Getting Comfortable With The Web

With a half-semester completed, of Writing for the Internet, I'm think I've finally got the hang of blogging. This class has covered the various forms of writing for the internet (as the title of the course might suggest). We started with coding in HTML, and basic website design. We then moved on to actually writing the content of websites. We learned about proffessional writing, blogging and even creative writing. We are now beginning with the subject that will likely be my favorite: gaming.

In order to respond to our readings, discussions and assignments, we've each kept up student blogs. This blog is a portfolio detailing a few of the highlights from the first half of the semester.

The majority of the blogs were responses to readings. I've really improved as far as the coverage goes, and tended to actually use quotes. One of my most recent blogs is a critique of Writing for the Web 3.0 by Crawfor Kilian. We read this book while studying the conventions for designing websites as well as writing text for various online forms. Many of my other blogs are in response to just portions of the book. The first blog covered the general differences between print and web writing, which alerted me to some major mistakes I'd been making in my early web content. The following chapters covered different forms of online writing. One of the especially interesting ones covered different types of blogs and propoganda, which lead our class to determine that these blogs aren't really any specific type, but have aspects of all. I was also interested in the one about journalism, as it is a form of writing I am very familiar with.

After learning about the more practical forms of writing for the web, we studied and reflected on more creative outlets, starting with more traditional stories, which tend to take on the form of some sort of narrative. We then moved on to more abstract ones, which tended to make better use of the advantages of hypertext. Finally we just started learning about games.  

 While I may have improved in coverage, timeliness is where I've sort of been sliding since the last portfolio. So far the blog that I finished earliest was one covering four hypertext stories, which each student was aloud to select on their own. My blog analyzing the four I selected was my most timely. It was posted the day before class, by two minutes. The majority of my other blogs were posted sometime after midnight on the day of class. This is something I really need to work on (as I write this around two hours before class). As it really decreases the possibility for interaction with my peers.

 My interactions have been limited, most likely due to posting late. I did however, recieve a comment on my blog about "The Heist", which was my first experience with a traditional story written with hypertext.

I think that in many of my blogs have done a good job of analyzing and interpreting the material. This is in part due to the shift to creative hypertext. I'm a creative writing major, so its just a subject that tends to interest me. My blog analyzing different creative forms of online writing was quite detailed, as well as my blog about a single story from among the group, entitled the "Reagan Library." Another indepth blog is my critique of Writing for the Web 3.0 by Crawfor Kilian.

While my blogs got few comments, I did a better job of commenting on other people's blogs. I actually participated in a discussion on Anne's blog about the election.

All and all, I think I've improved since the lst portfolio. I just need to keep it up.