Blogging: A Better Genre of Writing?

What is blogging? Before I took this class, I never thought about the definition or the genre of blogging because I never thought of creating a blog or how it would benefit me in any way. I would look at blogs on different websites and the only type of definition that would come to mind was how people would go online and put their opinions about certain topics and how people would just comment on them. I never realized how blogging was all over the place. Now that I think about it there are so many different types of blogs, many formal and informal. Taking this class, has led me to the conclusion that blogging is somewhat in the range of conversation between the writer and the readers; However, there is so much more to blogging then putting ideas out and getting feedback.

Blogging is a very different way of writing and it is very open-ended. It is a method of writing that has come from using technology as a way to communicate and socialize. While I was trying to determine what blogging was about, I went on a couple of blogs myself in order to get a feel of how people blog and the differences in the blogs and these are a couple that I found (1) and (2). Looking at these blogs made me realize how people use blogs in various ways of creativity in order to get their point or message across to the readers. Blogging has become a method of web writing that people use to express their ideas on various subjects, whether it is on their personal life, politics, health, business, etc.

Even though writers should have some kind of formality in their blogs, like they do in essays or anything that is published, blogs differ a lot from any type of formal writing. Before blogs, in order for people to have their work read by others they would either have to have a book published or they would have to put it on a magazine or newspaper. Basically anywhere where their work would probably get completely edited in a way that would attract more readers. However, blogging has completely changed that. It has made it easier for people to put their work out for others to read. It has also made it possible for writers to get their work out without it being completely changed to the point where it begins to mean something else. Blogging, in itself, is its own genre.

Blogging has evolved to become a way that people communicate and become part of a kind of community. Christina Harview points out, “… blogging is also a way to increase the skills of information handling and transmittance” . Harview makes an interesting point because when we make blogs we have to increase our skills of how to transmit information accurately so that we do not mislead the readers and also so that the readers can understand what the blog is about. Also as writers we have to be able to know how to handle the information. Whether it involves handling the information that we obtain for our blogs or the information that is presented by the feedback we get from the readers. Blogging has made it so that people become part of a community. Even though many of these people may not know each other when they are reading each others’ blogs or commenting on them, they share the same interests and therefore it creates a type of community. Even though many of the readers and bloggers are probably all completely different, at that point and time when they are relating and commenting on blogs they are part of a community that relates to that blog. We read this article in class and the author, Harris, makes a good point about the sense of community in writing.

Blogging also extends to an open-ended way of writing. There are no limits on how to present your writing in a blog. “Blogging is also incomplete, open, and ongoing. It is about process, not product. It is about a shared space”, this is what makes blogging so interesting and also why it attracts so many writers. There are no limits on presentation. A writer can get really creative on how they want to present their information to their readers. This causes readers to be more engaged in the writers work. It is also ongoing, therefore the blog will never have an end. Unlike a article on a paper, magazine, a book, or an essay, blogging doesn’t just get reviewed, edited by others, or just read. It gets feedback and the writer can go back and respond the feedback. With the other types of work a writer may never get responses on their work.

Blogging has evolved the way people get their points across. I think it has increased the amount people write now a days compared to before. Even though some may not be as formal as others, it all depends on who the audience is and who the writer is trying to target. Blogging has enabled people to increase their skills on how they process information and gives a lot of people a sense of community. Some people may be too shy to put their work out or they may not belong to any communities; However, blogging has changed that for many. Enabling people to feel part of a community and also being able to put work out that can stimulate people’s minds and also stimulate their own. Now blogging makes more sense to me. Doing this research on what blogging is has made me realize how it could also help me in my future as an Optometrist. There will be times where I might want to get a point across or come across a new method or research for something eye related and by making a blog about it I can get feedback from people everywhere, not just my patients. Blogging can help me spread an idea beyond my patients!