Notes

Main idea: Writing is a skill that takes practice in order to gain expertise. Blogging can help students develop these skills and gain a further interest in their writing skills.

 

Key terms:

Blog: A regularly updated website typically run by an individual or small group, about ideas, or topics of interest.

Intrinsic motivation: Behavior that is driven by internal rewards.

Extrinsic motivation: Behavior that is driven by external rewards.

Techie: a person who is an expert or an enthusiast about technology.

HTML: Abbreviation for Hypertext Markup Language. a standardized system for tagging text files to achieve font, color, graphic, and hyperlink effects on World Wide Web pages.

Blogosphere:  The world of blogs and bloggers.

Autonomy: freedom from external control or influence

Quasi-Academic: being partly or almost academic

Rhetorician: An expert in formal rhetoric

Serendipity: the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

RSS: Abbreviation for Rich Site Summary. Often used for receiving feedback on a blog in the form of a comments feed.

 

Summary:

Research shows that it takes time to become an expert in writing. A way for students to improve their writing is by blogging. Blogging is the sharing of thoughts on specific topics in a non-formal writing style on a public database. In academic settings, curriculum is placed on students which limits their writing abilities and has been shown by researchers that it doesn’t improve their writing abilities. Blogging is Beneficial because it is more flexible and allows more freedom for students to write however and whenever they want. Blogging today is usually done on a web application and has many different elements to it. First, A blogger must choose what he/she is going to blog about. Next, a blogger should choose the name of the blog. The final steps include all the technicality setups of the blog, such as a side-bar, the URL a banner, and a way to provide access to the blog. Blogging can help you become a successful writer. If anyone doesn’t think they can, they should try it out for at least a month to see if it works for them.

 

Commentary:

The author does a very good job at describing how blogging can help students become better writers and how to set up a blog. However, he provides no factual evidence that blogging actually helps students become better writers. He provided no case studies or statistics whatsoever. From the looks of it, this article was written by a guy who was always in the shadows and didn’t have a voice in the real world who one day discovered the internet where he could both voice his opinions and still remain anonymous. That’s all that a blog/social media is. It’s the opportunity for people who are super opinionated but don’t have guts to actually voice their opinions in real life. Also, you could become a skilled writer without needing a blog. Without adding all these complicated steps, one can simply become a skilled writer by just writing on their own. They could journal, they could write stories. They could do so many other things without needing an audience shaping what they write about. But they have to WANT to be a good writer. Students who are not pursuing after those kinds of careers most likely will not make it a priority to become skilled writers. And they shouldn’t have to. So if you’re an individual who wants to be an expert writer, then just start now. Keep a journal, write stories, or you can get a blog if you feel that that’s what will help. But just write!