blog reflection

In this course we have been making comments on this blog regularly every week ever since this class started. Posting our opinions on things such as what problems we had in this course and what we thought the meaning of words like genre were. How about we write about the blog thought or how it and the locations that we are at affect how we write and what we write about?
The technology we use is amazing. We all have a website called blogger that we have access to and anytime we want we can post something on there. Its cool because anyone else who can log into that site can see what we have to say. For this blogger site thought we don’t just post anything we want. I mean some people do but usually our teacher has a certain task we have to write and blog. That task could be for us to say what we think a definition of a word is, like the genre. Then we all would post what we thought the definition of the word was. When we would go to where all the posts are at we can see many of the other responses our classmates had or even ones of others, if they were assigned the same question.
When seeing others responses to what the teacher asked us to post about he helps us. It helps us because it shows us if what we said is similar to what others said. They don’t have to be similar as in being word for word but be similar in ideas. We see if our main ideas are alike. If they are alike it makes someone like myself feel good because I feel confident because I say things like, “Oh I’m not the only person who thinks like that” or “I can’t be too wrong because here goes someone else who said something similar to what I said.” If I was to see that too many of our responses are pretty close to being alike I would think something is wrong. I would think that maybe we all are just answering the question and not putting our opinion down because if we all were to put our opinion down at least some would be different because we all don’t think alike. Also the blog affects how we write an essay about something like. Like definition of genre, if my definition of genre was to look different from everyone else’s then I would probably have my essay work around the definition of what others thought genre was and what seemed right to myself.
The Location we were at while posting on the blog most of the time was in class. The teacher would write down what he wanted us to post on the blog and we would do that, right after he got done explaining to us. Our classroom had a lot of mac books (a kind of laptop) so we all would be able to get connected to the internet and post on the blog right from there. While posting in the classroom it kind of changes the way I feel because its something I have to do right away. Its not something I could just put off to the side and say I’m going to do another time. When doing it right away it helps gather first thoughts and how I initially feel about what our teacher is asking us to do. For example when he asked us to post what we thought the definition of genre was. If I was to see people looking confused I that would give me a reaction of thinking that maybe this won’t as easy as it sounds or that maybe I’m not thinking about it hard enough. Doing the blog during class helps with getting reactions right away and knowing how other classmates feel in person.
Before doing blogs in class I really thought writing was just doing what the assignment asked you to do. I used to just read what the assignment was and do exactly what it was asked with little effort. After seeing posts and doing more assignments I came to realize that I should incorporate what I think about things. That’s what most of our blogs asked us to do, was mainly to state what we thought something was. With combination of using the technology and using our classroom I feel that I have become a better writer because I say what is going through my mind and share my opinion instead of being straight forward with the assignment.

blog reflection

Blog Reflection

            Blogging is an up and coming art which has revolutionized the way people express themselves drastically. Since the start of the internet age blogging has grown sporadically, ranging from the younger more technological generation to the older generations. Blogging is a much different form of expression compared to what students are normally accustomed to. This fairly recent introduction of blogging has revolutionized the way of expression.

The advance in technology has effected how we interact with each other and socially. Just as a previous blog assignment has stated the culture and art of facebook statuses has a profound impact on how people express themselves socially, even if it maybe in a cyber world setting. Much of what students are used to doing is looking at an assignment then managing to work their way though it by any means possible. This new introduction of blogging opens up more opinion and expression for the students to utilize. Differing from the normal style of writing blogging has no guideline as to what you are expected to write. Blogging can vary from person to person and the students or bloggers are not expected to write at a certain level. The technology we use today eliminated the fears people have on presenting their thoughts and feelings in front of others. In the past people are expected to hand in an assignment and then the class read it or in some circumstances the writer is expected to present their writing to a select number of students. But by using this method of writing the author is kept anonymous to everyone other then the teacher. This way the student is free to write down whatever they may feel is on their mind on any subject without the fear of what others will think.

