Reflection on Blogging

     Before this class, and the Digital Rhetoric class with Doug, I had never blogged and I wasn’t even really familiar with what blogging was. The first couple weeks of blog posts I had no clue what I was really doing. Sure I understood the basic requirements for the posts, but I had no idea what to write about or how to even make my thoughts come out in a clear and concise way. However, as the weeks continued and as the reading became less difficult to understand the blogging process became easier for me. Not only was the concept of blogging new to me but so was rhetoric, how was I supposed to do weekly posts on a term I knew nothing about?! But just as the fear of blogging diminished, so did the fear of blogging about rhetoric.

     If it hasn’t already been quite obvious throughout this semester, I am not one to talk in class. I have this giant fear of speaking in class, you would think as a senior I would have been able to get over it but I haven’t, so the blogs were a good way for me to feel comfortable voicing my opinions about the readings. In a class where I found myself regularly challenged, being able to put my thoughts and words on a page left me feeling (more) comfortable than being asked to voice those same ideas in a classroom setting. The idea of having the blog as a way of communicating with the class outside of the class is a setting that I felt good about.

     This entire class has challenged my thinking and the blogs were a place where I found myself being challenged by what my classmates wrote about, but they were also a place for me to reassure myself that I was not completely wrong in my understanding of rhetoric and/or the readings. Reading other people’s posts and writing comments gave me confidence knowing that my thoughts were somewhat on track. Even though I sometimes struggled to find something to write about each week for a blog post and would rather not blog, I am (somewhat) happy that blogging was a requirement for this course. It kept me more engaged in the class and it challenged me to make connections to past readings and posts made by fellow classmates.