In this year of 2015, it is the first year that I have been asked to write my essays based on what I have read over the school year online. And by putting it on the internet rather than printing it out and giving it to the teacher to grade and read, all the students get to read each others pieces of writing as excellent examples of as poor ones. From both kinds of writing we can reflect to make ourselves better writers. But while writing these blog posts there were also many problems that came up with them and the actual work that goes into the writing. In this wonderful learning experience there were many ‘pros and cons’ of doing it.
There were a lot of positive things that came out of doing these blog posts, they helped not only us, but our peers and friends too. When having to do the blog comments in between every blog post it gave everyone a chance to look at each others blog and give each other constructive criticism. And this helps both us and the blogger become better writers because if we are able to pick out the mistakes that the blogger has and then politely translate it so that they understand how to improve, we are helping each other see an example of writing that needs help, and should be improved and what we should avoid writing. Another positive thing that the blogging has help us do is saving the environment. Usually in the past when we had to write our essays we had to print them out so that we could hand them to the teachers and they could grade them, then hand them back to us. But although we don’t get our grade after we write and post them, we aren’t sitting around with the grade we get and then in the end throwing away the work that no longer matters to us. By completing the virtually it makes it both easier on the students and the teachers. Although there are so many other reasons that doing these blog post were helpful these are the ones that stand out more than others.
With all these positive things there were also many problems that came up and not only once in a while, but quite frequently. When doing the writing assignments I have found that it is really easy to let your mind get side tracked and you might want to procrastinate, like deciding to look up other things online instead of writing the essay, and with this you push it so far back in your schedule that you end up leaving it for the last minute late Sunday night. Which is a problem with the liberation that we are given. And leaving it for the last minute is another problem, most of us feel so pressured and worried. And although the writing is on our time and we have to learn the skill of time management our self, it’s hard to do especially if there are more important things that come into play instead of our grades. There are many other smaller issues that could come up while writing the blog posts but these are the ones that stand out more than others.
In response to one of reflection questions, would you continue to update your blog? I feel that I should continue to write about my thought on what I’m reading so that there aren’t weird rants that come out of no where, and writing it down also helps clear the mind. But it’s hard to maintain a blog due to all the other things that have to be done. But if I was able to maintain a blog it would be wonderful and this writing experience has been great. And the ‘freedom’ to write what ever we want was really helpful to find out what the kind of writer we are and what kind of reading we like to reflect off of.
