When my English teacher told me I had to create a blog, my first thought was… OK, how do I start? Lucky for me, we were supposed to base our blog off of an essay we wrote previously called a synthesis essay.
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In this essay I combined multiple sources, each supporting my thesis that decisions should be made by the individual person and not outside factors. My original synthesis essay was a whopping 2,000 words, filled with phrases such as:
“[if] person makes a decision [of what they eat] because someone else told them to, they will be infinitely less successful than if they made a decision based on their own volition.”- quote from original synthesis article
Pretty wordy right?
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I thought so too. Especially for an online blog post, I decided to spare you guys from reading such a scholarly paper, but I did want to get some of my points across from my original essay.
The problem was: how do I turn an essay into a blog? The best way, I decided was to pick one aspect of my essay and turn that into a blog. Originally, I talked about college, immigration, and food.
Me trying to figure out my topic
I immediately wrote off immigration as my topic. I am very passionate about immigration reform, and especially in light of President Trump’s new executive order , the topic is extremely relevant. However, I felt as though the topic warrants a more professional setting.
Between college and food, the choice, was easy. While college is very relevant (hello, I’m in college), I thought that food
- is more relevant in my life (i mean, i have to have it to survive…)
- is delicious.
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Ultimately though, I believed I could address a very relevant topic about food, and that is how it is portrayed on social media and how that also relates to body image.
So, I took a very small aspect of my essay, said a spell, and viola! a blog!
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Just kidding.
My inspiration for my blog came from The Londoner. This is one of my favorite blogs (check it out if you have time), I’ve been following it for a while. I particularly like how she uses pictures and short paragraphs.
I had to do some a lot of revision to my original paper. I decided to address my original thesis in my blog, but in a more obscure way. I realized a blog doesn’t need the classic 5 paragraph + thesis format I am used to writing for my English essays.
I took the idea of food and ran with it. I asked myself, what do I want to address about food that still somewhat relates to my synthesis essay. Procrastinating (of course), I scrolled through Instagram.
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I came across a delicious grilled cheese, making my stomach growl, but the next picture was a workout guru, making me feel like I should drop down and do 10 pushups. I realized the contradictory images I see on social media of delicious (but high calorie) food and workout pages. I wanted to explore how a normal person is supposed to stay healthy, but also indulge.
Once I thought about this topic, I realized it had a lot to do with my original thesis in my essay because, balance is important, but this balance can only come from a personal choice.
My topic chosen, all I had to do was write. I ended up writing an entirely new blog, using no direct quotes from my original essay but instead using the synthesis essay solely as inspiration. Because I was passionate about the topic, the words flowed naturally, and of course, finding relatable gifs is always an easy task.
That is what I realized through this assignment. When I found a topic that interested me, the writing just flowed. Apply this to life. Find things that you are passionate about, and the rest becomes easy. Follow your interests, and the rest will fall into place.
Do things with passion, or not at all- Anynomous