Blog Response

To be quite honest, when I found out that I was to keep a blog for this English class, I was nothing less than terrified. Having just changed my major from Theater Performance to Theater and adding a second major of Creative Writing, you would think I would be comfortable with sharing my thoughts and opinions. The great thing about acting was that I would express my feelings...but they would be through someone else’s words. These were my words and I would be letting everyone read what I thought. What if I wasn’t on the same level as everyone? What if I was not as good as a writer as I really thought I was? This was the first English class were I was forced out of my comfort zone and expected to share my work. Not only that, but I would be sharing my work about a genre of literature I knew nothing about. I could easily pull an essay about Frost or Shakespeare out of thin air, but Native American literature?

But, surprisingly, it has been one of the most enjoyable experiences I have had in an English class here at Ohio University thus far. Blog responses allowed me to express myself in a way that is often limited in essay writing or research papers. It was all about my own personal experience and how the assigned work affected me. Professor Rouzie always kept it interesting, having us write about a variety of different topics and answering interesting, thought-provoking questions. However, as much as I enjoyed writing the responses, I loved reading my fellow classmates. Towards the beginning of the year, I was timid about telling my classmates how I felt about their writing. I knew that, at that point in the game, everyone was nervous about having their work read, and I did not want to be the one that tore down someone’s confidence. I learned quickly though, that the point of having a course blog was to work together and grow as writers. I wanted to help others grow, so when I was not sure about a point that my classmate brought up in his or her blog, I would ask them to clarify what it meant or if I agreed with what they were saying, I would explain why. Most importantly though, I began to ask question to help them further their thought process. “Why?” became the key phrase. If I finished reading a response and thought the writer did a good job, I would ask myself “Why did they do a good job?” Or if I was not satisfied or confused by a writer’s response, I would ask, “Why am I confused?” I found that asking myself questions about another person’s writing, also helped me grow as a writer because I knew what to look for in a response, thereby, improving my own in the process. Commenting on other people’s writing, most importantly, helped me understand the texts. There were many times when I was stumped by the material we were reading and my classmates provided clarity and understanding for me, which did wonders in the long run.

As for my classmate’s comments, I did not receive a single comment on my first blog response and I was convinced it was because it was not very good. I was incredibly discouraged, especially since I struggled with the first assignment and worked hard to understand the Harjo’s poem. However, my next response received three encouraging comments and I was much more confident about my writing and understanding of the material. Like myself, I saw my classmates grow as the quarter progressed. Their comments became much more analytical and they asked challenged questions that made me look at my own writing from a different perspective. I loved being able to get feedback so quickly. Even though I did not go back and make corrections or alter my responses, I felt like their comments and questions affected my next response in that I would try to take my writing to the next level. Although, I did read and listen to what my classmates has to say about my writing, I never let them affect my writing. Overall, I wrote for myself in order to help me better understand the material I was reading. I was my biggest critic. I was aware that others would be reading my work, but I only imagined Professor Rouzie and my peers would see it. Anyone who has not read the same texts as we did in class would probably find it hard to understand what I was writing about, especially since I tried to avoid summarizing and being vague.

After re-reading my own writing, I found that I prefer the writing I did at the beginning of the quarter better than the writing I wrote in the second half, when we were reading The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven. I think this is because I enjoyed Ceremony more than I did TLRATFIH, so my analysis of the text is much more detailed. I consider my Summary/Application on Ceremony to be my best piece because I fully understood Gloria Bird’s article and I think my enthusiasm for the subject matter shows in my writing. The representation of Christianity in Ceremony was fascinating to me and I was thrilled to be able to examine it and make connections from Bird’s article and the text. I think my weakest blog post was my summary of Coulombe’s article, “The Approximate Size of His Favorite Humor”. To this day, I am not entirely sure what Coulombe was talking about in most of his article, so my own response was very vague and wordy. It is still a good post and I received many positive comments on it, but I know the truth: I did not know what I was talking about. To me, that makes me feel like it is weak. As for the rest of my writings, I still think they are good, but there is nothing special that stands out for me as going above and beyond. It is clear though, after reading my writings, that I have made many improvements throughout the quarter. Even though I did not like TLRATFIH as much as Ceremony, my writing was much better the second half of the quarter because I did not ramble as much and I focused on answering what needed to be answered, rather than going off on tangents.

Overall, I think I have a incredibly successful quarter. I have enjoyed watching everyone grow as writers and am looking forward to seeing more progress in the future.