Reflection

Writing a blog over the past quarter was a new experience for me. Although I have taken an English class every year since I was at least six, this was the first time that my reflections were in an open forum that my classmates (or anyone with an internet connection) could read. I felt that it really contributed to the overall quality of the class, forced me to think about the writings in a new way, and allowed me to share insights with my peers.

My early blog posts were very academic and structured. I cited specific samples from the text and treated the assignments like they were formal papers. I remember at the beginning being very hesitant about writing the posts and worrying that everyone else’s would be way better than mine. Looking back, this seems kind of ridiculous because it’s college and we’re all just here to learn. That’s another psychological issue for another paper, I guess.

As the quarter went on, my posts got more and more informal. The best posts that I wrote were ones where I felt really passionate about what I was writing about. If I really liked the story or poem, I tended to write longer posts that had deeper insights. I won’t lie, some of my posts were a little on the short side (just like me). You could definitely tell which posts I put effort into and which ones I slapped together in about ten seconds.

I also really enjoyed reading the feedback from people in the class and seeing what people thought of what I was saying. Sometimes, I would write about things that I thought were really obvious and people would comment that they hadn’t thought of the story or poem that way. I don’t think that this is because I’m some sort of super-human genius, but people just have different points of view and don’t always think of things the same way. A lot of times, people would say things in their posts that I had never thought about.


The opposite of this, of course, was that people disagreed with me sometimes. In my post for Fiesta, 1980 I really ripped the Dad apart. Generally, I’m just not a fan of people who deprive their children of food at parties. However, there were a lot of people that didn’t see the Dad as the ultimate source evil. They challenged what I said about him and his role in the story. It made the story even more interesting and complex to not pin all of the conflict on one character, but to view him as a complex character.


The blog functioned in the class as a tool for discourse. Because of this, I wrote with the intention of my classmates reading what I had to say, although anyone can read it, really. Because I was doing this with that thought in mind, it wasn’t really the best writing I could have done. However, I think that it really important for everyone to practice engaging in discussions civilly and expressing their opinion well. This was really good practice at writing a blog that formulates discussion on a topic.

Blogging has had a fascinating effect on our society in the past decade. For this class, keeping a blog opened up discussion and engaged the class. I think it is important that everyone practice blogging and use new social media tools because they will be an integral part of our future. Blogging has become a skill that will be valuable in the workplace, as well as in being engaged in the world.