Ever heard the saying all good
things must come to an end? Well, that’s what the end of this English 101 class
feels like. Before this class, I knew about social media. Social media was a
part of my everyday life. What I didn’t know was about all the kinds of social
media. I used facebook and twitter but I never thought to start my own blog. I
knew some facebook friends who had blogs. I always felt like I didn’t have
enough to write about to start a blog. I figured you had to be married, had
children, or using it for work. Needless to say, I’m not married, I have no
children, and I currently do not have a job. This class taught me blogs were
for everyone. I didn’t have to be a nurse or married with three kids. As I read
different blogs, I learned I could just tell how my day went and people would
listen. I’m thankful Mrs. Sasser asked questions for the class to post about.
If she hadn’t given us topics, I would have rambled about my everyday struggle
as a college student. Thank her next time you see her! I never thought blogs
would improve my writing because it is social media and a casual thing that
everyone does online. I was wrong! My writing has greatly improved.
 |
| http://www.flickr.com/photos/avardwoolaver/7034644229/ |
If I had to choose my best written blog,
it would be my revised
blog. Looking at the original,
I have made many adjustments. For instance, my revised blog has paragraphs. The
original was written at the beginning of the semester. I didn’t really know why
I chose to come to college. I knew I came for my career, but I didn’t know all
the other opportunities that college offered. For my revised blog, I had the experience
of college. I already figured out the pros and cons to attending Jacksonville
State. I went to the writing clinic for this particular blog. I was shown how
to fully develop my sentences. I have a habit of getting in a rush and leaving necessary
words out on my sentence. In this last blog, I took everything I learned and
applied it to my blog. I developed my paragraphs, made complete sentences, had
good punctuation, and proofread my blog. Looking at this blog compared to my
very first one, I have made tremendous improvement.
My favorite blog to write was on an
essay from Share or Die. My essay was “Heartbeats
and Hashtags”. I enjoyed writing this one because I felt the importance of
it. The essay used social media to raise awareness about a good cause. When
writing this I felt like a writer should. I didn’t stop to think of what I
would say; my words just poured out into my blog. I felt passionate about
raising awareness to use social media in a useful way. I wanted to write this
post. I felt like this post wasn’t just about me and a grade. If someone reads
my blog, they could be encouraged to use social media to benefit the lives of
our people. For all I know, a person could raise 40,000 dollars for breast
cancer by social media. What if they got the encouragement to start that
fundraiser from reading my blog post? That is the difference I want to make.
Not only did I make a difference, I developed a well written blog. I developed good
paragraphs. I separated my topics better than normal and didn’t ramble on. I
have a habit of switching subjects and I’m proud to say I didn’t in this post.
This is where it finally sunk in my head that I had to improve. I believe I
accomplished that. Since I felt this blog was on an important matter, I tried
harder. I spent much more time writing this and I proofread. I’m very proud of
this blog and the things I learned from it.
 |
| http://www.flickr.com/photos/hauptillusionator/6934904204/ |
I didn’t start greatly improving my
writing until the last few blog posts. My first two didn’t even have
paragraphs. I found it hard to answer the questions being asked. I had never
given why I came to college much thought. I never knew how many people graduate
college and are still unemployed. I just knew that my career choice demanded a bachelor’s
degree in nursing. I really had to dig deep to get the answers for my blog
posts. I felt like it slightly hindered my writing because I had come to the
realization how tough college will be. I was thinking is it worth it? My mind
was filled with so much; it was hard to concentrate on just one question. On my
slow improvement journey, I published “Is
College Really Good Enough”. This post does have well developed paragraphs
and good punctuation. I had not yet learned to not jump around in my
paragraphs. I liked this post because I was interested in the question. I had
to examine all the pros and cons to college, and decide if it was worth going
in debt for. This post really made me brainstorm. This was the first post I
wrote in Microsoft Word. I knew my previous posts were pretty much crap and I
wanted this one to be better. I wrote the post as a rough draft, proofread it,
and then published a pretty good learner’s blog. It was by far not my best one,
but it was the beginning to improvement. Thank you Mrs. Sasser for teaching me
how to be more effective in the social media world! As you can see, you’re teaching
paid off.
