Something about Revision

To me revision is the process of making your ideas more apparent and clear. Mostly I revise during the drafting process, but sometimes, like in the case of this class, I will complete a whole separate revision process before turning my final draft in. The biggest part of my revision process is having my mom read my work. By having her read over my writing I get free editing and revision because she will let me know when something I have said doesn't quite make sense or the flow of my paper is off. Thank you Mommy! :)

Essay 2 prompt

I'm pretty sure the third option is going to work best for me. I have written quite a few research driven papers over my academic career so I think doing another research paper is my best bet for success. For me West's article is a good starting point. Her information is clear and direct, and presented in a format easily understood. West's article has helped me search for related articles by providing key terms that I think are important to answering the essay prompt, like identity, society, blogging, academic research, and blogging in the classroom. I think how I am going to apply West's essay to my essay is pretty obvious. Her article is the bone structure I am building my essay around. I am looking to build upon her general research and then make a specific claim using the information I gather from my chosen texts.

Essay reflection (10 minute free write)

I feel like by the "final" draft of my essay, I had done a pretty good job of analyzing the elements of the blog I followed and talking about how these elements provided an indentity to the bloggers behind the posts. Over all I wish I would have spent more time working on my essay. I was a bit disheartened when I had to find a new blog and start over. Overall I feel confident in my work and my argument.

A Favorite Passage

Journalism is expected to be objective and reliable, ... Blogs, on the other hand, are subjective and independent, and come with no guarantee of truth... Interestingly enough, a survey of blog readers by the advertising company Blogads showed that they visit blogs precisely because they see them as more credible than mainstream media (Rettberg 91-92).

While journalism is expected to be truthful and accurate, blogs are an independent variable in the writing world. However, in a recent survey conducted by Blogads, it was concluded that blog readers view blogs because the feel more reliable than mainstream media.


This passage is interesting to me because I feel like it somewhat points out the stupidity in America. Because blogs have no rules and regulations, fake blogs can easily be made up. Salam Pax was supposedly an Iraqi living in Iraq while America was invading, but no one knows this to be fact. Yes, there are many flaws to mainstream media, I'm thinking of the Watergate scandal, but these reports are still more credible than blog reports. Fiction, at times, can be hard to spot, so why trust anyone who blogs? Especially those who use psyedonyms, although people who use their "real name" could be lying just as frequently. Im concerned with where America is going if blogging really does become a new form of news communication and traditional sources i.e. television, newspapers, magazines, become obsolete.

Which blog?

My main interest is medicine. I hope to one day become a behavioral neurologist, so basically anything and everything about the brain interests me. Well basically the human body as a whole interests me, which is why I want to follow a blog about medicine. Now that I know exactly what blogging is (thank you Ms. Rettberg) I can see how blogging could be an effective tool in the medical field. I hope to learn about some current events taking place in the medical field which I would not have known without my new found skill (that would be blogging). However, I have had some difficulty finding a true blog focusing on medicine, which means I may have to resort to finding a blog centered around a different interest. I'll keep you posted.

Who am I as a writer?

As a writer I am a completer of assignments. Honestly, I have never been the type to write for fun. I attempted multiple times as a young woman to start diaries, but never got into them. Most of the time I find myself struggling to write. I think my much clearly and correctly when I speak. Getting my thoughts from my head onto a piece of paper is difficult. The editing and revising process is probably the single most important factor of writing to me. If I never completed the editing and revising process myself, most of my papers would be useless and unintelligible. I write because I have to.