This method of blogging as opposed to writing up a normal assignment has completely changed the way I look at writing. In past courses I have noticed that writing down an assignment seems to be a chore which everyone dreads to do but it’s an obligation unless you want to get some sort of negative repercussion. The idea of blogging ends up taking away this feeling and making it into more of an “ok I get to jot down my own ideas and fully express my thoughts” feeling. After looking back at my posts I realize that my writing has changed drastically, I have evolved from a person who writes mainly in a monotone manor to a writer who can express his thoughts without any worries. Writing in the blog format has deepened my outlook on different concepts of my writing, and it has also shifted my way of thought completely. I have gone from a introvert type of writer to more of an extrovert writer. When I seem to look back at others papers I see that there is a huge difference between the writing styles. I tend to get the impression that due to our lifestyle and culture as Americans we are expected to impress other people with our different skills. That I realize is a downfall in this culture, blogging really helps in the reversal of this age old cultural habit. People in this age need to more expressive and therefore I feel that the introduction of the blog into the class room was a wonderful idea and it has improved my writing drastically, I have became more expressive and less worrisome as to the judgments of other people.  

The Effects of Blogging

The Effects of Blogging
Bogging is an interesting technology and tool that’s being used by many different groups. It’s an on-line forum where people can share ideas and different images. For our English 101 Class, students were instructed to write about their ideas of how blogging has effected how we write, what we write, and to share how blogging has changed/deepened our ideas that we had about writing. Personally, I have not enjoyed blogging. I’m trying to understand why I don’t enjoy it. Doing the assignments in English 101 is the first time I’ve ever blogged. Naturally, after posting a few assignments, I’ve become more comfortable with it. But, I still don’t like it.
I think blogging directly affects what we write and how we write. For each assignment, we were asked to write about specific things pertaining to writing, such as identifying and creating genre and techniques. The assignments I posted are not things that I would usually write or talk about. So, the assignments identified my topics to write about, and I was given the opportunity to share my personal thoughts, experiences and opinions about the topics. The ways in which I wrote for each blog posted was also affected by knowing that the instructor and classmates could/would read what I wrote. Some of my discomfort comes from wondering if I was meeting the instructor’s expectations, and wondering what my classmates would think. So far this semester, I have posted a total of six blogs. Most of the blogs were short and did not provide a lot of information. In retrospect, I think I didn’t write a lot because I really didn’t want to do the assignments; and (except for the essay Identifying Genre where I posted one statement) I felt I made my points, and met the instructor’s expectations. Two of the essays I actually enjoyed writing, but did not care for posting them on the blog. The two assignments: Universal Texts and Arguing for Genre, were essays in which I talked about things that were of interest to me: my personal art. This made a big difference in how I felt about the writings, opposed to writing about Kruger’s Prints which I initially knew nothing about and had very little interest in.
Another factor that effected my writing on the blog was my attitudes and opinions about my classmates. Recognizing that I’m older than all of them, and old enough to be their grandmother, directly impacted my feelings and thoughts of what to say to this audience. This forced me to stay focused on the assignments and topics, and not to talk much about my personal experiences and things of interest to me. In retrospect, this created problems for me, and greatly contributed to my discomforts with writing my essays and posting them on the blog. I kept thinking this audience is not interested in my personal life and work experiences, and other things I would share and address with an audience my own age. I recognize that if I was blogging for an audience that had some of the same interests that I do, and if I was blogging about things that I am specifically interested in, such as community work and social justice, learning to blog would have been a very different experience for me. While believing that my classmates would not be interested in what I have to say, I also felt I was not interested in what they had to say. I think we’re suffering from generational and cultural differences. This is not a bad thing, it’s just what it is.
Finally, even though blogging has not been a very pleasant experience, I’ve learned a lot from the class, especially about genre. And, the class has made me really think about my writing style, skills, different types of writing and techniques. All that I’ve learn will definitely help me to be a better writer. And for this, I’m grateful.

