Reflective Essay

Writing up blog posts for English class has been an extremely different way of writing that I am used to from a conventional English course. They are different from the typical English paper because a typical English paper is usually centered on a one specific topic, where as a blog post has much more flexibility. There is really no limit or restrictions to what I can right of, but with such flexibility some issues arise.

One issue that I find about having such an open ended piece of writing is that I more prone to being redundant or wordy in my writing. This is exemplified when I was responding to Keiland's free write about swag,

"You start at 5 "swag points and the highest you can go is 150." This is confusing me because I mean not sure what actually do you mean when you say everybody starts with 5 points. Are you saying that swag is like a game in which the purpose is to collect the most points possible? What are these 5 points exactly for? How did you even come up with 5 points to start and then 150 words to end? It makes no sense

This quote from my blog reflects how I can get redundant and wordy. For instance I start out by asking what these 5 points are for, but I repeat this very same question twice in this tiny excerpt. I also state that I am confused, but again I repeat myself in the very same excerpt. Not only do I repeat my self, but by reading this after a while I notice that this way too wordy and I could probably cut have of the words out of it and still get my point out.

Another issue that I encounter with the openness of the assignment is that when I respond to my peer's blog spots I end up finding myself writing things that do not really respond to the quote, it is more like I'm am just writing to get it done. This happened to me while I was responding to Vy's post about Ms. Valdez,

“Another way in which Ms. Valdez made class so memorable was that whenever someone said something deep or good she would always respond by saying, "ooh" or "interesting, say more." This was so funny because whenever she said this we would all crack up and she would just look at us with a smirk on her face. We all ended up using her line whenever someone just said something that made us think. Those were good times.”

What I had written in this excerpt was not really a straight on response to Vy's post rather it was some random Bull sh*t that was put together into some commentary. I encounter this problem many times when I am reaching the end of my writing, but I have not yet reached the word count required. When I do this I am not just cheating on my work, but rather I am cheating myself because I am not practicing my writing. If one day I need to look back at my posts and write an essay using what I wrote then I am in a bad situation because everything that I had typed was all bull sh*t.

Although I may encounter many problems during my writing process I find some positives about doing weekly posts. One positive that I found about the weekly blog posts is that I get the opportunity to practice my analytical writing. For example, writing my Night Essay helped to to practice on items that I had worked on last year such as commentary, CD integration and most importantly developing a strong thesis statement. Not only did writing this essay assist me in analyzing a text and writing something about it, but it also helped to look at books at a different way. Before, I used to read a book and try to look for a central or theme or idea, but this essay was different because instead of looking for a central theme, I am looking for a central conflict. Looking for this conflict made me realize the many different types of conflicts that a story can have.

Another positive that I find about doing weekly blog posts is that I get to respond to other people's blog posts. These responses can actually help the person who is being responded to improve their writing. This is shown when I responded to Leah's post about fashion.

“I disagree when she said about if you feel black it doesn't mean that you are black because skin color determine your race. We are all the same, just because someone sags their pants and wears a baggy t-shirt it doesn't mean that they are black. It doesn't mean anything, it is just a fashion choice. There is no reason at all that race should be tied into with fashion.”

In this excerpt I disagreed with what she had said about certain cultures or races having their own fashion or look. Disagreeing with her mostly likely made her realize that maybe what she had said was incorrect. I was not the only one who responded to her post though, many other people also responded. Since so may people had responded Mr. Sutherlnad told us in class that Leah had found our responses to be helpful and she was going to take our ideas and advice when she writes her next post.

Overall I find writing weekly blog posts to have their ups and downs. They can bring up issues such as redundancy and clutter, but they can also help me to practice my own writing and help others with their writing. I do believe that writing posts has helped me to become a stronger, so going into this new quarter I feel much more confident about my writing.