How did knowing you’d have to write a Review on the blog change the way you read our books? How did it change the way you prepared for class?
Knowing that I had to write a review about the book made reading more of a chore than it usually is for me. I realized that I would have to be thinking much more in depth than I normally would because I would eventually need to articulate my thoughts to other individuals. It made me pay more attention to detail and focusing how best to explain what I was thinking while reading the book. I prepared much more for class and spoke more carefully because I knew that everyone was feeling exactly how I was and did not want to embarrass themselves.
How did writing in this format affect your writing process and writing style? I’m really interested to hear how writing in a blog format was different from writing you’ve done in other classes, whether English classes with more traditional papers, other courses with online writing (blog, discussion board, etc.) or otherwise. Did the possibility of a wider audience – your classmates, or anyone who stumbled upon our blog – change the way you wrote?
I really enjoyed writing in a blog because I just got to write as myself without any proper formatting or things like not being able to use the word I while writing an assignment. I definitely was always remembering that some random individual would be able to read my writing so once again I was more careful about what I wrote and trying not to sound unintelligent. This class made me realize how I feel about exposing my work to others.
How often did you read the Reviews posted by your classmates? Did you gravitate towards reading particular writers?
I always read a couple of the most recently published articles whenever I checked the blog so if someone’s review happened to be in that group of postings I ended up reading it.
Did knowing that you had to post on the blog affect the way you read (and watched) stuff unrelated to the course readings?
Posting on a blog did not affect how I read or watched stuff unrelated to the course readings but it did make me pay attention in that I was looking for climate issues and climate fiction in passing. Before this class I had never thought about the environment or climate change at all but now I think about it a ton (which just makes me depressed most of the time).
I’d be excited to hear you reflect on whether and/or how your experience with and attitude towards the blog changed over the course of the semester. Did it live up to its promise? Was the blog element of the course better or worse than you hoped or feared?
My attitude towards the blog did not change because I enjoyed it from the start and still enjoy it more than writing a regular term paper. The blog was definitely more enjoyable than I thought it would be and I may try to do more blog writing because of this class.