Blog Reflection

I remember on the first day when our teacher told the class that part of our participation grade was us writing in a blog. I have never written in a blog and to tell you the truth I didn’t know what a blog was all about. So I was kind of nervous and didn’t know what to expect.
Technology has certainly come a long way, especially how we write down our thoughts and ideas. Who would of thought 10 years ago or so students will be using laptops in English class to better their understanding of writing? Better yet, who would of thought we were going to be using laptops in English? Technology I believe made people express themselves more because in the technology world you don’t have to say who you are. You can just make up some random name and nobody would know your real name. That gives a lot of people comfort and enables them to say how they really feel. I believe the blog did that for me. I always worried about what people say about my ideas and beliefs. So having a secret identity on the blog enabled me to be myself. Even though I didn’t do the weekly blog postings, when I did I felt comfortable and brave to say what I want.
As I look back at my postings I do see a change of how I approached them individually. In the beginning I was a little skeptical about how this would help me be a better writer. Then as we went through the semester I learned the answer. The blog did help me be a better writer. I got to look at other people’s ideas and thoughts, which helped me think outside of my normal thinking. I got to learn what genre is, which was an interesting thing to touch on because a lot of people have a different ideas of what genre really is. The blog showed me those different ideas and it really broadened my horizons.

Life on the blog

Usually, when I see somehting like this, a blog it is for my own personal reasons not for school it gets to be something that is not easy to understand anymore. When writing on a blog you take out your thoughts, and I have gotten my thoughts on here, I talked about things I went through over the past semester, I talked about how my weeks went how they were diffrent or just abnormal in some way. But to write about something that you put down on the net that most likely just came out of your head for that specific day and then put them all toegther and say wht you have learned is somewhat difficult. I saw writing about the blog as a good thing you get out thoughts that you canot say all the time or you rant, mostly of what I am doing right now, but it is something that you go through writing on a blog. Writing on a blog would in our time of this centruy is how people in the 1930s kept journals or wrote in diaries about experiences, that's what I see it as a way to keep our experiences on record and to learn from them or look at them in the future. Writing on the blog has given me a diffrent way of writing, that I know has changed I would usually write more proper about a topic other than personal life or to even get personal, but writing on a blog early in the morning, I guess that can do that to a fellow.

blog reflection : what did i get?

Writing a blog is like keeping a journal except this blog is designed for English class. The purpose of this blog is for students in the class to contribute thought and experiences about writing. Throughout this semester, I have participated in blog activities and learned from others through the blog. On the blog I have posted my experiences and my thoughts for the English. With my posts I have gotten various feedbacks which have helped me with my writing process. The pieces of writing in on the blogs vary in topic and sometimes focus on one topic. When all the posts are about one topic which usually is in-class exercise, I learn more about that topic from other people in class. I found blog the most useful when we were writing about definition of genre and the meaning of Kruger’s prints. Although we discussed in class about Kruger’s prints and her style, it amazed me about how people apply these ideas to create their own definition. Reading others’ posts, I can see many sides of one topic from different views. I sometimes use this blog as resources for my papers. People also share their writing experiences on the blog; therefore, I indirectly learn their experiences and apply them to my papers. Blog is also a place to speak your thought without worrying about right or wrong. Blogging forces me to think and reflect in order to write so my ideas become concrete. I think I can benefit more from the blog if everyone and I voluntarily contribute more in writing on the blog. Since many people in our class treat blog exercise as assignment that has to be done, the quality of blog is lessened. Because blog exercises just require bloggers to post something on blog, some bloggers just type random things which become irrelevant to the purpose of the blog. Another purpose for the blog is getting comment from other about your work. The assignment we did where we were asked to comment on others, I receive some useful comment about my post. However, if we are not asked, no one will make any comments. I myself think that the blog can be used as a helpful tool for writing if everyone participates enthusiastically. However, being a student, we spend more time doing homework and don’t have time to participate in blog. I personally would like the instructor to comment more about our post on the blog as a way of giving feedback about our writing.

blog reflection

When first hearing that we were going to have to write down thoughts, about anything in general, I thought to myself “wow, this is going to be awesome.” I thought this because I never really got into blogging and thought they were pointless. My view point never really did change; I still feel blogs in general are pointless. But this blog had a more educational purpose to help expand our writings and techniques in writing.

But with it being a blog the only this I got was ideas from it. I never seemed to write in the correct academic way that I would have if I were asked to write it down and hand it in. I never wrote “proper” because it just didn’t feel right being on the internet at my age. I’s so prone to using my own abbreviations for everything that I found myself having to erase half of everything I typed to type it out properly.

At first the blog seemed to be showing signs that it was going to be completely unrelated to what it was intended for, but that quickly changed when we were given in class blogging assignments to jot down right away. But this also turned away many people from blogging because they figured well we are doing it in class so why should I do it now. In turn the in class blogging ceased to exist, and it seemed so did blogging period.

