“Why Blog?” Notes

Summary:

• It takes around 10,000 hours of dedication to a certain task to be considered an expert/professional at it.
• Writing provides students with skills that will help them succeed in almost any future career they find themselves in.
• A blog provides the opportunity to explore and develop your writing.
• 3 questions to ask yourself before you begin to write: 1) Who is your audience? 2) What is your purpose? 3) What genre are you writing?
• 4 elements of autonomy (task, technique, time, and team).
• Choosing a topic to write about may very well be the most difficult part of writing.
• 5 forces that inspire you to write: 1) Urgency to the topic. 2) Important purpose. 3) Feeling knowledgeable to write about a certain subject. 4) Personal interest. 5) Positive audience and feedback.
• Blogging brings a sense of independence for the writer.
• Blogs allow your work to live on forever.
• Your blog posts can be short, long, formal, informal, etc…
• If someone wanted to start a blog, most websites have simple (easy to understand) directions.
• Your blog can include pictures, videos, podcasts, almost any kind of media.
• You can customize dozens of features that your blog includes.
• You can filter out unwanted comments on your blog.
• The main point of blogging is to write/share your interests with others on the web.
• As a blogger, set goals for yourself (post once a day, comment on another blog, explore new ideas from other blogs, etc).

Key Terms/Main Ideas:

The main idea of this article is to express the benefits of blogging, and to inform people how simple and entertaining managing a blog can be.

Intrinsic Motivation: Behavior that is driven by internal rewards.

Extrinsic Motivation: Behavior that is driven by external rewards (money, praise, fame, etc).

Autonomy: Freedom from external control, and influence. Independence.

Blogosphere: Blogs existing as a community/connection.

RSS (Real Simple Syndication) Feed: A file that updates every time you post something new. Also allows others to connect with your blog.

Commentary:

When I was first introduced to the idea of a blog, I was unhappy. I have always been content and comfortable with the idea of simply writing by hand onto a piece of paper. After reading this article my perspective changed. Turns out there are many benefits to having a blog. I found myself agreeing with almost everything the author had to say about blogging. I loved the idea of independence with blogging. Your post could be the length of a book, or simply one sentence that gets straight to the point. You could blog in the morning, the afternoon, or the evening. You could write about anything that comes to mind, and share your opinion with the rest of the world. I was also very pleased with how well the author explained the blog set up, and all the different options that are available for bloggers. For someone like me, who is new to blogging, the author led me to believe that managing a blog is not as complicated as it may seem to be. This left me with a positive outlook on blogging. In conclusion, the author did a wonderful job expressing the positive experience blogging can bring to people all around the globe. Thanks to Alex Reid, (author) I can now welcome the idea of blogging in my English class.