When I first entered my INTD 105 class, I was apprehensive towards the blogging requirement that Dr. McCoy assigned. When we were told that we would have to write ten posts without a set deadline or a prompt, I was presented with risk. I was unsure of how this process would turn out. Although after reflecting on it, I have recognized the rewards that have arisen from this task.
Beginning the blogging process made me nervous because I did not know where to begin. I had never written a blog before and did not how to format it. Taking the writing advice of Beth, I decided to consider my academic standing and write about coming to college as an undeclared student in my post “The Positives of Being Undeclared.” As stated in Geneseo’s Mission Statement, the college “community works together to advance knowledge.” This took place in the form of feedback from my professor on my posts. Based on the feedback that I received for my first post; I needed to learn to connect my writing to textual evidence and fix grammatical errors.
Once I learned to focus on completing these tasks and thinking, my posts began to improve. By considering my professors advice, I noticed the amount of feedback decreasing while my scores increased. As I consistently began to write posts, the requirements became straightforward. Having the freedom to blog about a topic of my choice while connecting it back to my academic career became rewarding. I stopped dreading the process and began thinking and writing about different experiences that have impacted me.
The blogging feedback that my professor has given me has made me feel as though our academic partnership has improved. Similarly to the relationship between Gan and T’Gatoi in Octavia Butler’s Bloodchild, the blogging process has proven that “there is risk… in dealing with a partner.” The risk of communication error and failing to successfully work with my academic partner had the opportunity to arise. However by focusing on avoiding these concerns, my blogging style has improved and reward has prevailed.
As the spring semester progresses, I find myself reflecting on the writing advice that I have been given on my blog posts. By doing this and thoroughly thinking about what I am writing, I have noticed improvement in the quality of my writing pieces for all my courses. Although having to think of a topic to write about was initially dreadful, I have learned to love blogging while improving my writing along the way. I wish I had gone into this assignment with enthusiasm and more of an open mind to have benefited more from it.