One of the blogs I have explored and become interested in is thetriangle. Written by a student, this blog focuses mainly on the topics of illegal immigration in the United States and the tendency of Americans to overspend. I enjoyed reading this blog because the writer explored the topics from different angles and was able to write several posts on the same topic without being redundant. Another reason I enjoyed this blog was because the author wrote the posts in short, to the point paragraphs. If a post is more than a few paragraphs long, readers will get bored with the blog and stop taking in the writer’s point. The writer of thetriangle presented the information clearly but concisely. While the author’s writing style was enough to get me hooked, the blog’s layout was not as appealing. All the posts were lined up down the page with no convenient way to find a particular one. Also, the writer did not provide any type of organizational links to make navigating the page easier. From thetriangle I learned how to write efficient posts and how not to organize my information.

Another blog, Chasing My Voice, really caught my attention. One of my favorite parts of the blog is the layout. After clicking on the link, I noticed that I was at a welcome page with lists of different categories. The author also has monthly archives and a list of different pages on the sidebar. I enjoy this format because I can find exactly what I want to read about, or I can browse through the different categories. Another great element of Chasing My Voice is the amount of discussion generated by the author. Reading through the posts, I saw that one had gotten eleven comments. Curious, I looked through the comments and found that about half of them were part of a discussion between the author and another blogger. When the writer of a post responds to comments, readers can know that their comments are being read and considered. I like to be able to have discussions with an author so that I can better understand the author’s view and share my own. Based on these features, I can tell that the author put time and effort into this blog.

A final blog I explored is iThink. One of the reasons I did look into the blog is because I had heard many people comment on the quality. I agree that this is a high-quality blog with high-quality writing. For one, the articles are opinionated and direct, making the blog attention-grabbing and easy to start discussions from. I like the fact that the author is not afraid to speak his mind about the issues he thinks are important. A blog is only interesting to read if the writer is really passionate about the subject. I noticed that several discussions were started as a result of the posts. When readers commented, other people would comment back to them and start debates with each other. I would like to be able to have a blog that sparks debates between people all over the world. Another eye-catching aspect of iThink is the graphics. As the author mentions in one post, almost all of the graphics were done by the author himself. The page is clean, and the titles stand out. I especially enjoyed how the navigation is revealed by running the cursor over the link. From big articles to small details, iThink definitely made me think about how to present my blog.

Getting to explore several student blogs was more enjoyable than I had originally thought it would be. I learned what to do to create an interesting and readable blog and, just as importantly, what not to do. While exploring, I found many interesting blogs and learned how writing style, organization, and even graphics can make a blog great. I hope I can use what I have learned to make my blog into an interesting place to express my ideas and have discussions.

Bibliography:

thetriangle: http://thetriangle.learnerblogs.org/

Chasing My Voice: http://chasingmyvoice.learnerblogs.org/

iThink: http://www.ithink.learnerblogs.org/