What blog did you enjoy writing the most and why?
The blog post I enjoyed writing the most dates back to the first blog post of the semester. Although I also really enjoy attempting to educate others on the “Dietary Dilemma” and my diet with the reasoning behind it, my first post provided more value to me. The title “Prospering Through Sports” entailed the history of my athletic career as I traveled from soccer club team to club team and eventually settled upon lacrosse. It was nostalgic to think of my former days in soccer when I was a four-year-old and eye-opening for how much I sacrificed in my life for sports. I learned more about myself, my character development, and the time and portions of my life that I devoted to a sport I no longer play. Which raised the question of whether it was all a waste of time, money, and effort. My ultimate conclusion after a large amount of time spent dwelling on the question was no, it was not a waste of any resource. It created the person I am today and I loved playing soccer up until my final months of the sport.
How did you change or evolve as a writer over the course of the semester?
I believe that over the course of the semester, I became a more analytical and in-depth writer allowing me to write more holistically, unbiased, and refrain from redundancy. In literature, I view it as some pivotal aspects because authors and writers who have perfected such things are able to compose the most complex and meaningful pieces in my opinion. For example, my ability to reiterate implicit meanings that authors intended in their work such as any of the novels we have read this semester demanded such writing.
What have you learned about writing by reading other students’ blogs?
From reading other’s blogs I was able to obtain a greater grasp on how much perspective and one’s life experiences can truly translate into one’s writing. Reading how much love, hate, or any emotion that some of my classmates have for certain topics allows me to cross-reference those to opinions of my own. It allows me to be more understanding of differences in opinion and acknowledge that their opinions just as my own are due to their past experiences. I learned to appreciate the rhetorical devices that were utilized to get their points across which I can then implement in my own writing or even for what not to do. It is also interesting to learn more about my classmates and their characters which I may have never received such insight on without these blog posts.
What “lessons” are you taking away from the first semester that you will carry with you next semester–about writing or otherwise?
Some lessons that I will take with me likely into the remainder of my literary career are focusing on the implicit meanings of literature and having close readings when I am trying to analyze a text in-depth. Some of the most valuable takeaways or intentions in writing I have realized are not explicitly stated nine times out of ten. So when I aim to develop such themes in my writing I am now able to replicate them in an attempt to add more layers and meaning into my pieces. This will be especially helpful when we receive more essays and analyses of readings for next semester providing a more solid understanding of writing. I also found that this class aided me along the college essay writing process by creating such implicit meanings in my essays to show more of who I am and convey these things through rhetorical usage.
I too chose my first blog to be my most favorite blog I’ve written to date. I like how your first blog was essentially a gateway into your values and the things you hold dear, soccer for example. It’s interesting to see how each writer has evolved in their own way; I began incorporating emotion more fluently through my writing, but you have become a better writer analytically. My biggest problem in literature to this day is that my analysis of implicit meanings in a text remains at a minimum. Glad to say I am making a good amount of progress through this class, despite having a long way to go. I’ve loved to read your blogs throughout the semester. I definitely hope to see the both of us continue to evolve as writers through the extent of this class and beyond.