Blog Reflection

I think the best comparison I can make between two blog posts would be between my post on "Girl" and my post on Zadie Smith's essay. While I will stand by what I wrote about "Girl," it is clear when comparing the two that at the earlier date, I was not fully reading into the text and into what everything meant in the story, I just took everything at face value. However, later in the quarter, my analysis of Smith's essay shows more care into what I was reading, naturally a result of looking at texts in a more analytical way.


Because the blog was public, I always tried my best not to look foolish in the ways that I wrote blog posts. While trying to maintain a professional and formal attitude in blogs, since it was for a class, I also tried to be easy to relate to, because the blogs were not meant just for a professor. For the most part, however, I did keep in mind that it was the professor who was grading me.


To be completely honest about my commenting, I was often a bit confused about what to say. It is pretty easy to just agree with someone, but I often found it hard to be completely helpful. However, I did do my best to offer different interpretations and opinions, and hopefully it helped someone to feel more confident about his or her writing.


In the same way, the comments of others did help me to feel more confident about my writing and analysis than anything else. There is nothing quite like the positive views of my peers on my writing, because at least I know that most people I will interact with can understand what I am trying to say.


When looking at all of my posts, I feel the best is probably the one I did for "Job History," because it reflects how I felt about that story the best. That story was among my favorites from the class, and I feel that it shows in my writing about it. On the other hand, I feel that my worst post was on the differences between the two versions of "Catastrophe." I put this post up very late, and for the most part I was rushing and did not explain the meanings in the play enough.



Overall, the blog posting for English 250 was very helpful, because it forced me to put into practice what the class demanded. By writing my own opinions and reading those of others, it helped to become and overall better analyzer, because after all, practice makes perfect. I feel that my largest improvement overall was my ability to look at metaphors and symbolism and be able to figure out what each means more than I was able to before the class.