To All The “Blog Graders”
May 20th, 2008 | Published in Revolution, message, Inner Thoughts, School, Blogging | 6 Comments
So, we’ve been doing this “improve our writing by writing blogs” for about 2 years. Mr. Burell suggested the idea when we were in 9th grade. He said, “writing can be improved by writing about something you like about. Also, blogging will make sure you care about the audience.”
Now, you can scroll up on this page, and see the phrase “Don’t Forget The Audience” at the top. It’s a nice phrase for a title. But if you read the phrase below it, it says, “But Never Forget Yourself.” I did not put that so I could sound cool or anything. In fact, I intended to put more emphasis on the latter phrase.
What is true writing? Is writing for the audience true writing? It might impove the presentation of our post, but would it actually be a true writing?
My point is that, when I write, sometimes I don’t want to think about the audience. Sometimes, I don’t want them to even read my post. Sometimes, I just want to make my posts private. Because when I feel like I’m truly writing, I’m writing for myself. I write, because I want to organize all the crazy stuff going on in my brain on a piece of paper. When I’m blogging for the audience, I’m not “writing.” I call that “typing.”
If you are trying to impress the audience with your writing, then you’re most likely typing. But if you are writing for yourself, so you can put out everything in your brain on a piece of paper so you can feel lighter, then you’re writing.
Feel free to use the words like “he,” or “she.” There shouldn’t be any need to explain who he or she is, since you know who they are. Above all, you don’t want the audience to know who they are. Of course, if you want the audience to know who they are, go ahead and name them.
Now, writing can be for the audience. But it’s never only for the audience. For example, this post is for the audience, but it’s really for me. This post is a message for the audience from me. I’m writing this, because I want everyone to know what I’m saying, not because everyone wants to know what I’m saying. I call this “true writing,” and I feel much more “improvable” this way.
So, to all of those so-called “blog graders,” I just want to know, how do you grade our blogs? According to you guys, we have to have a picture, we have to be commenting on each others blogs, and we have to be interacting with each other. Now, they are great things to do, if you want to go for those multi-media stuff. But come on, it’s English class and we’re trying to improve writing here.
Mr. Burell was never wrong, because he still writes for himself. It’s just that, we’re doing it wrong.
As you can see, I didn’t put any pictures on this post. I would have, if I found a good picture. But I though a picture wouldn’t make the message any stronger. In fact, I believe the message is strong enough on the context already.
May 20th, 2008 at 6:19 am (#)
heeey.
just visited.
I know it sounds corny but- I guess this piece of blog is very motivating to me, cause one reason I didn’t wanna blog was because I didn’t want to write for others to see but just for myself. Having a rubric itself and having to hand it in does make blogging unattractive.
Hopefully one day we can be writers for ourselves not for grades or others.
P.S.
you can visit my unpolished, blog http://iljeek10.kiswrites.org/
btw im gonna steal ur “top10″ thing and make my own volleyball one! I’ll credit you don’t worry
May 20th, 2008 at 7:41 am (#)
wow nice post.
you have a great voice, compared to your monotone voice at school this post really gets me engaged. nice one, keep up the loud voice. I agree, sometimes I just don’t want others to read few of my blogs… since it was written so carelessly I don’t want them to misunderstand that my actual writings are that poor.
May 20th, 2008 at 1:26 pm (#)
Man, this is good. I wrote something similar in a comment conversation I’m having on one of my own favorite writer’s posts here, called “My Blogging Legacy.”
I could quibble a bit with the “if you’re writing for others, it’s typing” line, because I still argue no writer wants to write crap, even if they’re writing for themselves only. In that sense, private writing is writing for an audience of one - yourself.
But overall, I’m with you on much of what you say.
I think you’ve read my “For the Roses: My Latest Position on Classroom Blogging” post. A great conversation is going on at the bottom of that comment thread with a woman named Adrienne about the idea of not grading blog writing at all - requiring it, but not grading it.
But I have to say, Younsuk - your writing is nice and strong here. I’m glad you didn’t put it on a piece of notebook paper or a private journal. Others should read this - and comment. The question it asks is a good one: how do students think blog writing should work? How be graded?
Thanks for making me late to school
May 21st, 2008 at 3:46 am (#)
haha it sure is ur best blog
Instead of trying to package the writing up as we usually do, I like to write like myself and try finding my voice, trying many different kinds of writing. And of course, without being worried about this being graded because I know there will be many trials and errors, like me.
And I hope the grades don’t discourage people in doing blogging. I see many people trying to finish this fast, and I’m sure blogging or writing won’t turn out to be any fun for them, which ain’t the purpose of this hw.. i guess.
Hope it’ll turn out to be something else. Something like how u improve in expressing yourself and also the writing style, instead of looking at how well you’ve made it fancy by pictures or videos. It’ll be better if you could grade how much you enjoy writing, but since that is impossible, that’s out of the question haha…
Well, it was something gud to think about, Thanks! XD
May 21st, 2008 at 8:07 am (#)
Thank you for reading guys!
To Clay Burell
In fact, I did not read your post when I wrote this. I just realized it when I started writing about stuff that I like. You know I told you before that I used to hate writing. But when I wrote about basketball, and when I wrote about stuff that was going on in my brain all the time, things that were frustrating me, I couldn’t stop writing. There were so many things I wanted to scribble down on a piece of paper (or type it on the computer screen) so I could feel much more “expressed.” It wasn’t about the audience; it was about me. But as you said, there’s not a rule that says I myself cannot be one of the audiences.
When I finished writing this post, I told my friends to read it. Because I really wanted people to think about it, especially the teachers. That’s why I linked to your blog so you might visit my blog and read this. And maybe you can tell our English teachers to read this post?
May 28th, 2008 at 7:11 pm (#)
woah cool
grading blogs are very… ambiguous
you have different expectations than that of the person you’re grading
very motivating
very thoughtful and insightful