post and Paraphrasing post. My weakest writings were the Williams Rhetoric post and the Monbiot Reading post. The strongest posts were clearly laid out and addressed the rhetorical styles used in the reading. Furthermore, they provided plenty of examples to illustrate these concepts. The writings that were weaker didn't provide concrete examples of the rhetorical concepts and were difficult to read because they were vague and disjointed.

Blogging about our readings for class was a challenge but also very helpful to gain a full understanding of the works. Especially at the beginning of the quarter, I would struggle to create a blog post about a reading. I was unsure of how to identify rhetorical concepts in the reading, and particularly how to dictate my thoughts into a solid blog post. However after struggling through a few posts and reading through my classmates' writings I became better at identifying concepts and more importantly writing about them and discussing how they strengthened the writing. As the quarter went on it was easier to see how rhetorical concepts were used in our readings and especially how these concepts were critical to making a strong argument.

Overall, I found the blogging experience this quarter to be very beneficial. Although it was difficult at first to post my writing in such a public place, I realized that it has many advantages and by the end of the quarter I was excited to see how my classmates would interpret my writing, as well as see how my writing was similar or different from theirs.

Website ideas

For the web site project I would really like to focus on how media is used to inspire action, especially about environmental issues such as global warming. Using interesting media and sites such as Youtube and Facebook is critical for reaching out to the younger generation who really need to start healthy environmental habits early. By investing in media campaigns to reach out to young people there is a better chance of seeing a change in our culture and policy. The videos I found are videos that I think would appeal to younger people because of their interesting approach.