Anyone can blog. Some bloggers are professional journalists and some bloggers are students. The word blog is “a contraction of two words, Web and log. Blogs are just one of the many sites via the World Wide Web that individuals use to express their opinions to a wide audience. They exist as Web pages, but some blogs have print links that allow the text to be printed as a hard copy. Blogs can serve as a means for individuals to communicate with one another by submitting comments to the published blog. Readers can use these comments to agree, disagree, or continue the discussion.
Blogs are informal, informative and can be entertaining. Some blogs serve as a daily journal or a personal essay. The design of an appealing blog will attract readers who will want to access the blog. The best thing to do when designing a blog is to view and read other blogs. This will not only help the development of the blog, but one may also find a blog that they want to link with. Well written blogs are informative, updated frequently. They may also include links to other blogs that serve as a resource for their blog.
The content and organization of a well written blog can be developed by first reading other blogs. People can Google “blogs” to help steer them to blogs that are of interest. Most blogs have a focus or a topic that the blogger wants to discuss. Blogs can range from one to several paragraphs. Authors G. Marsh, D. Guth & B. Short encourage blog writers to “be informal: Use the first-person pronouns I and we” (p. 109). Because blogs are informal writings, it is acceptable to use sentence fragments and slang within the blog and comments. However, blogging etiquette must be used.
Obscene or threatening comments can be reported and deleted from the blog page. Some blogs are set to not post a reader’s comments until the blogger has reviewed it. If the comment simply disagrees with the blogger, then the blogger can use it as an opportunity to extend the discussion between the reader and the blogger.
Sometimes no one will access the blog, but even if no one looks at it, the blog may have some information that is important to the blogger and it will allow the author to access that information anytime they wish.
Blogging can be a fun way to journal thoughts and ideas, or to talk about and get the opinion of the reader about a specific subject. A well designed blog will attract readers and invite comments. Successful blogs open lines of communication that can be instrumental in developing a relationship between the blogger and the reader.
Reference: Marsh, C., Guth, D., & Short, B. (2009). Strategic Writing. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.
No comments:
Post a Comment