As we approach the end of the semester, I want you to think critically about your views of new media. Drawing upon readings and class discussions, explore the ways in which your ideas about new media have morphed over the past fifteen weeks.
Through the readings and discussions we have had in class, I have realized that new media was defined, changed and expanded in my mind. I now have a much stronger understanding of what new media is, of how it has changed, and of how it affects our lives. When we first started discussing the definition of new media in class, I had barely heard of the word and therefore really didnt have a definition, so I adopted the ideas of others. As we began reading, I still found it difficult to make a solid definition of new media, though I gained understanding by reading theory. I think the most important way which i was able to critically analyze new media was through our discussions and asking questions of each other. I also gained a better understanding of how we use new media and how in this day and age we essentially rely on it! Through our exploration of new media, I have gained an appreciation for theorists and new media of all kinds, as new media affects every part of my life. I found it most interesting to discuss and read about how new media affects our social connections, genders, social ranks, and learning methods. I also found that as I made my own definition of new media, I was consistently expanding it and I believe that as I learn more about new media and as newer media is introdcced my ideas will expand and change as current new media also becomes older.
Prior to this class I had never really taken a deep look into new media and frankly I had no idea what it was. After the readings and class discussions I have come to the conclusion that new meida simply cannot be defined in one definition. I also have noticed how influential new media is on my life and society. New media has the power to influence the future and place us on a path to discover new technology that would turn into new media. What I found most interesting was that humans influence media as well as media influences humans, it's a never ending circle. I also found it most interesting that knowledge is like building bricks. One must be laid before the other in order to create a house. For example, the TV wasn't just invented out of thin air; it was the result of a series of inventions. It was really interesting to research the new media theorits and see whether I agree with them or not. Many of the readings I came across this semster racked my brain which made this course one of the best I have ever taken. Thanks Denise :)
Coming into this class, my definition of "new media" was very limited. Hearing the term made me think of movies, music, and some artwork, but that was as far as I thought it went. I hadn't even really thought of computers or the Internet as constantly changing new media until this course. After our first readings by Murray and Manovich I realized the course would cover much more than I had originally thought, and that intrigued me. I had certainly never considered maps to be a form of new media until our guest speaker showed us examples of many types of interactive maps. After reading Haraway's "Cyborg Manifesto" I was introduced to a whole new world of new media technology that I was unaware of. Furthermore, I had never really thought about the ways social networking sites have immense impacts on our lives both online and off, and I had never considered them forms of new media. Our guest speaker Josh Zimmerman really introduced me to the idea that games are a form of new media as well, which was new to me. Playing video games with an analytical intent was very beneficial and eye opening. This can also be said about our analysis of a website. I find myself automatically considering the aesthetics of some websites I go to now since our presentations. Overall, leaving the class I have a well-rounded idea of what new media is and how is it constantly being updated and revolutionized. I have found myself looking at technology in a different way and appreciating it more after this course. New Media is certainly not just limited to movies, music, and art but it is all around us in many forms that we sometimes take for granted (i.e. a map to Disneyland or the advocacy group we're a part of online). I am grateful for my new knowledge and broadened view.
Through this class I have learned more about the theory of media than I ever intended to. Though I watch the television everyday and regularly travel through the many layers of the world wide web it had never occured to me that these media objects were created with an intense process of knowledge as well as a journey through many levels of development. The readings we explored at the beginning of the semester opened my ideas to the many different passages of thought in regards to media and what media is. I recall the paper about "the happenings" and how it was argued that even something as abstract as that theatrical event could be regarded as a form of media in some way. Additionally, the economic and moral values of media were something I had rarely considered and discovering there distinct value of society was extremely interesting. I have enjoyed this class and am very glad for the chance to learn about such a relevant and interesting topic.