But with all that being done, it just shows that people who don’t want to, or just aren’t use to blogging, won’t blog. I for one am one of those people. There were of course others that seemed that blogging was a part of what they are accustomed to.

Technology Useful Since When?

I would have to say that most people use technology, and probably have heard of blogging. Until this class I never really blogged myself really. I feel that a blog was basically a short essay about what we thought, but what was good about this technology that I liked was that people could comment on them and was a good way to converse with everyone. One of my favorite topics we talked about in class and on the blog was about genre. It was very helping seeing how others thought about genres, I believe I talked about punk, and that was awesome, because I’m a big music junkie when it comes to rock stuff.

I think that technology also helped, because some people aren’t talkers, but they still have an opinion about things. I feel that blogger is a good way for them to get things out about still be apart of the class. So to see people opinions that you don’t usually hear from definitely help shift some of my thoughts on things. There is so much terminology that we talked about on blogger like strategy, Kruger prints, genre, and more. I think that since we used blogger it gave at least me a better understanding on the key words or things that effect writing the most. I basically in all of this think that blogger is sometimes easier to get a better understanding on key terms with technology than talking, because it is like you own little sheet of notes and its not just one person talking it the whole class.

Blog the World

Blog the World
Max Pascale
Mass communication used to be expensive, infrequent and took a long time. Mass communication used to be only used by high authorities such as governments to spread ideals or communicate war, treaties and politics across the globe. Compared to the very old ways of taking messages from hand to hand to today’s technology is magnanimous. Sending important messages through our cell phones to colleagues and family is something out of a futuristic science fiction. The internet and innovative thinkers have created ways to communicate messages and ideas cheap and efficiently.
The idea of a “blog” is like a club that has an interconnected idea that gets people to critique and relate on important subjects. The blog can be compared to the ancient Greek ways of the forums where the people of a nation would congregate and express opinions in a casual environment, even if the subject matter was political or taboo. The blog is a way for every kind of person to have their opinions heard. “This form of social media lends to an online generation already too busy to keep in touch.”
The blog is a place for people to vent frustration about class. One thing that was absent from the blog was communication between individuals or questions about assignments, which would have been relevant but maybe not appropriate. I expected more pictures and videos in our class blog for the purposes of humor and entertainment, not necessarily for a justified purpose or relevance. However near the end of the class blog there was slack which can be attributed to laziness or concerns with the end of the semester. Also, if we were given fun assignments like posting our Kruger images again there might have been more brainstorming.

The blog at first was a place to put funny quirks about pop-culture or anything that pertained to entertainment. Some people recklessly spew meaningless, angry rants about problems however, which the blogger should be aware of. Not all information in blogs is accurate or even coherent sometimes, which creates another aspect to the blogging world, vigilance. The blog lets the blogger become a social seeker, an adventurer seeking truth and being able to pick out misinformation. This way of knowing what is truth and lies on a blog is a style of reading and staying current with the times that needs to always be kept in context.
Blogs advance writing. Blogs covertly advance ideas about expression and interpretive writings. Blogs advance the ways people think and use vocabulary. Blogs could possibly be the future for academic writing. Although blogs are “laid-back” most of the time this class was a little more rigid on using proper grammar and bringing ideas all together. Blogs with rules and guidelines that follow a linear path can be called “bloghoods”. Blogs have come a long way from origins starting in 1997 started by Jorn Barge Blogs are ways for individuals who are interested in expanding personal knowledge by others commentaries.
The future of academic writing lays in the blogs ability to function as integration between peers. Interaction of personal opinions and writing styles or how each person presents their opinions via grammar, slang, formal vs informal leaves the door open for expanding the readers knowledge. An individual’s worldview may very well be changed overtly or covertly meaning the blog may influence the contributors and readers opinions and personal writings on an influential basis.

Eh...

