In my last post, I wrote about a controversial topic about college education and how it can lead to social inequality. I found that writing is hard, but writing for an educational blog post is even harder. I did not really know what to expect when writing my last post, as I had never blogged before, so it was a very new experience.
However, even though it was challenging, it was interesting to write an educational blog post. To me, the term “educational blog post” seems to be a contradicting phrase because when I think of a blog post I think of text that is very informal and short, and when I think of anything educational I think of text that is formal and long. I attempted to blend the two into this new educational blog post format, and hope that I did so in a way that was engaging, informative, and easy to read.
It took me a while to figure out what the most important points in my paper were because, as this is a blog and not a novel, I had to condense my seven page paper into an 800 word conversational post. I also had to re-word my paper to make it sound less formal, and that was the part that I struggled with the most.
I genuinely could not figure out how to completely re-word my sentences while still getting the same idea that I had in my paper across.
I was just staring at my computer screen, and no ideas were popping into my head.
Everything that I felt like I wanted to say seemed to be stuck in my original paper. I genuinely struggled in finding my voice and translating what I had in my paper into the more casual tone that is required for a blog post. I attempted to include my own voice in the post, but I felt as though I could not really re-word my essay without completely changing its main points. I added somewhat of a personal anecdote in the begging to attempt to draw the reader in, but to me, the essay did not sound the same with the changes, even though it had all of the same information. Essentially, I had writer’s block to the extreme.
So, I looked at my paper again and decided to break it up into its main ideas. I took these ideas and made them into subheadings for my post, which helped me to create an outline as to what to write. This informal outline helped me to make sure that I included all of the most important ideas of my essay, making it easy to condense it, and provided smooth transitions. I also had to thoroughly condense my use of quotes. I had to be very selective of the quotes that I used, and only chose the two most vital ones. However, I think this actually made my quotes more effective because there were only two and they were very prominent, as I put them in block quotes.
I think that using subheadings and block quotes actually helped to make my blog post more aesthetically pleasing because it added blank space and really brought out the highlights of my argument. This way, readers could get a glimpse into the body of my argument without even reading the whole post.
My enthralled readers when they see my blog posts
I also found that adding in images and gifs really helped move my blog post along. It helped me to visual some of the key points or ideas, which helped me to get into a less formal mindset. I also feel as though they helped to keep my readers engaged, as it was a nice break from the regular text. It was important for me to find images that humorously (and one that statistically) added to my argument, so that someone who just paid attention to the images could understand my point of view. I also had to choose which words and phrases were the most important, and italicize and/or bold them. I believe that this was helpful because, like the images, they brought attention to the most important points of my paper.
Along with the images, I think the hyperlinks really helped to add to my argument. It is nice that on a blog, unlike on a paper, you can just easily click on a link and connect to other writers and their ideas. This puts me in conversation with people around the world, which is something that I find amazing. However, the only challenge was that I had to find ways to include this hyperlink so that it flowed seamlessly with the text, and so that the word that the hyperlink was on correlated to the actual link.
Final Takeaways…
I still have a lot to learn about blogging, but through this assignment I realized just how much fun it can be! Blogging is a way to connect to readers on a more personal level, which can be challenging, especially if one is writing about an academic topic. No matter the topic though, I need to be able to connect to a broad audience, so that anyone reading my post will be able to understand it and want to read more. If they like it, then my readers could easily share my blog post with others, so that I may enter into conversation with them. Blogging is a way to put your thoughts out there in the world, to open yourself up to criticism, and to expand your own views.
However, although blogging may seem like all fun and games, there is a certain science behind it. I had to put in images, hyperlinks, block quotes, and more so that my blog resembled what a professional blog post should look like. If it is just a block of text, then no one will want to read that. In a blog, I learned, I have to draw my readers in first aesthetically, and then with my content. (This is very unlike regular college essays where the only important thing is the content). Although these blog posts were a little challenging, they stretched my abilities and it was fun to be a little bit more creative than normal. I very much look forward to the blogging that I will be doing in the future, whether it be in more English classes or not.
Images
Image 1: http://giphy.com/gifs/computer-GyLc9e3hTYFWw
Image 2: https://media-mediatemple.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/clickhere_labels.png
Image 3: http://giphy.com/gifs/disney-big-hero-6-hiro-hamada-writers-block-XqQ6qRCtNQnfO
Image 4: http://cdn.skim.gs/image/upload/v1456337637/msi/woman-reading-blog-vert_j8tuqp.jpg
Image 5: http://giphy.com/gifs/blogging-4jJulEm0k81TG