Before taking this class, I thought I had a pretty good insight into the world of new media. After all, I have been a college student for over 2 years and have had to navigate many projects and presentations using innovative technology. I also come from a fairly technologically insightful family (my grandpa had the fist car phone in the town in 1972). Boy was I wrong. I didn't realize the extent to which new media is constantly changing and evolving, let alone the intense and deep theory behind it. My major is based a lot on theories, and I believe that in order to understand the circumstances, you must understand the platform in which it stands. I don't think I even recognized technology as having a platform and a history of theory, but after we learned and read through it at the beginning of this course, my understanding of new technology deepened. Overall, I feel that I have learned a significant amount of knowledge that can further support my education in college. I have enjoyed learning about things that I didnt even know existed and I am excited to watch as newer technologies evolve as I have gained perspective from this course.
After taking this course I now understand that new media is much more than just media that is new, but can be defined in a wide range of theories. There is no concrete answer, but many people create theories that attempt to define the term new media. My favorite theory was McLuhan, who described new media as the defining points establishing the four epochs of history. He believes that the shifts in history are because of the introduction of new media. I found his argument to be very convincing and valid.
I found it extremely interesting to read about the technologies some theorists believed would exist in the future, some that do exist today, some that resemble existing things today and some that don’t exist at all. This class has advanced my education in many ways. I never fathomed how one simple concept could be so complex and studied in depth such as new media.
I thought Bush's and Murray's ideas were interesting, that new media is an extension of man and is a response to our need to understand the world and our place in it, respectively. I am hoping to go to graduate school for communication and I would like to focus on interpersonal relationships, especially how mediated communication affects relationships in person. That is, you have a relationship with someone you see every day, but the two of you also have a relationship which occurs online. How does this affect your primary relationship, which is face-to-face?
I think Bush's and Murray's opinions have helped me to further my own opinions of new media. If anything, they have aided in expanding my definition and understanding of new media.
I think something else I learned about new media from this class is that new media effects are dependent upon how one uses new media. Thinking back to discussions on Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace, the varying ways in which members of the class used those media objects definitely influenced their perceptions of them. Arguably, how one uses an object determines how that object affects them.
I certainly did not agree with some of the readaings (such as Turing, Kaprow, Paik, Enzensberger). However, I think it served me well to be exposed to so many opinions as to what new media is. In doing so, it has helped to solidy my own definition of new media.
Before taking this course, I was under the impression that we would be studying forms of media that we see every day (i.e. television commercials, movies, newspaper/magazine advertisements etc.). It was eye-opening to say the least, when I realized that new media applied not only to the technology I see each day, but to the idea behind said technology, and theories as to what technology will mean or become in the future.
I always thought of media as a television screen that flashes different pictures for me to comprehend, but this class taught me that media applies to so much more. I never thought of an avante-garde photograph as a form of new media, and I never thought of how forms of media and technology came to be. As Tasha stated earlier, the TV did not arise out of thin air. It morphed from other inventions before its time.
I learned numerous theories relating to new media, its origins, and its future this semester, and I'm grateful for the eye-opening experience this course brought me. I feel I have a new appreciation for various mediums that I before had overlooked, and am more appreciative of the technological means I use each day. Thank you for such an insightful semester!
Initially, I had no idea what would fall under the banner of new media. My first thought was that we would simply study computers, and consequently the internet and the effects such things have on our world. I was surprised then, to find that the concept of new media has apparently been around since the mid-20th century. The multitude of theories from various times and various different views were a lot to take in. I can easily say that this class had some of the most intensive reading material that I've had to tackle so far.
I found our lessons on social communities really interesting. Never once have I thought about the rhetoric of a facebook group page, or the social dynamics between players on xbox live. Now I don't think I'll be able to interact with these communities without considering what I have learned in the class. On a side note, one thing that I was surprised to learn was that maps counted as new media. I was a little perplexed by that.
I don't think I'd look at my midterm and say that my definition of new media is still the same as 2 months ago. Thanks for a wonderful experience.
