The blog post that I view as my strongest is entitled
Rags to Riches. I believe I sprinkle in a little bit of humor in my writing, which is what ultimately brings out my true voice. It's not the type of humor that gets you rolling on the floor, unable to control your laughter, but the type of humor that's satirical and somewhat witty. In the second paragraph of
Rags to Riches is a great example of the satirical elements that I include to demonstrate voice. This line states, "They've had horrifying seasons for a slong as any golden-ager still living in the town can remember." This is satirical because I'm ridiculing how old the oldies in the town really are. I think the heart and soul of my voice/personality on the page is satire.
The diction that I include is informal for the most part, but I do include some elevated diction as well. An example of the rare elevated diction in my blog is found in the first paragraph. The sentence reads as the following: "This story is purely about baseball, so it would be
absurd not to enjoy." This formal/elevated diction enhances the piece because it stresses the point I'm trying to make. It shows how serious I am that it would be nearly impossible to not enjoy the book. If I replaced "absurd" with "impossible" or something even more casual such as "crazy", then the reader would think I wasn't too serious about the point I was bringing across. I know this because I've had experience with the effects that casual vs. elevated diction has on me, as a reader. One of the syntax techniques that I incoorporated is anaphora. I used this technique in one line and it states, "They didn't just win the league. They didn't just win the city tournament." This enhances the piece because it sets up a lot of tension. The reader, while reading that line, really wants to know what they won. The anaphora gradually builds the tension. I didn't just flat out say what they won because there would be no tension build-up. With this anaphora, the tension is taken to a high level.
My blog posts have significantly matured as the trimester has gone along. The reasoning behind this is due to the great advice given by Mrs. Bross during the blogging conference (no, I didn't just say that to get brownie points), and the "knock your socks off" criteria that we were given. A big part that I learned from both of those things was to incorporate more voice, and more technology. I've been taught in the past to incorporate voice, but I haven't been taught exactly how to do this. Mrs. Bross gave me a lot of detail on this during our blogging conference, and my blogs have significantly improved and matured as a result. Also, I've began to try to include at least one piece of technology to each blog to enhance the readers' experience. I don't want to overdo it though, which Mrs. Bross also told me. In the beginning of the trimester, I wouldn't have been able to say that my blogs had a purpose. I was just writing two paragraphs because that was my assignment. Towards the end, however, I didn't have any problem with blogging. I wanted to write for a purpose. I wanted the reader to enjoy what he/she was reading, and also get some use out of writing it so their five minutes wasn't just another five minutes wasted. Overall, thanks to the "knock your socks off" criteria, and Mrs. Bross' advice during our blogging conference, my blog has slowly but surely strengthened.
