It was with both relief and regret that I posted my final assignment to WordPress’ Bloggers U class called Writing 101. The idea behind the class was less to improve blogging than it was to improve writing in general. As with many writing classes before, I wanted the writing aspect of the class, not so much the blogging aspect, and I came away from this intense class wondering if I should maintain an educational focus to this blog.
In truth, I have an education blog that I’ve barely used recently called Teacher Talk and hosted on GoDaddy.com. This class made me wonder if one education-related blog site was enough for me to maintain, and maybe this site should be geared more toward developing my writing skills based on prompts that can be found in several books I have on writing. Maybe you can help me decide.
In many ways, exposing my journey through the writing process can be educational in nature, as I commented in an unrelated (directly) post some time during this class. I wanted to explain to anyone following my education blog that my journey through this class might be helpful to teachers and learners of writing. My intent was not to become a professional writer–I think at my age I’ve missed the boat on that one–but to show how a writing class can help one’s own skill with words grow when involved with a group of like-purposed individuals. In all, there were well over 100 participants from around the world taking part in this class, and there was much to learn from each in terms of style, interpretation of prompts and “twists,” and general intra-participant comments. Some participants posted comments directly to my blogging site, while others posted on the class “Commons.” The latter were for use strictly by participants, while the former were posts left directly. In both cases, I learned a lot–about what people like, what they say in their comments, etc. Too often, regardless of where posted, comments tended to be complimentary or simply “liked” as one would approve a post on Facebook or other social media. That is not a lot of feedback, but in a 101 class people tend to be reluctant to give constructive criticism.
That leaves me in the continued dilemma of whether to turn this into sharing my writing progress or continue as an education-oriented only spot.
Your response to this post is much appreciated.
#educ_dr
Write of Passage 
I don’t have much to add here I’m afraid, so I’ll just echo the suggestion of keeping two blogs.
Your point about better feedback is well made. I think people either leave a positive comment because they don’t want to seem rude, or they forego commenting entirely. I know I’ve been guilty of just moving on from a post I didn’t like instead of offering feedback on how it could be improved, and I’m sure I’ve been on the receiving end of that too.
What I’d really like is a close-knit writer’s group, like a book club, where we can dissect each other’s work and improve the writing process as much as possible.
We should get a group of people together in a private group. @MichelleW offered to help set one up for anyone interested. The alum forum will be huge and not at all a small group helping each other out.
I would definitely be up for that.
Great! I’ll contact Michelle later today or early tomorrow and see tty to get one started. 🙂
Chrissypollack is helping with that. She will be setting up an ok’d blog site I never use as a “private” forum so it cN be limited to a few people who really want to help each other become better writers. I guess you could call it a small writers’ group. I’ll get back to you when she gets back to me. 😊
Thank you! That’s be fantastic!
I’ve nominated you for the Liebster Award, the details are here https://jabrushblog.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/the-liebster-award/
I’ll get on it right after drawing lessons! And thank you for the nomination.
Just to let you know, I’ve nominated you for the award, too. See my post here: https://dremiller.com/2015/05/07/thanks-for-the-liebster-award-nomination/
Thanks for the nomination, although I was already nominated and did the first part, I answered all of your questions. They were very interesting ones and fun to answer.
Glad you liked the q’s. And congratulations on multiple nominations!
You got very good suggestions here. I would go for keeping two blogs.
Regarding comments, since I started blogging last year, I noticed that people didn’t say what they really think, unless they like what they read. I’ve been through my 4th course by now, but haven’t seen much feedback that helped me seeing my mistakes and therefore could have helped learning.
It is somewhat understandable behavior as there are many cultures involved and whereas the direct ones could voice openly their opinions, the indirect ones could feel insulted.
So, we are left with safe “likes” and “nice”… when people perhaps don’t really appreciate it.
I get it, Lucile. I just wish people would share more about what is wrong with the post, not just what is good about it. Again, it’s that blasted teacher in me–the one who firmly believes that we should all be teaching each other. (Sigh)
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts. I genuinely appreciate all feedback. 😺
We share the same wish and beliefs, but I hardly expect that to happen. During our course I said my honest opinion once to a lady who asked for criticism, but she started being defensive and annoyed. So I ponder.
Can I say the truth? Only to those I know well.
It’s been a pleasure interacting with you. You’re most welcome.
Cheers.
