Blogging Advice

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After reading several blogs this week, I have compiled a few lessons that I learned to hopefully advise both creators and readers.

A blog post does not need to be tied together at the end with a life lesson or solution. They are not books. I, personally, enjoy blog posts that have that bow-tie ending. For example, Pam Johnston’s blog, “In Defense of Y’all”, tells the story of her moving to Texas and adapting to the environment, traditions, and diction. She concludes her post in appreciation of the phrase “y’all” and hopes that her readers have opened their mind to using the phrase in their everyday lives. The lesson would be that “Y’all” is a functional word that deserves more consideration for its utility. This was my favorite blog that we read because it was easy to follow along with and included her personal experience. However, there are blogs such as “My Top 10 Most Anticipated Books of 2020”  that are merely lists with no meaningful conclusion or intent to tell a story, but simply a writing to inform (and possibly persuade to purchase these books). These are no lesser. They just serve a different purpose.

Blogs are an incredible output for content that allow creators to be as open and vulnerable or detached as they please. In Dr. Vrooman’s blog, “Good, Free, Sources for Photos that You Can Reuse”, he provides some instruction, plenty of sources, and harps on the point that we should care about the quality and legality of the pictures we use. This reading has some slight emotional attachment (for example, the picture of his first car), but does not express very much personal information or emotional experiences. There are advantages to writing this way. For example, your audience can look to you for information knowing that they will not have to dig through anecdotes and personal truths to find what they are looking for. Secondly, the critics of this type of blog cannot attack or make fun of any personal information you put onto the internet within that post. On the other hand, writing from a more vulnerable, attached perspective builds a relationship with your readers past a surface level. They may relate to your experience and feel comfortable sharing their own.

An overdose of pictures and graphs can distract and bore readers. They also have the power to build your credibility or make complex thoughts more understandable. Finding a safe in-between is the task given to anyone writing a blog. If I am writing to you about the political climate in Iran, it would not make sense to add in a few cute pictures of my bulldogs. To build your argument, find a scholarly source with graphs and visuals that correlate with the message you are trying to send. You should also abbreviate in your writing about why the two go together. For example, my photo of coffee and a to-do list was inserted to illustrate drawing out a plan for a blog that works for you. When used properly, pictures can make a blog flow. In a more light-hearted example, Dr. Vrooman's blog titled "The Most Popular Disk Golf Course in Every State: 2019" utilizes pictures and graphs well to show statistics and a popular park for disk golf in Austin, TX. He spaces them out around paragraphs and places them next to text that correlates. For pictures to be useful and not crowded, they must be have purpose and be few in number. Leaving your argument to be explained by pictures makes it seem like you don’t really know what’s going on as an author regardless of whether that is true.

Evaluate the credibility of what you read before you choose to act on it. This applies very heavily when it comes to political blogs. Any and every political blog or article will have a biased undertone and desire, at bare minimum, for you to agree with them. In “Why Marianne Williamson’s Unconventional Presidential Bid Didn’t Catch On”, Nathaniel Rakich is trying to persuade readers to take note of less-popular presidential candidates and pay more attention to what political activity goes on without media coverage. It was written quite well and provided evidence that Marianne Williamson’s votes were consistently scarce through graphs. Although the sources provided here include The Federal Election Commission, they also include references to the author’s prior blogs as sources several times. By referring his facts back to his own work rather than a trustworthy source, Rakich weakens his argument.  As a reader, it is critical to be aware of what an article is trying to make you do or think and then evaluate whether it was developed based on reliable sources. As a writer, make sure to use filters on search engines and double check that the articles you based your writing from come from a trustworthy source. I prefer to use Google Scholar when looking for sources, specifically those having to do with research. I have attached a photo of the Google Scholar home screen as an reference.

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Happy Writing!

Work Cited

nston, Pam. “In Defense of Y'all.” She Dwells in Possibility, 18 Oct. 2019, www.shedwellsinpossibility.com/in-defense-of-yall/.

“My Top 10 Most Anticipated Books of 2020.” Books and Brews, 31 Dec. 2019, booksbrews.home.blog/2019/12/31/my-top-10-most-anticipated-books-of-2020/.

  Vrooman, Steven. “The Most Popular Disc Golf Course In Every State: 2019.” The Most Popular Disc Golf Course In Every State: 2019, udisc.com/blog/post/the-most-popular-disc-golf-course-in-every-state-2019.

  Vrooman, Steven. “Good, Free, Sources for Photos That You Can Reuse, Part 1: Find Photographers.” Good, Free, Sources for Photos That You Can Reuse, Part 1: Find Photographers, Blogger, 16 Jan. 2020, morebrainz.blogspot.com/2015/07/good-free-sources-for-photos-that-you.html.

“Why Marianne Williamson's Unconventional Presidential Bid Didn't Catch On.” FiveThirtyEight, FiveThirtyEight, 10 Jan. 2020, fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-marianne-williamsons-unconventional-presidential-bid-didnt-catch-on/.
Screenshot from https://scholar.google.com/