When the class began, I had absolutely no idea what we were going to be studying. When I thought of “new media,” I thought of technologies that had just been invented, including the internet (although the internet has been around for a while). I never considered the fact that “new media” could apply to things such as the typewriter or artwork. The readings and class discussions have definitely broadened my idea of what new media is, and shown how difficult it is to come up with a single definition for it. I also have a better understanding of how much new media affects our lives. I am reminded of it every time I log onto facebook :). I especially enjoyed analyzing Raymond Williams’ ideas of technological determinism and symptomatic technology. I believe that I was ignorant of how much new media can affect society before we read about it and discussed it in class. I now think much more critically of any new media, and don’t simply take it for granted as I did before.
As Natasha mentioned, I noticed how influential new media is in my life, and how prevalent it is.
One lesson that stands out is the one on surveillance, and how superior technologies are diminishing our privacy and causing us to act differently. I also learned about how different types of media appeal to different people, and how people display media differently. The MySpace vs. Facebook lesson was one that really exemplified this, claiming that different traits of the sites (personalization, anonymity, etc.) drew in different people. The gender online lesson also reflected this. Autism online was another. I'd never thought about how the accepted problems of the Internet could be benefits to others. No face to face contact is great for those who are pressured by the limits of expressions and time.
I suppose that what I'm trying to say is that my definition has broadened a little from 'electronic things,' but the real difference is how I look at these new medias. They're powerful and omnipresent; they come out of need or want (symptomatic determinism) but can also alter our needs and wants (technological determinism); the possibilities for the future of new media are nearly endless.
Throughout the course of this semester, my definition of new media has not changed too much, but my ideas about its implications have grown drastically. The forms of new media that we discussed in class were the same ones that I had come up with at the beginning of the semester. I believe that the only one that I hadn't thought of was cut ups, although after discussing them, I certainly understood how/why they can be considered to be a form of new media (in fact, Burroughs believes that all new media is some kind of cut up).
Prior to taking this class, I had seen new media as an extension of man, since, of course, man has created it. I had not, however, thought about whether or not some forms of new media can "think." Thus, Turing's idea that new media is a machine which may one day think at a level above that of man, certainly gave me a lot to consider. I believe that new media has the potential to reach beyond a capacity that man can foresee, and unless we are cautious with what we create and the power that we grant it, our machines may run amok, possibly contributing to our ultimate demise.
Before taking this course, I also had not given much thought to the tremendous amount of suffering that new media causes. The clear social and political structures that exist online, which mirror those that exist offline, certainly set the stage for some groups to be oppressed, underrepresented, and taken advantage of. Some of the individuals that are certainly victimized on the internet are females. This was something that I had already assumed, but something that I gained a great deal of insight about through my discussion leading experience on Gender Online. Haraway's idea that cyborgs could dissolve some of these gender lines, as well as social, racial, and political lines, that certainly exist online and offline, is particularly interesting to me because who doesn't fantasize about an equitable world.
Finally, everyone knows that the internet is almost incomprehensibly massive, and through our new media object presentations, this idea was definitely solidified in my mind. There are a tremendous amount of communities that exist online, and each of these communities professes hundreds, if not thousands, of members. This immense online world makes me even more certain that Borges has said it best by describing new media as “a labyrinth of labyrinths. . . one sinuous spreading labyrinth that would encompass the past and the future and in some way involve the stars," and he goes on to say that new media allows for “all possible outcomes [to] occur; each one is the point of departure for other forkings” (The Garden of Forking Paths, pp. 32-33). With infinitely many outcomes for our future, I cannot wait to see where we will take new media, and, most of all, where it will take us.
I found myself very quickly disinterested in a blog response when it began with "I knew almost nothing about media before this class." When attempting to use persuasion, it is vital to bring different views into the argument as well as various reasons compared to one which the first few people did. A few of the blogs surprised me with their extended length. I personally thought they became a little dry after a couple of paragraphs. However, I did find myself to appreciate how "Kelly B." introduced the guest speakers into his argument and really correlated the class to his learning experience on media which was what the question simply asked.