Academic writing is the basic stepping stone of any writing. When it comes down to it, with out learning to write through academic studies, most people would have blan, undetailed, and sloppy writing. Even basic writing in a personal journal or diary. Academic writing gives the basic knowledge to help put what we really want to say down on the page. In the end it is the writer who makes it good or bad, its the attempt at writing anything.
I dont fully understand... wait... scratch that... i dont know what the rules or goals are for academic writing. I honestly dont care, the basic guidelines behind them is crap that I already try to incorporate into my writing. The course reader is nothing more than wasted paper and falls upon deaf ears. Basic guidelines for academic writing... i like to stick to three that honestly, i think make a good paper at least.
1. Explain, dont leave any possible detail out that will leave a reader like "what the f**k?". Half the time you think someone knows what you are talking about, they dont.
2. Make sure it makes sense. If you cant understand what the hell your writing about, who else will.
3. Basic grammar. Enough said

good or bad about academic writing

The goals, the way I view them, suggest the writing should be complete and whole basically. I see the goals as a lot to do but I think they are just there to help someone become a better writer. I'm sure none of us are perfect writers and we need these goals to help us become better in writing. By at least trying to incorporate all those goals into our writing I think its a lot better than not having any goals and just writing, unless you are really good at it. Our assignments suggest good things about academic writing because there are many things we can look at and make connections between. I think the course reader suggests academic writing should be fun but have to do with a lot of work. This is good because I would like to have fun while writing but its bad because its time consuming and it takes work and thought. This is hard for people who don't like or enjoy writing but much easier for those who like writing. Last is what I wish writing could be. I wish it wouldn't have so many goals we would have to follow and that we could just write on whatever we wanted to or on something we had experience with and then get feedback on how that turned out. I guess maybe that explains why I like reflective essays.

I feel that good or bad academic writing is way to get you ideas out to a audience, which is what every writer wants right. Good things about academic writing is using your ideas and projecting them from your head into others ears. I would say a bad thing about this is sometimes your ideas become clouded when you become biased. Another bad thing is that it is very confined and structured to the point where you have to follow a format of the 5 paragraph structure and it is to easy to fall into making your ideas confusing to the reader. The goals suggest that your writing should be structured, interpret, and be clear and concise about your subject you are projecting ideas from. I think the assignment does suggest almost the same thing but for some reason the assignment makes you feel that you have space to maybe go off on a tangent and get away from your idea a little and come up with newer ideas on the subject, or at least that what happens to my papers sometimes. I seem to get my ideas not as clear and concise as I want them to be. This is also a negative about academic writing.

The goods and the bads

Academic writing makes you think more about your topic. It also guides you to address the certain audience you want to address. One goal that I think is a good goal is having your paper be clear and concise. If it is not the paper would be messy and the intended audience will not get what you are trying to say. There is, though, one bad thing about academic writing and that is it's hard to write in a unique way. There are some many rules that its hard for you to do your own thing. You have to follow MLA style writing, you can't use a different style. And that is what i wish Academic writing could be. Other than that I believe that academic writing has more goods than bads.

writing is for chumps

The only thing that is seemingly bad about academic writing is it may put creative restrictions on what the writer is trying to accomplish. It may also restrict the style in which they write, if it is a more laid back style the academic aspect may damage the writers ability to truly write correctly in there mind how hey feel. The goals have a specific idea of the way things should be structured and written, and if you don't accomplish these set goal it is difficult to get good marks on the paper. The assignment would have the same set of ideals that the goals would have. When it is the readers decision thy want to see something that relates to them, when it doesn't they may have a harder time saying focused on what they are reading. the wish that i have for the goals is to have no restrictions or guidelines on what i can or cannot write about.

academic writing's strong points and weak points

The course reader talks about how we need to have requirements for the writing but yet, we cannot always interpret everything that is giving to us thus, the course packet. What academic writing should be is a writer's best work of trying to or doing over the minimal work and try to interpret things more than you would a regular story. You would need to relate them to the story or to what you were being asked and that can be easy or hard for you at some points. Those were the strong points, make your writing more than what you usually would relate it to as many things as possible that you know even if it is the smallest of things. When it comes to academic writing's bad perks, there are alot of things that can happen you can be having a writer's block or you could be just be having a hard time understanding what someone wants you to do. In course reader they want you to interpret things critically, well what if you don't know how to do that? Things like that are what make academic writing have flaws and uneasy to understand. For a paper once I had to tie in something to my life that was related to the story in some way sometimes that is only by chance that you are able to tie in a personal story or known about something from the outside world. If you were raised away from regular civilization you would have no idea on what to say about the outside world. In a sense, you would have to be able to know at least a little about the world in order to understand academic writing, no person can just walk in sit down and call something academic writing or interpret something down to the core in a matter of minutes, it takes time or hours to do something like academic writing, when you do hve to do somehting like this you learn to see time as a friend and an enemey in every situation you have.

