Many of you may be wondering why I have decided to include sharing your writing as a key part of the course this term. There are many reasons to share your writing in a public forum and many benefits that can come from it. Let’s take a look at a few.
Sharing your writing makes the writing more real. In writing classes teachers often say “think about your audience,” but most students realize that, in fact, the only audience will be the teacher. This creates an artificial environment where writing can seem to be just an exercise or a way to get a grade, rather than an act of true communication of ideas. When you share your writing on a blog, you have a real audience of your classmates and others who will be reading what you have to say and responding to it. Sharing writing with your classmates and commenting on your classmates’ writing helps build a sense of community, which can be a major factor in your college success. An article in the Wall Street Journal discussing research on student success states that “a student’s sense of belonging at their institution is a strong predictor of their eventual success–stronger, in fact, than conventionally accepted factors like high-school G.P.A. or whether a student’s parents went to college.” Contributing to the blog, commenting on other students contributions, as well as reading about the great activities we have happening on campus will help you become engaged and connected to the community of our classroom and of CF as a whole.
More than anything else, though, a reason to have the blog for the class is that it is fun! It is fun for me to read the work that you do, and I want to share that with the rest of you. It is fun to see what your classmates are interested in, their experiences, and to hear their ideas. It is also fun to share your own writing with others. If any of you have ever had a blog, you already know that it is a labor of love to put the posts out there, and it is rush when others make positive and interesting comments. If you have not yet experienced this, you are in for a treat.
Works Cited
Barton, Dominic. "The Most Important Factor in a College Student's Success." WSJ, 16 September
2005, blogs.wsj.com/experts/2015/09/16/the-most-important-factor-in-a-college-students-success/
