Meta Blog Post: Blogging About Blogging

As I look from my older blog posts to my newer ones, I definitely notice the themes of hard work and opportunity. I would probably categorize my posts into three sections: the beginning of the year until first quarter where we received comments on our favorite posts from the teachers, then until the day before New Year's, and the day before New Years until now.

In my first section, I was writing for my own enjoyment, about whatever floated across my mind. For example, my very first post, Yoga On the Rise, is about one of my favorite hobbies- yoga. This post and most of the others were not rooted in many texts, had simple and casual language, and had almost no correlation to America or American Studies. However, my speaking voice was well echoed in it, and was most definitely fun to read because I was writing about topics that interested me and I was passionate about.

After receiving comments about our blogs at first quarter, some of the good qualities from the first section were lost, but the problems from then were fixed. Many posts seem generic in the way that anyone could have written them- there is no clear voice. At times, they feel slightly like a checklist of requirements to accomplish. Nevertheless, previous problems like rooting posts in texts, American Studies, and America as a whole were no longer issues. One post that exemplifies these ideas very well is my post titled Is All Art Propaganda? Right off the bat, I say "In my American Studies class". This introduction makes it seem like I am trying to hard to accomplish the set goal of connecting the post to class. As the piece progresses though, I begin to ask more thought provoking questions like  "is propaganda in the form of art a bad thing?" One of my favorite parts about this question is that it makes the reader question their philosophy on art by asking is it. This was a good post because it was truly an extension of the discussions we have in class, despite the fact that it lacked an authentic voice. 

This last section from New Years until now is only just beginning. In all honesty, I am not positive about the origin of this change, but if I had to guess, I suppose I would attribute it to the New Year and the general feeling of opportunity like my first post of the section says. In that post I take it a step further by connecting ideas we learn in class like American values, connecting it to a relevant topic- New Years, and then I connect it back to the novel A Narrative In the Life Of Frederick Douglass. Not only do I bring it back to Douglass, but I cite specific evidence from the text: "Mr. Covey, 'succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul, and spirit'". I then go on to explain the quote in the context of my blog post and do not just ignore it. Certainly this is only a beginning of the next section, but I believe that I am finally beginning to put together all of the good pieces from all the sections and leaving out the bad ones. My posts now are relevant, relate to class, have an authentic voice, are rooted in text, and are interesting. I think that I am starting to find the balance between taking what we learn in class and writing about the ideas from class that interest me the most.