Reflective Essay

     Everyone has their own opinions and we all have different perspective of things that we will either agree or disagree. In this quarter, blogging was very strange for me. I didn't like it very much at first because I don't know what I should write and what I shouldn't. I had a very hard time deciding on my topic and afraid that others would not like it. It has become an interesting quarter and I have been getting responses to my writing. I think this sudden change to blogging has changed my writing greatly from the feedback I am receiving from my classmates. It has made me think more about my topic and how it can lead to other ideas. Responding to posts was fun because relating to someones post makes me feel that I am not left out and that we are both sharing the same ideas. The audience has expanded my ideas from being sheltered to being more open. From responding to my classmates blog and receiving responses helped me grow as a writer throughout the quarter. 

      The audience has helped me through my writing by explaining their opinions and thoughts. From one post, I noticed that it branched out to many ideas that i have never thought about. It was very interesting to read the responses that I received from my classmates. There were disagreements and agreements. Even though I got responses that disagree with my point, I was not upset or mad at them. It made me feel that everyone has their own perspective and ideas. I thought that the responses were rather interesting and made me think more about what I wrote. It made me think that I should have been more specific in my point and a bit more clear. There was so much confusion happening and questions were asked. I was happy to have received disagreements because that was really what that has helped me think more. They gave me feedback and things that I have to notice. The agreeing posts made me feel that there are others that think the same way as me and it was fun to read how my idea got from this to another. The audience had helped me through my first quarter and I noticed that my writing has changed greatly.

     

      An example of one of the blogs that have both agreements and disagreements was this blog that I posted in the beginning of the year. It is called : The Rich and the Poor and the second part. This was a very interesting topic and I didn't notice that I would get so much responses. All of the responses are different and they all had their own opinions included in their response. They made me think a lot about how could clear myself with clear statements because it was too broad. This would be one of the examples of the confusion that happened and my points that were not clearly made. This is one of Alyssa's response: 

"Shiyun does not really define the terms "rich people" and "poor people" so it is hard to determine which individuals she is talking about. The terms she uses can vary depending upon which individuals she is comparing. Millionaires would be considered as "poor" when compared to billionaires; however, these millionaires would also be considered as "rich" when compared to the regular "working class" or those in poverty. In addition, the terms "rich" and "poor" can even be used in areas where there is poverty." 

This was what questions were asked and I didn't think about the two words "rich" and "poor" could have so much meaning. This was something that caused many disagreements and confusion. I learned that I have to be more specific and this was something that I worked on in my other posts. I was surprised about how the responses could be so different from my ideas and expand. It was like we are all having a discussion about what we think. This is an example from Crystal's post: 

"Sometimes, poor people will attach themselves to wealthier people to gain monetary or authoritative benefits. In some cases, the poor will even overstep legal boundaries to ingratiate their 'bosses'. Also if they themselves are in need, then the probability that they will help others despite their hardships is very small. The reason is every person in nature, is selfish regardless of what they say. It does not matter if its a selfishness towards money, towards family, or towards themselves; the point is they are still selfish."

I was quite surprised when I read this and the ideas that she incorporated was very deep. I could see that there was thinking include and my mind was thinking about how ideas are born from one thing to another. In addition, the disagreements and agreements were very helpful for me as a writer.

     Responding to people post was very fun and I liked reading about what other people think. It is interesting when I have things that I could relate to. I was glad that we all shared our blogs to everyone and added out own opinion to it. An example would be my response post to Treasure. In this response post, I noticed that I started from idea and said more about it. I even added my own opinions and thoughts in things that I could really relate and agree to. I think what we all responses back from what we write and hear other peoples thoughts. I really liked how we needed to response every week because my ideas come out as I read. Responding to posts let me expand my thinking process and kind of help with my analysis. I have noticed my response post getting more better and longer because ideas come up faster now from the practices.

     In conclusion, blogging wasn't exactly a bad change. It was kind of like practicing out writing and thinking process to prepare us for assignments where we don't get to write whatever we want. I think that blogging has help my writing more and because we write about two or three post every week, we get a lot of practice. I want to keep getting responses for my posts so that I could improve more in my writing. I was very glad that we started doing blogs. At first I didn't like it a lot, but now I noticed how it could help me in my writing.