Well, I personally welcome criticism, so if we ever end up in class or BUGs together, feel free. As I mentioned, the pros we know we’ll take what’s offered and decide whether to accept or reject. Getting defensive isn’t something they do. They say “Thank you,” and move on! Thanks again for your candor. 😊
I encourage you to do whatever you think best, what works for you and most of all, ENJOY the journey.
Keeping focus with your blog and discovering new interests are sometimes hard to combine. I’m struggling with the choice of writing in English or in Dutch. Should I maintain 2 separate blogs? In your case, I think you could use writing prompts for your educational post. Staying on topic while trying new styles, such as dialogue or brief post. Talking about learning about writing should work too. Keeping up several blogs seems too much work for me…
Too much work for me, as well. I start losing track, but each serves a different purpose. Great working with you! Hope to see you on the alumni site!
I think Fimnora’s suggestion is a good one- maintain both and feed one to the other when you think appropriate.
I do know what you mean about the feedback on 101- there was little criticism and much praise. I read several posts where criticism was technically needed (the odd post where the English was dreadful for eg), and I gave gentle pointers here and there, but I think honest (yet constructive) criticism comes best once you’ve built a relationship, got to know someone and you know what level of feedback they can take and how to phrase it. This only comes with time and probably isn’t possible on a month long course with so many participants.
I think Fimnora’s suggestion is a good one- maintain both and feed one to the other when you think appropriate.
I do know what you mean about the feedback on 101- there was little criticism and much praise. I read several posts where criticism was technically needed (the odd post where the English was dreadful for eg), and I gave gentle pointers here and there, but I think honest (yet constructive) criticism comes best once you’ve built a relationship, got to know someone and you know what level of feedback they can take and how to phrase it. This only comes with time and probably isn’t possible on a month long course with so many participants.
I understand what you mean, Lynn, but–and I keep repeating this as though it were a mantra of some sort–I am/was first and foremost a teacher, and it has been my experience that students, whether grade school or university level, tend to want to improve. I try very hard to leave constructive criticism when I can, and these are meant to benefit us all, not just the single writer. I know that constructive criticism is best after getting to know people first, but if you had read as many doctoral students’ “final products” as I have, you can begin to appreciate just how badly the art of writing even a simple sentence has missed many very bright people. When I understand that English is not a person’s main language of communication, I try to help them with their English. When I see styles that are meant to be “street language” or whatever the current nomenclature is, I generally let it go because it seems part of an individual style, deliberate or not. The best way to learn to write is to read, read, read. I know that most of my writing improvements have come from paying more attention to the authors we admire most. I can do very well when it comes to “academic” and “technical” writing, but for the past twenty-five or thirty years, I have continued to take writing classes as they come along because each class–even if guided by the same people–gives unique experiences and prompts and topics, and therefore gives me room for growth. I work on the assumption–perhaps wrongly–that anyone participating in a class wants not just the experience of writing, but also suggestions that make them better.
One night, admittedly, I went off on a person who has been blogging in another language. I was wrong to do criticize as opposed to critique that member, and have responded to my misguided perceptions and comments. His/her explanations helped me see something that I was blind to, and I was clearly wrong in my comments–and said so. Since my final comment was “liked,” I think I can assume my apology was accepted.
That still doesn’t respond to my feeling that I am in this class to receive constructive criticism so I can improve, and hope that others are/were here for the same reason. One doesn’t have to be a great writer to give constructive criticism based on their views, and that’s what I personally was hoping for. Most great athletic coaches were mediocre players of their sport, but it doesn’t mean that they can’t see what their team members need to improve.
Overall, this kind of class is too large for all of us to read everything, and–for those of us who didn’t have our own way of doing our best to spread our reading around–Michelle W offered some wonderful suggestions. I hope in the next version of this class that type of suggestion is made much sooner. Our author friends that continue to participate in classes like this either accept their classmates’ criticism or ignore it, as they deem appropriate. Most of our author friends are in science fiction, and all of them are professionals in one area of science or another. Among these people are names that I am reluctant to put in print, but are easily recognized whether a reader/writer reads SF or not. My own original purpose in taking as many writing classes as I could was to improve my style of writing sensitive reports on emotionally disturbed or educationally handicapped students–I don’t like clinical bluntness when I do these reports, and for more than a year I struggled with writing a one-page weekly individual report on as many as 15 students/clients. Each report took me hours to do–one page at two or more hours leads to very little sleep near the end of the week.