I agree with akirkpa1 in the comment above mine with respect to the fact that I was very quickly disinterested in many of the comments due to a generic, poorly written hook. Many posts start with "through the readings I learned..." or "after my reading of the material..." that have a feel similar to that of a complete sentance that has always been taught and even required by most jr. high and high school teachers, but in my opinion are ineffective in grabbing and holding a readers attention. I skipped over many posts that began this way, but the post from Becky skipped the "complete sentance" sentance structure and dove right in to the important material. She efficiently, but effectively presented her opinion in a brief manner that quickly stated her point without wordy fillers as is the standard structure of most blogs.
While skimming through this blog, one post caught my eye for a couple of different reasons; the post by Mirka H on December 10. Initially, the length of the post is what caught my eye, which isn't necessarily a good thing, but it grabbed my attention regardless. The first thing I noticed before even beginning to read the text was the structural organization that they incorporated into their writing, which was an immediate indication of a better developed and more composed response. They also answered the question systematically in a manner appropriate to the question: chronologically. Both of these organization tools indicated to me that this person knew what they wanted to say and how to say it, which helped me understand the content of the text. In terms of the actual writing, the flow of the sentences and their placement in the context of the paragraphs as a whole was smooth and understandable, which effectively communicated what the person had learned over the course of the semester. I also like that whenever they bring up a new idea such as what they didn't know before taking the course, they proceed to explain what the class helped them learn and provide specific examples from the readings to support their assertions. Each paragraph also has an individual purpose of explaining a new idea without being repetitive or superfluous, and is relatively concise. I recognize that this author is guilty of using the "complete sentence" formula complained about in earlier posts, and I understand that it may be an issue with other posts in the blog, but in this situation I did not feel at all inhibited or hindered from understanding or enjoying the post, and this aforementioned structure was less of a formula and more of an organizational aid. In all, the post is thorough without being repetitive, and concise enough to clearly communicate the author's idea without boring everyone else.
Through the readings and discussions we have had in class, I have realized that new media was defined, changed and expanded in my mind. I now have a much stronger understanding of what new media is, of how it has changed, and of how it affects our lives. When we first started discussing the definition of new media in class, I had barely heard of the word and therefore really didnt have a definition, so I adopted the ideas of others. As we began reading, I still found it difficult to make a solid definition of new media, though I gained understanding by reading theory. I think the most important way which i was able to critically analyze new media was through our discussions and asking questions of each other. I also gained a better understanding of how we use new media and how in this day and age we essentially rely on it! Through our exploration of new media, I have gained an appreciation for theorists and new media of all kinds, as new media affects every part of my life. I found it most interesting to discuss and read about how new media affects our social connections, genders, social ranks, and learning methods. I also found that as I made my own definition of new media, I was consistently expanding it and I believe that as I learn more about new media and as newer media is introdcced my ideas will expand and change as current new media also becomes older.
ReplyDeletePrior to this class I had never really taken a deep look into new media and frankly I had no idea what it was. After the readings and class discussions I have come to the conclusion that new meida simply cannot be defined in one definition. I also have noticed how influential new media is on my life and society. New media has the power to influence the future and place us on a path to discover new technology that would turn into new media. What I found most interesting was that humans influence media as well as media influences humans, it's a never ending circle. I also found it most interesting that knowledge is like building bricks. One must be laid before the other in order to create a house. For example, the TV wasn't just invented out of thin air; it was the result of a series of inventions. It was really interesting to research the new media theorits and see whether I agree with them or not. Many of the readings I came across this semster racked my brain which made this course one of the best I have ever taken. Thanks Denise :)
ReplyDeleteComing into this class, my definition of "new media" was very limited. Hearing the term made me think of movies, music, and some artwork, but that was as far as I thought it went. I hadn't even really thought of computers or the Internet as constantly changing new media until this course. After our first readings by Murray and Manovich I realized the course would cover much more than I had originally thought, and that intrigued me. I had certainly never considered maps to be a form of new media until our guest speaker showed us examples of many types of interactive maps. After reading Haraway's "Cyborg Manifesto" I was introduced to a whole new world of new media technology that I was unaware of. Furthermore, I had never really thought about the ways social networking sites have immense impacts on our lives both online and off, and I had never considered them forms of new media. Our guest speaker Josh Zimmerman really introduced me to the idea that games are a form of new media as well, which was new to me. Playing video games with an analytical intent was very beneficial and eye opening. This can also be said about our analysis of a website. I find myself automatically considering the aesthetics of some websites I go to now since our presentations.