Academic Writing Wacky

Academic writing is generic and somewhat faceless. This facelessness is academic writing is good. The readers/graders have to be objective in a broad look at academic writing as a whole, not incorporating bias's and opinions. The good news on writing a peice that won't be judged on personality and cultural taboos leave a lot of freedom to be creative. Also, academic writing is bad because the goals and expectations that confine it are boring and tedious. Generic academic writing is easily skipped if it doesn't have something as simple as a good title or opening sentence. Academic writing for generic purposes like grades arn't suppose to be novels or make someone an acclaimed writer overnight. The goals in the academic writers catolgue suggest meeting minimum expectations for the institutions i.e. UWM ideals on what is good and not good for english writing. The assignments that we've been given this semester are confusing and at the core the same thing over and over. The assignments want coherence, argumentation for a subject and genericness, definition of genres, and more genre motonoy. However, the assignments if done correctly can meet far beyond the goals and expectations of UWM while still being original. I wish I didn't have to write generic writing at all, I know I probaly need this class so my papers for other classes and master thesis won't be melodramatic and incoherent to the regulations of the coarse reader. I would like to see more inventiveness and originality in the assignments and if possible more detail on the goals, possibly with examples. Academic writing is just one of those painful things we've got to get through like a math class, we probably won't use it for whatever we end up doing as a profession, but its necessary.

The good, and the Bad

What is good and bad about academic writing in regards to what the goals suggest this writing should be is good because the goals are clearly stated. They are specific in what they are telling you to do, even though they don't necessarily go into great detail about how to do it. What the assignments suggest that academic writing should be are good because they do explain what they want done in order to achieve good academic writing. Each assignment is helping us to achieve the goal of writing to the standards if the goals of academic writing. The coarse reader is alright but i wouldn't call it good. It gives you the goals but it doesn't really help you to achieve the goals we are trying to accomplish. I wish the goals were easier to achieve, but i understand why they aren't. I would like it more if english courses took it a little slower in helping us to achieve the goal of being able to write on the level of academic writing on our own, but the college professors n all them people prolly know more than me, even though they aint always right.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Academic Writing...

Well academic writing is exactly what it states, its academic and that word alone can make it seem like a chore. The goals suggest that the writing should be well thought out and a minimum of 5 paragraphs, with correct spelling, quotations to back up your information from whatever source you are using.

The assignments suggest that it should be what is asked in the prompt and if you are answering those questions that the prompt asks with the minimal goals from what standard academic writing should be.

Now the course reader suggests the goals and outcomes for both papers we write in this class, I use the word suggest loosely here because there doesn't seem to be any wiggle room on these goals. Also these goals can be really confusing because one might not understand what they are asking since most of them are up to interpretation and that can leave the student in the dark on how they should formulate their papers.

I wish the goals would be straight forward and not hide behind the language they are written in. If they were straight forward you wouldn't have as many issues with the goals and outcomes in the classroom and we would be able to spend more time on the actual writing instead of sitting and thinking of what these goals may or may not mean.

'academic' writing for me

i feel that academic writing is both a good and a bad thing. good in ways that it is intellectually correct to write proper and with academic intellect. but i feel it is bad because it sometimes takes up to much time when not done properly, and it also looks horribly if written incorrectly, which in my experiences is the most common. the goals suggest that our academic writing should be in explained in excellent detail, as well as cover many goals that pertain to proper writing, as well as making sure our audience is able to comprehend what it is we are writing about. i feel that the assignments dont suggest much on what our writing should be about other then a general direction. this can be confusing to many. the course reader doesnt seem to suggest what academic writing is bluntly, but rather indirectly. the course reader does this with the pieces that are pertained in it. the pieces show in depth detail, elaborate sentences, and for the most part they give the audience a good perspective on the topic of which it was written about. i wish academic writing could come as easy to everybody as riding a bike. but its not for most people, but with all the practice we have been putting in this semester we are striding towards bettering our writings.