But then I started taking more classes just because I enjoyed them and enjoyed the challenge of writing fiction or non-fiction from the soul. Each time I received constructive criticism, I improved a little more. I’m no great writer after all this time, but I am a much better writer of non-academic/technical writing now than I used to be, even though I did pretty well on the grammar and spelling side all along. What I’ve learned about myself and from and about the great authors I know personally is that they are always honing their skills, most of which comes from constructive commentary.
A number of times I’ve written “nice piece of work;I especially liked…” without giving any grammatical tips because the author wasn’t ready for that, but needed encouragement in their story telling first. Many of the participants in this class have never looked at 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing (or something like that) and have probably never even heard of Strunk and White. At some point, they will need grammatical correction, but not right this minute. I get that. On the other hand, when a reasonably well-written piece is part present and part past tense in the same sentence…well, then I offer up that the story–as good as it is–would be stronger if a single tense were to be used throughout. The next post I read by that same author generally shows a far better grammatically sound story than what they wrote before. So I have to believe that my comment made a difference.
We can all make a difference in each other’s writing, but maybe we need a page where we can state up front exactly what we welcome criticism on during this particular class. I know that I will probably take this class again at a later time, and I’ll be looking for a different type of criticism than I dearly wanted and rarely received this time around.
Call me odd, or just an old lady that has certain expectations; but that’s where I stand. And–on those occasions when I went too far, I freely apologize for any comments that came off as hurtful or condescending. I don’t want to discourage anyone, but I also need to be able to read what is written before I can determine what type of comment to make at all. And I do not come down on a person whose language of communication is not English. For those people, if they want English critique, I am certainly qualified to give that, since I’ve helped many non-English speakers at university level. I even created a course for English for non-English business students so that they could more effectively communicate with their English-speaking business associates. But they were learning to speak and write English for a purpose, and I gladly provided that. Here, on the other hand, there were many non-English speakers who were more concerned about their stories than their English. In those cases, it was the story I addressed, not the broken English. If it was English that was part of the purpose, I think I addressed that when it was requested.
So…if the purpose of this class is primarily to get people writing, then I can say that many of us missed the mark–whether because we got into unexpected time crunches or were unprepared for the intensity of the prompts, some of which we may not have been prepared to write about. It doesn’t matter. What matters is improvement. And few people will improve without constructive criticism geared at what they want, not what I want. I’m flexible enough–I hope–to rarely go off.
Again, it’s the teacher in me. You can take a person out of the classroom or out of a learning environment, but once a teacher, always a teacher.
I realize that I went to far with this response. I ended up addressing my own purposes and weaknesses, too. This might have made a good response to a “What is your purpose?” prompt.
Thank you, Lynn, for your comments. I have taken the all to heart and will improve as I go along, both independently and in forums and classes. That you took the time to address my question is sincerely appreciated. I hope we continue to meet up on WP, and that I have the opportunity to read all your posts, as I am following your blog. As with other things and people, sometimes time just gets away from us…
Thank you and best wishes for continued growth and success. You are one heck of a writer.
I think that have two separate blogs would help you to concentrate on the specific of each, and should you want to share news between your blogs, you can link to the education blog when the need arises. The prompts, and events, and challenges will continue to remain even as we go off and try to figure out our direction. Are you part of the blogging alumni group? If not, and you’d like the continued ‘commons’ experience, I can have an invitation sent to you. Let me know. 🙂
Please have an invitation sent to me. I would greatly appreciate it. Also, thank you for your suggestion. I, too, believe each blog needs its own focus, and with my portable hotspot, I might even be able to get some writing done out in the sun! Thank you again.
You’re very welcome. I’ll head over now to let them know you would like an invitation 🙂
Thank you!
Have you heard anything from them? I posted a message there to see if someone could tell me how to invite someone, and I included your blog URL. I’m thinking that perhaps they may have sent you something?
Yes, Fimnora. I received the invitation to the BUGs and another to some other strange site. There wasn’t much on BUGs yesterday, but I haven’t looked today. And thanks for requesting the invitation for me. You’re part of BUGs, aren’t you?
Try fitting them both into one subject. Write about education and your experiences
You mean like learning about writing? or teaching about writing? Either might work. Good suggestion. Thanks!
Teaching about writing and what it means to you.
Good idea! Thanks!
My two cents worth. You already have an educational blog. Why not maintain this blog for the joy of writing, whether you participate in prompts or write what your heart tells you. In love and light Cheryle
Thanks for responding. I also have a blog called Li’l Ole Lady News, where I spend far too much time bitching, I think. Getting older, however, is a real pain…
I will check out Li’l Ole Lady News. In love and light Cheryle
Thanks, Cheryle!