End of semester summary

I was initially registered for a different Literature in the 21st Century section taught by a different professor. After sitting through the first day of that class and reviewing the syllabus, I knew that it wasn’t going to work for me. I went straight to the computer lab and removed that section from my schedule in favor of this one. Good decision. I had some experience writing blogs coming into this class. I have been keeping a blog on a leading NCAA track and field website called trackshark.com since last spring and I have mostly enjoyed it. At times it can be annoying, but all it entails is me explaining my training and giving some specifics and explaining them. It has provided good exposure for both me as a student-athlete and for St. Francis College. The blogs for this class, however, left my trackshark blog suffering because I certainly did not feel like writing another blog after writing 3 about subjects that didn’t particularly interest me.
Finally, last night I wrote my first blog on trackshark.com in over a month. I explained to my readers why I had not been writing, and I hope they understand. That is what I have learned that has surprised me the most about blogs; the amount of people who actually read them. I have been at track meets and people have come up to me and introduced themselves to me and told me they read my blog and like it. That was something I totally didn’t expect. Personally, despite being a big “computer person” the only reason I ever participate in the world of forums or blogs is to find answers about specific things. I’m not sure how many people actually read my blog for this class, but I would be surprised and impressed if anyone besides Professor Lennon did.
The format of the blogs rather than papers is something I definitely favor. I consider myself to be a good writer despite hating to read. Teachers often find it odd when I say I hate to read because my writing suggests otherwise. I usually write ‘A’ papers so I certainly wouldn’t have minded being forced to write a paper or two for this class. However, a 21st century literature class which will obviously deal with such modern topics and ideas that are typically brought to our attention through more than just words on paper benefits greatly from a technological enhancement. The proof is in the virtual class. I understood very little of what I read of The House of Leaves, but once I began searching for answers online and on other people’s blogs, much of it became less foreign to me. Also, I think people generally seem surer of the point they are trying to make when given the opportunity to write it down and examine it before clicking ‘submit post’. Writing a blog can help you formulate your idea and enhance it using other people’s ideas, not just the people in this class.
If I had to change anything about my blog, I would probably try to find some way to incorporate the two blogs I was running so neither would be neglected. I believe in quality over quantity. And I mean quality not just in how you write, but how much you know about what you are writing about. Meaning that if I write only 1 paragraph and someone writes 3 paragraphs about the same topic, it doesn’t mean the person who wrote more knows more about the subject than the person who wrote less. Some people just are able to express and explain what they want to say in less space. I think that is something overlooked too much by professors. The same applies to the blogs. Three blogs a week was not a lot, but there were times I felt I was writing blogs about stuff just to have the 3 blogs and maybe only 1 of the 3 was enjoyable to write.