The experience of writing
blog posts has been very strange for me. I do not have a lot of experience in
responding to readings in a blog format and beginning the process I was not
eagerly anticipating blogging as an educational outlet. I much prefer writing
in a formal tone than a casual, conversational tone. Strangely enough I feel
that a formal tone comes more natural to me than an informal tone because I do
not write the way I speak and I do not speak the way I write. My writing and speaking tones are two completely separate entities that I have never considered combining. It has been a challenge to attempt to
transform my writing to a blog style rather than a formal essay or paper style.
I usually shy away from using the first person because all throughout high
school I was taught and I believed that using the first person makes a work less
educational and less valid but the informal blog posts of myself and my classmates
has proved me wrong. This challenge has provided more variety and richness to
my writing style and made it much more dynamic. I am now forming the ability to
write in a more creative and entertaining way as opposed to my usual objective
style. It has also been very challenging to post my academic writing publicly
on the Internet for everyone to see. I usually tend to keep my writing private
and do not really enjoy having others read my work. Each time a write a new post
I am hesitant to press the ‘publish’ button. But with each additional blog post
I feel more comfortable and take less notice to the fact that what I write will
be readily available to public scrutiny. These posts have pushed me to take on
a more conversational tone in my writing and have brought me to the realization
that not only formal writing is valid. Blogs serve as a very important source
for opinions and information and this is something that I never really
considered before this class. I still do prefer a formal writing style but I
now see the merits of both formal and informal writing.
It's so interesting to me that a formal tone comes more naturally to you than an informal tone. I am the opposite. I agree with your statement that it's been hard to post your academic writing publicly. I'm not normally a big fan of sharing my writing myself either.
ReplyDeleteLike Julia, I thought your commentary on tones was really interesting. People often think it is easier to write like we speak, and they look forward to speech recognition programs that will do the writing for them. But as you note, it's never quite that easy. Writing and speaking are quite different.
ReplyDeleteWhile I am the opposite of you regarding forms of writing than come easiest, I can totally see where you are coming from. However weird it is, I actually enjoy writing formal/research papers, and I can envision how that style of writing would be easier for you. We are all different, and so is writing. But that doesn't mean one person or form of writing is better than the others.
ReplyDelete