1. In your opinion, what was the purpose of this blogging activity? (Why did Ms. Rumford decide to spend so much time on blogging instead of more traditional writing activities?)
In my opinion the purpose behind this blogging activity instead of doing other writing activities is a lot of different things, and it can definitely vary between people. For some people, this blog was really helpful with participation, because some students don’t like to participate that much in class and with the blogs you didn’t have to participate the same way. I can relate this to myself, because to be honest, I don’t participate enough in class and for me, the blogging was a great tool for participating and getting my ideas across. I think the main purpose for blogging was the writing and the participation; however technology did play a role in it too. As we progressed through our blogs we soon had to add pictures and even find some videos (from YouTube) to incorporate into our blogs to make them more interesting and easier to follow. When I added some videos to my blogs I did come upon some problems. Sometimes it wouldn’t show up on my post, however after figuring out what the problem was I could then resolve it. So the blogging has not only been on writing but on technology as well. I also think the point of doing blogs could have been to teach us to think before we write, because after we wrote a few blogs we then had to write blogs with less words and this was meant for us to think about what is important and, “Get to the point,” meaning narrow down to the point, don’t get off track, to stay on your topic. So the blogs have definitely helped me to write on topic and not just write anything that goes to my head but write something that relates to the topic I am writing about.
2. What have you accomplished during your blogging and give specifics to support your ? (Think outside the box –remember, you are global citizens.)
Writing blogs in L.A. has greatly improved my writing and I have accomplished many things that will indeed help me write better. Not just I have learned to write but also to identify clauses in my writing. This is very useful to know because now that I know the different clauses I can make my writing a lot more interesting to read. Instead of just having simple sentences, which would make my writing very boring to read, I have compound and complex sentences. Also by being able to identify the different sentences I can check my writing to see if it has enough of the complex sentences or too many simple sentences. As well as I’ve learned to get to the point in my writing, to stay on topic and not wander off. This can also decide whether or not my writing is boring because if I do wander off the audience may think it’s boring to read or even get confused. When coming up with topics to write about, throughout this process, I have learned to think about which audiences I have. For example, I have to think about what I write, because someone who likes football may not know every detail about it but someone who loves football may know everything about it, therfore I would have to adjust my writing to the kind of audience I’m writing to. As a result, it definitely made me consider my audience before I start writing about a certain topic. Writing blogs this year has also made me focus on my topic sentence as well as my conclusion. It is extremely important to have a good introductory sentence because it shows the audience what the body of my writing is about. For example, if I have a really boring topic sentence my audience may not even bother to read it either because it sounds boring or is not even about the topic itself. Having a good conclusion in my writing has also made my writing better. Instead of just stopping in the body of my writing I’ve learned to sort of wrap up my writing by having a good conclusion.
3. What key concepts have you learned while blogging? (This can be about writing, research or technology etc.)
While blogging I came upon a few problems. When I started writing my first blog about soccer I was soon stuck. I didn’t know what to write, I could come up with no more to write from the top of my head, that was when I soon realized I had to research. By doing all the blogs about soccer I have learned that I can in no way write that many blogs without researching. A majority of information was from researching so I did not only learn about writing but also a lot about soccer. I know far more about soccer now than I did before blogging. Not just did I learn about soccer I even learned a bit about technology and time management comes in too. I learned that I should definitely not depend on technology all the time, because there will be times where technology will simply not cooperate with me. For example, on one of the blogs I had to highlight the different clauses with different colors in my writing, and I spent quite some time on coloring my writing on Microsoft Word and I soon realized that when I had copied it down on my blog it wouldn’t show up so I had to recolor everything again. This is where time management ties in. I’ve learned that you should never complete your blog the day before it’s due. One reason could be technology. If your internet is down and you can’t complete your blog you have no time to wait and fix the problem however, if you do it a few days before you will have plenty of time to fix the problem and complete your blog in the required time.
4. How did the weekly requirements (different sentences, word count, word choice, voice, research, linking, embedding, intro-body-conclusion, concise writing, etc.) help you become a better writer? For example, identifying and highlighting your sentences, knowing when to use a comma, semi-colon, phrases and clauses, etc.
Having all the weekly requirements for my blog helped me a lot to become a better writer. In the beginning of my blogs I had a little hard time putting in the comma’s in the right places however, after we had an activity on it in class, it refreshed my mind so then I knew where to put the commas and the semicolons. By putting the commas and semicolon it made my blog easier to read and make sense of rather than long sentences without pauses. The different sentences were very effective in my writing. After a few blogs I learned to identify the different clauses, and therefore being able to write more complex sentences, which are more interesting than simple sentences, rather than having too many simple sentences. By incorporating more complex sentences into my writing it surely made it more interesting to read and I could get my point across with different sentences. The research was a huge important part of my writing. Without the research, I promise you, I would not be able to write one complete blog. Most, if not all, of my writing was based on the research I had done. So by researching I could write and then elaborate on the research by using my own opinions to support my research. And of course the word count made me consider if I was getting too much off track from my topic, if I was writing about unnecessary things that didn’t really have anything to do with the topic I should be writing and elaborating on. To wrap it up, the word count made me get to the point and always consider if what I wrote, relates to my topic.
5. Based on the skills (writing, technology, perspective) you learned while blogging, how will this benefit you in the future? This may be inside or outside of school.
All the skills I learned while blogging will indeed benefit me in the future. In case of writing, the blogs have helped me extremely much. Learning all the sentences types, the word choice, and word count, getting to the point have all made me become a far better writer than last year. They have all made my writing far more interesting and worth reading because it’s all right to the point, it all relates straight to my topic. It has made my writing good in the way I put some very good words in my writing that I don’t usually use. The technology in the blogs will definitely help me in the future inside and outside of school. Now that I had encountered problems with technology and then being able to fix them again, I now know how to fix some of those problems if I encounter them outside of school. For example, if I use YouTube for something else and I encounter a problem with embedding I now know how to embed, as a result I don’t have to spend my time on trying to fix that problem. So overall I am very thankful for doing the blogging because I have achieved so many skills that help me in many different ways, both in writing and technology.
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