Eye Sight Blogging

I am definitely not a perfect blogger…. Yet. Maybe I will never become a perfect blogger. However, if I do ever blog or become a blogger I will definitely want to blog about my discipline, which is Optometry and if I don’t ever blog it would be interesting to know what is said about the Optometry field. Therefore I went around and found 3 different blogs either written by Optometrist or written towards the Optometry field.

Frames, this is how most Optometrist make most of their money.

http://www.eyecarepro.net/optometry-marketing/2012/09/27/how-optometrists-can-win-the-battle-vs-online-eyewear-retailers/ In this blog, the writer presents strategies on how to keep the patients from grabbing their prescription and taking it somewhere else where they can buy cheaper frames. Although it was pretty informative, it did not provide any links to where he got the information about patients doing such a thing. Also it would also have helped if he would have put links on the statistics of how that affects Optometrist. His blog title, I thought, was pretty catchy and it’s the reason why I went on to read about it.

The next blog I read is in this link http://anonymousoptometrist.com/. This blog also did not have any links. The writer gives a lot of information about how he/she feels about how Optometry came about and also states a couple of facts about the profession, but does not have any links to back his information up. I also think that there is a lack of identity of the writer in this blog. I do not know who he or she is. Even though I want to say that it leaves room for discussion, but I don’t really think there is any.

The last blog that I read was about a blog that talked about how to build a successful practice. This caught my attention because one day I plan to open up my own practice. (http://newsfromaoa.org/2012/09/27/successful-practices-connect-the-generations/). In this blog the writer informs the reader about the different types of patients one can have depending on their generation. I felt like it was pretty informative and I felt like I could relate to it because this is what I want to do in the future. This person also incorporates personal story in the beginning, which then makes me want to continue reading what he has to say. His blog catches the reader with the personal story in the beginning and then he continues with his point and main part of his blog. The only thing missing again is links that can help him prove his point on what he is trying to say.

 It was really interesting to look at all these blogs and find out how Optometrist create blogs and also others that write about the profession. I found it really interesting how many of these blogs did and did not incorporate many of the things that we need to incorporate into our blogs. 

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!

My Choice of Career

Growing up I always knew I wanted to become a doctor. I always knew that I wanted to help sick people get better. Whenever people would ask me what I wanted to be I never failed to give them the same answer, a doctor. Throughout my childhood different things would catch my attention, but they would always come second to me becoming a doctor. At first I thought of becoming a Pediatrician, but I soon came to realize that I was not such a big kid person, so then I was back at not knowing exactly what kind of doctor I wanted to be.

When my sister was a little girl, she would always run into things. My mom would ask her why and she would always answer that it was because she could not see it. It sounded silly at the time because she would run into really big things. So one day my mom decided to take her to get her eyes checked and I went with her. That visit is what made me realize that I wanted to become an Optometrist. When we arrived at the Optometrist office there was a pamphlet that described the anatomy of the eye and that really catalyzed my interest. After seeing how my sister would struggle to see without glasses and how being able to see well is such a big part of life I knew
that I wanted to help people see better, therefore I knew that Optometry was my choice of career.

I started my college path at City College of San Francisco.  When I first got there I started out with my general education classes and took courses that would help me get into courses required for Optometry school. After my first semester at CCSF, I became pregnant. This made me rethink my dreams of becoming an Optometrist because I thought it would be too many years of school and I wanted to do something quick because I wanted to be able to provide for my daughter as much as I could, so I decided to change my mind and do nursing instead. For the first 2 years at CCSF, I took courses that would lead me to pre-requisites for nursing school and I was determined that after nursing school I would continue with my education and become a nurse practitioner because I knew that I didn't want to settle at nursing. 

When I started at CCSF, I was working at my Auntie's dental office. My Aunt always knew that I wanted to be a doctor and she was always very encouraging when it came to me becoming an Optometrist. When she found out that I had changed my mind and decided to become a nurse practitioner instead she was a little disappointed because she knew that it was not what I initially wanted to do and it wasn't what I had always thought of doing; However, she was always still very encouraging. After doing a lot of research on how long it would take in order to become a nurse practitioner, I found out that it was the same amount of time that I would take if I would do Optometry. So now the only reason that was holding me back to the idea of becoming a nurse practitioner was because I would work for 2 years as a nurse first and then apply to get my masters, which meant that I would start making good money quicker then I would if I would do Optometry. After thinking about this and having a couple of talks with my Auntie, I came to the realization that I should not choose a career just because of the money, but because it would be something that I enjoy doing. Also, my job was secure and my Auntie would always tell me that I could work there as long as I wanted to until I had to leave for school. After thinking it throughly, I realized that I wanted to stick to my original plan, to become an Optometrist. 

I then started taking all the classes I needed in order to later apply for Optometry school. I finished at CCSF with an AS degree and then transferred here to San Francisco State University to obtain my degree in Cell and Molecular Biology. Once I am done obtaining my Bachelors Degree I will apply for Optometry school and then become what I always wanted to be.