Judging the blogger

Last semester when I was advised my advisor he told me that I should check out this multimedia class because it would be really interesting. He also told me about some of the means of multimedia that I would learn about such as blogging. When I think of blogging a few words come to my mind such as informal, personal, and fun. I believe that blogging is a personal piece of writing that a writer shares with his or her writers for feedback. After being enrolled in this class it occurred to me that I have been reading blogs for a few years now, but never thought about the art of blogging. During the first week of class we discussed how blogging can get certain points across, but also how people are judged based upon blog writing. In my opinion, I believe that blogging should be coherent, but the writing does not need to be formal piece.

In class some students made it clear that they may judge a blogger based on his or her writing skills. Some students said that spelling and punctuation is a factor in judging a blog. As I wrote earlier, I believe that any form of writing should be coherent, but I don't read through a blog searching for punctuation or minor spelling errors.  In my mind I believe blogging is not actually a formal piece of writing, but more informal.  Should individuals be judged based on the blogs that they create?  This is a question that will probably never receive one universal answer.

In many classrooms teachers are beginning to use social media such as blogs, chat rooms, and discussion post to evaluate their students. I have even experienced at least one of these means in a few of my most recent classes.  Teachers on all levels should expect scholarly work, but should they expect perfection in a chat room type environment.  I believe that chat rooms should remain informal because it will allow for messages to remain authentic.  It is the teachers job to inform students that they may use informal writing while using certain multimedia, but they must know how to write formally too.  The bottom line is that students must understand when it is okay to use a LOL or OMG!  When it is all said and done, students that do not learn when to use certain colloquialisms may become a victim of multimedia judging!