I compared my earlier blog posts to my later blog posts and i found some interesting things. First of all my writing when I'm in blog mode gets more and more informal. I think it is the email like setting and how i feel as though i should write in a way that accurately depicts me and not the verbose essay writer i can turn into. I also noticed that i frequently, in the beginning, would structure my argument when dealing with a poem or story around how i felt about it. I now try to delve into the material more meticulously and really try to make a point.

I began my blog posts with blogs on poetry. I remember the first time sitting in front of the computer trying to figure out what to write. It was so easy to just describe what happened in the poem and how i felt about it. However, upon learning more about the nooks and crannies of poetry i can now pick up slight nuances in style and minor allusions or parodies.

Poetry has always been a love of mine and i was super surprised to see some of the blogs about certain poems. I know there is a general direction in which a poet's meaning leans. Yet, i loved getting to see what you guys thought about the poems and how you interpreted them. This, i believe, is one of the most beautiful things about the English language. Sure, it's fluidity and ever-changing structure and format is confusing and frustrating but, the hybridized nature of the language entices me. I do not believe there is a right or wrong way to read something. Obviously, either of the extremes are never good. I truly learned what to look for and what to discount by the frequency and accuracy of class' 120 blog posts.

After we moved from poetry my blog posts became more and more insightful. Short stories are always slightly more matter of fact, however, intellectually i have obviously matured in my understanding of different works. Again, there are multiple interpretations of many of the stories. Metaphors and symbols finally became two separate entities in my head. I cannot tell you how long i have conflated them to being one in the same.

In the end, though it took me a while to get my post up even, i benefited from the blog posts. My writing style, though more informal, has become more insightful. I have learned the multiple ways things can be read- to a certain degree. I also have learned that we as readers routinely project ourselves into the works of others. I now know to stray from this as helped by many of the comments from my classmates. Thumbs up for the blogs. It even helps technologically daft people like me do cool things with shiny computers. :)