ReplyDeleteOverall, leaving the class I have a well-rounded idea of what new media is and how is it constantly being updated and revolutionized. I have found myself looking at technology in a different way and appreciating it more after this course. New Media is certainly not just limited to movies, music, and art but it is all around us in many forms that we sometimes take for granted (i.e. a map to Disneyland or the advocacy group we're a part of online). I am grateful for my new knowledge and broadened view.
Through this class I have learned more about the theory of media than I ever intended to. Though I watch the television everyday and regularly travel through the many layers of the world wide web it had never occured to me that these media objects were created with an intense process of knowledge as well as a journey through many levels of development. The readings we explored at the beginning of the semester opened my ideas to the many different passages of thought in regards to media and what media is. I recall the paper about "the happenings" and how it was argued that even something as abstract as that theatrical event could be regarded as a form of media in some way. Additionally, the economic and moral values of media were something I had rarely considered and discovering there distinct value of society was extremely interesting. I have enjoyed this class and am very glad for the chance to learn about such a relevant and interesting topic.
ReplyDeleteBefore taking this class, I thought I had a pretty good insight into the world of new media. After all, I have been a college student for over 2 years and have had to navigate many projects and presentations using innovative technology. I also come from a fairly technologically insightful family (my grandpa had the fist car phone in the town in 1972). Boy was I wrong. I didn't realize the extent to which new media is constantly changing and evolving, let alone the intense and deep theory behind it. My major is based a lot on theories, and I believe that in order to understand the circumstances, you must understand the platform in which it stands. I don't think I even recognized technology as having a platform and a history of theory, but after we learned and read through it at the beginning of this course, my understanding of new technology deepened. Overall, I feel that I have learned a significant amount of knowledge that can further support my education in college. I have enjoyed learning about things that I didnt even know existed and I am excited to watch as newer technologies evolve as I have gained perspective from this course.
ReplyDeleteAfter taking this course I now understand that new media is much more than just media that is new, but can be defined in a wide range of theories. There is no concrete answer, but many people create theories that attempt to define the term new media. My favorite theory was McLuhan, who described new media as the defining points establishing the four epochs of history. He believes that the shifts in history are because of the introduction of new media. I found his argument to be very convincing and valid.
ReplyDeleteI found it extremely interesting to read about the technologies some theorists believed would exist in the future, some that do exist today, some that resemble existing things today and some that don’t exist at all. This class has advanced my education in many ways. I never fathomed how one simple concept could be so complex and studied in depth such as new media.
I thought Bush's and Murray's ideas were interesting, that new media is an extension of man and is a response to our need to understand the world and our place in it, respectively. I am hoping to go to graduate school for communication and I would like to focus on interpersonal relationships, especially how mediated communication affects relationships in person. That is, you have a relationship with someone you see every day, but the two of you also have a relationship which occurs online. How does this affect your primary relationship, which is face-to-face?
ReplyDeleteI think Bush's and Murray's opinions have helped me to further my own opinions of new media. If anything, they have aided in expanding my definition and understanding of new media.
I think something else I learned about new media from this class is that new media effects are dependent upon how one uses new media. Thinking back to discussions on Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace, the varying ways in which members of the class used those media objects definitely influenced their perceptions of them. Arguably, how one uses an object determines how that object affects them.
I certainly did not agree with some of the readaings (such as Turing, Kaprow, Paik, Enzensberger). However, I think it served me well to be exposed to so many opinions as to what new media is. In doing so, it has helped to solidy my own definition of new media.
