Blog Reflection

This class was nothing like any previous writing classes I’ve taken in the past, so the format was initially a little weird for me. I don’t regularly part take in any form of blogging or forums online, so the first couple of blogs that I wrote were probably the most difficult for me. In particular, the most difficult thing was having a good sense of voice in my writing. I graduated (now that this class is officially over with) with a degree in Integrative Physiology, so the only papers I’ve written are very formal and scientific and do not allow for much voice. My previous papers have been mostly factual rather than opinionated as they are in this class. I think that while my voice has gotten stronger throughout this summer term, I believe that there is still a lot of room for improvement which will only come with time. I was actually very excited to be able to watch a television show and simply talk about it (blog it). It was a change of pace from what I’m accustomed to doing, and I really enjoyed it.

One thing in particular that I learned from this class was the many different ways to pre-write. I normally just stick to outlining just to keep things simple, but I found that using post-its and small scraps of paper to reorganize your ideas really helped me generate new ideas, and allowed me to see where I needed to have stronger arguments and supporting information

As I expected, most of my revisions occurred in my first blog about the Half Pint Brawlers. I didn’t have much of a sense of voice and spent a lot of time summarizing instead of analyzing the show in detail. I also added a comparison section to Little People, Big World to contrast the different little people shows that are on TV, as well as how the show fits into today’s TV culture. My other revisions consisted of more critical analysis and less summary, in addition to working on the flow of my sentences and paragraphs.

This class has drastically affected my engagement with TV. Prior to this class I had one or two shows that I really enjoyed watching and was a loyal fan to. However, after reading our classmates blogs and talking about good and bad TV shows, I find myself watching shows that I would normally overlook. I am more critically analyzing shows on their content and character rather than watching TV to just relax. This happened with one of my favorite shows Modern Family. I used to watch it because it was really funny and entertaining, but since taking this class, I have written an analysis paper about the show and now have a totally different perspective on the shows storylines and characters. I also learned a lot about the history of television from reading chapters in the book and I have a greater respect for some TV shows and less for others because of it.

In the end, this class really opened my eyes to new media and in particular blogging. I got to know a lot of my classmates better through reading their blog posts and it was easy to connect with people who had similar ideas. It’s encouraged me to get out there and use new media and start to blogging and commenting on other peoples posts. This was an eye-opening experience for me and a good change of pace from my previous classes.