Extra Credit Prompt

I had never used a blog before entering RTF 305. As someone who is actively immersed in internet culture, I had certainly read a few, but it had never really occurred to me to start my own. I was excited by the prospect, even if I knew my blog wouldn’t exactly be receiving a high amount of traffic.

Throughout the semester, I discovered both pros and cons to using the blog as a class tool. The primary positive aspect to the system was that it allowed traditional writing assignments to feel far more unique and exciting than they would have otherwise. The ability to incorporate multimedia aspects into blog posts provided a welcome change of pace from the “12 point font, Times New Roman, double spaced, one inch margins” style every single writing assignment in every single other class seems to require. At the same time, the flip side to this creativity provided my primary difficulty in using the blog. The creativity inherent in a personal blog conflicted with the rigidity of the grading rubric provided for each post. Rather than a smooth, flowing style, my posts read like they were being written to a bullet point checklist, which they essentially were. My desire for creative (albeit controlled) expression was overridden by my desire for full credit, and the two could not always be rectified. This was an easy difficulty to overcome; of course, as a student in the class, I did whatever was required for full credit, and let my creative impulses idle. However, I feel that this may have defeated the purpose of the blogs to a large degree.

The most interesting blog prompts were the ones that were more general, over the very specific prompts. It is quite easy to provide examples of both. My favorite blog prompt was one that required me to relate the concept of social learning to a real-life example. I used Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, easily my favorite movie released all year. This allowed for the personal expression I enjoyed in the blogs, while still remaining on point and on topic. In contrast, my least favorite blog prompt required me to identify a long shot, medium shot, and close up in a film, and explain their significance. Although the choice of film was left to the writer, the nature of the requirements meant there was very little freedom outside of the initial choice. Once the film was selected, there was very little room for improvisation or personality in the blog post itself.

With all this being said, I believe the pros outweigh the cons, and the blogs are worth using not just in RTF 305, but, at the very least, in other media-based courses as well. The only improvement I can suggest that would make them a more effective tool would be to use more generalized prompts, and to avoid bullet point rubrics, instead grading on the quality of the posts themselves. This would, admittedly, be a more subjective grading style, but that doesn’t stop any other class from requiring assignments of such a nature. With that change implemented, I believe the blogs are an effective tool to make students think more closely about their writing than they might have otherwise, which is a worthy goal.

Yes, you can use my blog in a paper or report.