Blogging about Blogs and Essays

Blogs are an interesting thing in and of themselves but include them in the curriculum and they change. Blogs are different between each writer but they are usually those of a personal nature. Many people use it as a journal of sorts and post events about their life. Using it as a classroom tool is different. Students have to use their blog to fulfill an academic purpose. Something I notice when I reread my blog posts is that I tend to overuse phrases. Writing in my normal voice means I am very loose about structure or word choice. I would say grammar as well, but I'm bad at that no matter what I'm writing. It is nice being able to write what I want to and to be passionate about my subject. In an academic paper I have to be very reserved in my emotions because no one cares about them. In a blog people still might not care about my emotions but I can write with them anyway. Blogs are a very free form of writing. I can say what I want to say and I don't have to worry about sounding a certain way. Plus I can switch tenses whenever I felt like it. I really appreciate that! Not to mention that you won't see your

audience so you can express whatever opinion you would like using whatever language you would like. Actually, writing for a class is different than a normal blog because I will see those people in class the next day. So, for example, if I hated a blog from our class then it wouldn't be appropriate to say it on my blog because they will see it and that would be rude. While, if I hated a random blog from the world I could tell them and have no fear of confrontation. Still, in terms of getting my point across I think I make better points in an academic paper. I am able to order my points and logically present and support my argument without trying to sway my audience with emotion. I can sway them with fact. I rarely revise my blogs, generally my blogs are just whatever happens to fall on the page in whatever order. I think it is easy to get lost in a blog. Not to mention blogs tend to be shorter which means that I can't offer as much evidence as I could in a normal academic paper. I am not supporting a twenty page paper just that an average academic paper offers better argument for legitimate topics. Of course with blogs you can add random funny stuff at the bottom see example.