Before taking this course, I was under the impression that we would be studying forms of media that we see every day (i.e. television commercials, movies, newspaper/magazine advertisements etc.). It was eye-opening to say the least, when I realized that new media applied not only to the technology I see each day, but to the idea behind said technology, and theories as to what technology will mean or become in the future.
ReplyDeleteI always thought of media as a television screen that flashes different pictures for me to comprehend, but this class taught me that media applies to so much more. I never thought of an avante-garde photograph as a form of new media, and I never thought of how forms of media and technology came to be. As Tasha stated earlier, the TV did not arise out of thin air. It morphed from other inventions before its time.
I learned numerous theories relating to new media, its origins, and its future this semester, and I'm grateful for the eye-opening experience this course brought me. I feel I have a new appreciation for various mediums that I before had overlooked, and am more appreciative of the technological means I use each day. Thank you for such an insightful semester!
Initially, I had no idea what would fall under the banner of new media. My first thought was that we would simply study computers, and consequently the internet and the effects such things have on our world. I was surprised then, to find that the concept of new media has apparently been around since the mid-20th century. The multitude of theories from various times and various different views were a lot to take in. I can easily say that this class had some of the most intensive reading material that I've had to tackle so far.
ReplyDeleteI found our lessons on social communities really interesting. Never once have I thought about the rhetoric of a facebook group page, or the social dynamics between players on xbox live. Now I don't think I'll be able to interact with these communities without considering what I have learned in the class. On a side note, one thing that I was surprised to learn was that maps counted as new media. I was a little perplexed by that.
I don't think I'd look at my midterm and say that my definition of new media is still the same as 2 months ago. Thanks for a wonderful experience.
When the class began, I had absolutely no idea what we were going to be studying. When I thought of “new media,” I thought of technologies that had just been invented, including the internet (although the internet has been around for a while). I never considered the fact that “new media” could apply to things such as the typewriter or artwork. The readings and class discussions have definitely broadened my idea of what new media is, and shown how difficult it is to come up with a single definition for it. I also have a better understanding of how much new media affects our lives. I am reminded of it every time I log onto facebook :). I especially enjoyed analyzing Raymond Williams’ ideas of technological determinism and symptomatic technology. I believe that I was ignorant of how much new media can affect society before we read about it and discussed it in class. I now think much more critically of any new media, and don’t simply take it for granted as I did before.
ReplyDeleteAs Natasha mentioned, I noticed how influential new media is in my life, and how prevalent it is.
ReplyDeleteOne lesson that stands out is the one on surveillance, and how superior technologies are diminishing our privacy and causing us to act differently.
I also learned about how different types of media appeal to different people, and how people display media differently. The MySpace vs. Facebook lesson was one that really exemplified this, claiming that different traits of the sites (personalization, anonymity, etc.) drew in different people. The gender online lesson also reflected this. Autism online was another. I'd never thought about how the accepted problems of the Internet could be benefits to others. No face to face contact is great for those who are pressured by the limits of expressions and time.
I suppose that what I'm trying to say is that my definition has broadened a little from 'electronic things,' but the real difference is how I look at these new medias. They're powerful and omnipresent; they come out of need or want (symptomatic determinism) but can also alter our needs and wants (technological determinism); the possibilities for the future of new media are nearly endless.
Throughout the course of this semester, my definition of new media has not changed too much, but my ideas about its implications have grown drastically. The forms of new media that we discussed in class were the same ones that I had come up with at the beginning of the semester. I believe that the only one that I hadn't thought of was cut ups, although after discussing them, I certainly understood how/why they can be considered to be a form of new media (in fact, Burroughs believes that all new media is some kind of cut up).
