Blogging Reflection

The quality of my writing and blogging improved drastically throughout the course of the trimester. In the beginning of the year I didn’t always use the best diction or format, but I think that changed over the course of my blogging experience. My blogs started to get longer and they became more in-depth with my thoughts on the reading. One of my better blogs that I made during the trimester was analyzing the text to make inferences, and that one was superior to my blog about characterization. I used better textual evidence to support my claims, and also used better warrants based on the evidence used. In my analysis of Uglies, I used three pieces of textual evidence and all of them helped prove my points. Not only did I type out the quotes, but I also analyzed them to find the meaning behind them and what they can prove to me.

Another thing I did in my later blog post was use better diction to enhance my writing. I used words like slithering, severe, and atrocious, instead of using words like sneaking, harsh, and bad. Using good diction does not only make you look smarter, but it gives your writing life and makes the reader want to read more. In the first blog post I didn’t even use correct grammar at some points. A part that I wrote was “but they kept on getting more mysterious and making their heads boggle”. Instead of using ‘making’, I should have used made because it makes more sense in comparison to the sentence. Also, I didn’t even use the correct format of typing when I showed the changed the dialogue. I put the dialogue all in one big paragraph, instead of creating new paragraphs every time there was a new speaker. Mrs. Bowman really taught us this, and this was a technique that I used in my blogs towards the end of the trimester. For all of my textual evidence I used different paragraphs, and this also helps the paper look neater.

Throughout the trimester, I struggled with the desire to read, and also trying to do another blog outside of class. I have never really enjoyed reading, with the exception of a few series. It hasn’t been one of my interests, which is surprising because I’m a superb reader and can understand difficult text. I tried to overcome this struggle by setting certain times for reading most days of the week, but sometimes that didn’t happen. Often times I would get distracted by other things, or would just have too much homework in other classes that I needed to focus on. I struggled to blog because I don’t enjoy reading in the first place, and it was tough for me to express what I’ve been reading because it didn’t always interest me.

Some things that were my strengths in blogging were making connections and writing detailed sentences. I’m usually good with writing appealing sentences that the reader wants to read and using excellent diction. I guess I sort of reached my reading goal, but I didn’t set it that high because I don’t read as often as others do. I read one complete book, and about three quarters of another book. I planned on reading 3-4 books this year, so I guess I am on pace. I downloaded the Goodreads app on my phone, but truly I never really used it. I used it to show that I finished a book, but I rarely got on and updated my pages. I have always been a good reader so I didn’t improve too much, but reading a tougher book like Uglies made me a better reader. I can read very quickly and comprehend things well, which is one of my strengths for English class and life.