As I got the opportunity to review several different blogs today (on a variety of subjects), a few things stood out.
Blog writing is truly ongoing. It may be the one form of writing where the audience actually gets to show their importance right there. In a good blog, the original post is only the beginning. The true blogging takes place when commenting begins and allows for the audience to be interactive with the author. It takes reading to another level, because the audience truly gets the opportunity to give feedback with hopes of a response from the author.
When I'm reading a blog, I take a different stance than I do when I'm reading a book or a magazine. In a way, I am critiquing the writing, but I'm not looking for mistakes or errors. I'm looking for ways that I connect to the author and ideas that I can offer back to lend to the discussion. While I enjoy the opportunity to curl up with a good book strictly for the enjoyment of reading, reading blogs allows me to not only enjoy someone else's thoughts and ideas, but it also allows me to share my own thoughts and ideas.
In my opinion, the most interesting blogs seemed to be written as a narrative. Whether the writer was sharing something that had happened in a professional or personal capacity or giving opinions on an idea, the writing should flow in the same way that a good story would. That is an aspect of blogging that I really enjoy. I will be first to admit that, when it comes to reading, I prefer fiction over nonfiction, but I find nonfiction writing to be very interesting as long as it has personality and "flavor." Blogging allows a writer to add their own personality because the writer is really showing ownership over the ideas.
I definitely think there is a "blogging literacy" developing. To truly comprehend the text and information in a blog, the reader must understand that blogging is about collaboration and interaction. It's also about really meeting the needs of your audience and providing writing material that will provoke interesting and engaging discussion in your audience. While blogging for the sake of writing your ideas down is a great start, it is more important to develop a collaboration with an audience that can take your thoughts and ideas to the next level.
Looking deeper into blogs today has challenged me to think about my own blog writing, personally and professionally. In the future, I am definitely going to work on taking my blog writing to the next level.
This is true that a blog should be ongoing. We should continuously comment on the author's view or commenting on other comments we see in the same blog. This could give the students to express on the author's view and their classmates comments. It would give them a chance to be vocal in blogging and not here any snikering when making a comment.
ReplyDeleteA good blog is like a good book. There are always interesting events in both. We always enjoy the content of it and not worry about grammar mistakes. With blogs, we can always see other people's views about the same subject.
Blogs are ongoing. I have seen some posts that have continued for years. They are like an online conversation that is asynchronous and can allow people from all over the globe to share thoughts and ideas. I agree that we should start with tiny steps with students so they will understand the benefits of blogging, not only as a writer but as a reader and even researcher.
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