Thing 3 & Thing 4 - Thinking about Blogging

Reading through the assigned blogs I notice a few contrasts with standard writing that really stand out to me.
1. The voices of the authors really come out. You can really "hear" who the authors are and what their personalities are.
2. The passion is really evident. They seem to really care about what they are writing about. This makes sense as why would someone spend time on their own personal blog unless they had to.
In reading .
3. Standard writing rules and etiquette are bent some. The authors don't need to follow a typical 3-paragraph format or grammar rules. They can be much less formal in their writing - a more casual approach that is acceptable and maybe even accepted.

Blog reading is quick and fast. It's meant to be. The writing is succinct and easy to read. It's supposed to be. It's written on the fly and read on the fly. As noted before, when writing the blog the emotions of the author come pouring out and thus it's more like talking. So reading is more like listening.

Commenting and reading comments on blogs is what makes blogging meaningful and interactive. It makes the post more meaningful when people are reading the authors thoughts. It also will cause the author to be more passionate and thorough in their presentation because they know many people of many different views are reading and will be commenting. It's not like writing for just one teacher or for a group of like minded people that you might find in a journal. Comments give the author and reader feedback. As I read comments I get important perspectives to the blog. It lets me know that there are people out there with differing or similar positions. The comments help me understand and see new things.

All of these things I have written on are really evident on On Dy/Dan's blog about assigning homework. I can hear Dan's voice and his passion come out. His writing is easy to read and it is though I am in his classroom listening to it. And obviously it is a hot topic because there are 240 comments on the subject. The comments helped me solidify and clarify my opinion on the subject matter, but also helped me see new points on the topic.