ReplyDeletePrior to taking this class, I had seen new media as an extension of man, since, of course, man has created it. I had not, however, thought about whether or not some forms of new media can "think." Thus, Turing's idea that new media is a machine which may one day think at a level above that of man, certainly gave me a lot to consider. I believe that new media has the potential to reach beyond a capacity that man can foresee, and unless we are cautious with what we create and the power that we grant it, our machines may run amok, possibly contributing to our ultimate demise.
Before taking this course, I also had not given much thought to the tremendous amount of suffering that new media causes. The clear social and political structures that exist online, which mirror those that exist offline, certainly set the stage for some groups to be oppressed, underrepresented, and taken advantage of. Some of the individuals that are certainly victimized on the internet are females. This was something that I had already assumed, but something that I gained a great deal of insight about through my discussion leading experience on Gender Online. Haraway's idea that cyborgs could dissolve some of these gender lines, as well as social, racial, and political lines, that certainly exist online and offline, is particularly interesting to me because who doesn't fantasize about an equitable world.
Finally, everyone knows that the internet is almost incomprehensibly massive, and through our new media object presentations, this idea was definitely solidified in my mind. There are a tremendous amount of communities that exist online, and each of these communities professes hundreds, if not thousands, of members. This immense online world makes me even more certain that Borges has said it best by describing new media as “a labyrinth of labyrinths. . . one sinuous spreading labyrinth that would encompass the past and the future and in some way involve the stars," and he goes on to say that new media allows for “all possible outcomes [to] occur; each one is the point of departure for other forkings” (The Garden of Forking Paths, pp. 32-33). With infinitely many outcomes for our future, I cannot wait to see where we will take new media, and, most of all, where it will take us.
I found myself very quickly disinterested in a blog response when it began with "I knew almost nothing about media before this class." When attempting to use persuasion, it is vital to bring different views into the argument as well as various reasons compared to one which the first few people did. A few of the blogs surprised me with their extended length. I personally thought they became a little dry after a couple of paragraphs. However, I did find myself to appreciate how "Kelly B." introduced the guest speakers into his argument and really correlated the class to his learning experience on media which was what the question simply asked.
ReplyDeleteI agree with akirkpa1 in the comment above mine with respect to the fact that I was very quickly disinterested in many of the comments due to a generic, poorly written hook. Many posts start with "through the readings I learned..." or "after my reading of the material..." that have a feel similar to that of a complete sentance that has always been taught and even required by most jr. high and high school teachers, but in my opinion are ineffective in grabbing and holding a readers attention. I skipped over many posts that began this way, but the post from Becky skipped the "complete sentance" sentance structure and dove right in to the important material. She efficiently, but effectively presented her opinion in a brief manner that quickly stated her point without wordy fillers as is the standard structure of most blogs.
ReplyDeleteWhile skimming through this blog, one post caught my eye for a couple of different reasons; the post by Mirka H on December 10. Initially, the length of the post is what caught my eye, which isn't necessarily a good thing, but it grabbed my attention regardless. The first thing I noticed before even beginning to read the text was the structural organization that they incorporated into their writing, which was an immediate indication of a better developed and more composed response. They also answered the question systematically in a manner appropriate to the question: chronologically. Both of these organization tools indicated to me that this person knew what they wanted to say and how to say it, which helped me understand the content of the text. In terms of the actual writing, the flow of the sentences and their placement in the context of the paragraphs as a whole was smooth and understandable, which effectively communicated what the person had learned over the course of the semester. I also like that whenever they bring up a new idea such as what they didn't know before taking the course, they proceed to explain what the class helped them learn and provide specific examples from the readings to support their assertions. Each paragraph also has an individual purpose of explaining a new idea without being repetitive or superfluous, and is relatively concise. I recognize that this author is guilty of using the "complete sentence" formula complained about in earlier posts, and I understand that it may be an issue with other posts in the blog, but in this situation I did not feel at all inhibited or hindered from understanding or enjoying the post, and this aforementioned structure was less of a formula and more of an organizational aid. In all, the post is thorough without being repetitive, and concise enough to clearly communicate the author's idea without boring everyone else.
ReplyDelete