What high school writing assignment style is your blog? – Guest Post

A guest post from Leighann a 28 year old blogger, mother, wife, WWOOFer, cook, gardener gamer and ex southerner who has lived in many interesting places, a fantastic writer and an incredible honest person who can be found on Twitter, or at The News Base. Leighann over to you;

I was a straight-A student in high school, got full scholarships for college.  But I blew it all for love after one semester.  Do I regret it?  The love, no.  Dropping out of college?  Sometimes.

However,  I had some wonderful teachers in high school who taught us the value of writing and thinking for yourself.  And that is priceless!  With those two things, you can conquer the world.  Even without a full education.

There are a lot of different styles of writing that I learned in high school.  Most of them are usuable on a blog, and I have seen all these styles out there somewhere:

-The Research Paper – We all hated these in school.  Index cards, encyclopedias, reading, reading, reading, and trying to put it all together, complete with bibliography and citing sources. Ugh. Some bloggers really spend a lot of time researching what they’re writing about, quoting sources and looking up facts.  This would be best for technical blogs, writing about news stories, anything with statistics, percentages, etc. If you use quotes or anything with numbers you really should look them up and state your sources. It’s good reporting, and it’s good courtesy.  I do look up things like quotes, percentages and website links to use in my posts from time to time.  But mostly, I leave the technical things to the technical writers.

-The Blue Book Essay – This is where you get one question for the test.  And it’s an essay.  No multiple choice, no books to look at, no friend to copy or share points with, no raised hands asking for help.  Just you and the pen.  And you’d better know what you’re talking about.  Most of my blog posts would fall into this category.  I’m writing about things I’ve experienced, so I don’t need sources.  And I know what I’m talking about.  Like the essay, the article will fail if you just try to BS your way through it without any real knowledge, so only write these about things you’re familiar with.

-The Journal Entry – In English class, we often were supposed to keep a journal. The teacher would give us a question for the day, and we answered it.  She was the only one who would read it, and we could be (mostly) brutally honest.  We were also encouraged to be creative.   These were questions about our feelings, interests, how we would bring about world peace, our favorite memories of our grandparents.  There were no wrong answers.  It was all about writing and exploring ourselves.  This is another type of blog post I have often written.  These kinds of posts really draw people into your site, because they talk about the real you, not what you’re selling.  You can be pretty personal on a blog.  Just remember who’s reading it and make sure you’re airing your personality, not someone else’s.

-The Book Report – Even before high school, we were writing book reports.  Somtimes we got free pizza from Book-it for doing it.  I loved reading.  I loved pizza.  But I didn’t love the book reports.  20 years later I often use book, movie, music and game reviews as part of my blog.  You could base a very successful blog around reviewing other work, even other blogs, especially if you narrow yourself to one genre. Reviews are great for guiding people to Amazon ads or other commission-raising links. They’re also a great way to promote your favorite artists or an idea that you like such as vegetarianism or green living.  These are so easy to do, and I try to review everything I read and watch.

-Creative Writing – There were times when we were asked to totally make something up.  Poetry, short stories, even plays.  There are some interesting poetry, art or photography blogs that are all about creativity.  No worries about getting your facts straight here.  Originality, imagination, and an interesting angle are all that are required.  Even in creative writing, you were scored on spelling, punctuation and grammar, so don’t neglect these elements of your blog.

-The Oral Report – Another dreaded tactic used by teachers to make even the best students cringe with terror.  Most of us can’t stand talking in front of other people, even people we know.  The great thing about using video blogs or audio blogs is that there is no audience.  At last not one you can see.  So no stage fright required.  They’re also wonderful because you can easily engage your viewers/listeners and be entertaining.  There are a few things to consider: no hyperlinks to click on, so any website addresses need to be easy to remember or write down.  This isn’t a way out of writing.  You still need to write down what you’re going to say ahead of time.  Practice before recording, and have good editing software so you can take out mistakes and coughing episodes (please!).  Always listen/watch before releasing your work to check your volume, picture quality, and so on..

So, pens down.  What have you written on your blog?  If it was a test or paper, would you be proud, or does it need some work?  What style(s) do you use on your blog?

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