They Say, I Say and it's influence on my essay

They Say, I Say is a fantastic book that asks as a guide of sorts to the different facets of academic and provides templates examples to help me, the reader, further understand each of these elements and how to effectively use them. While I find the greater majority of the book incredibly helpful, there are specific topics discussed that I can apply to my essay and make it better. Listing them, there is: quoting, planting a naysayer in your text, and saying why it matters.

I bring up quoting due to the fact that I quote the blog I'm studying in my essay to lend support to my arguments. They Say, I Say has led me into seeing that without framing the quote properly, it will end up seeming out of place and put there without any real thought to it. Therefore, I have been motivated to look back through my essay at the quotes I've incorporated and make sure that they fit well.

When it comes to planting a naysayer in your text and saying why it matters, these are things that can really strengthen my essay. Instead of just arguing my position on the possible co-existence of a corporate influence and personal voice I could plant a counterargument against my position to add real depth and credibility to it, and responding to that counter-argument can only strengthen my own argument further. Then as for saying why it matters, after reading the book, this really stuck out to me as essential when making an argument of any sort. Without that sort of support, without referring to some other argument, your own argument can end up feeling flat. You need to tell the reader why what your arguing is important, otherwise they're liable not to care and quickly get bored when reading your essay. Now, when I consider applying this to my essay, at this moment I can't quite come up with what to say to fit it into my essay, but I recognize the importance of this element and definitely plan on incorporating it.

Presentation Reflection

Alright, reflecting on my presentation. I feel I did pretty well. One thing worth noting is that I think I better hit the point behind the presentation than others, presenting my argument and supporting evidence rather than just running through my essay paragraph by paragraph. Also, though I think that I didn't do it as much as I should have, I made eye contact with the audience and that's a definite plus. The things I feel that should change if I were to present again would be of course more eye contact, fixing up my powerpoint a little (descriptive titles rather than general titles), and maybe projecting my voice a little more because I know thats an issue I have with presentations.

Blogging and My Essay

So, we have to relate to a section of the book Blogging in our first essay. Looking through the table of contents I immediately find a perfect fit, in general scope, chapter six "Blogging Brands". Specifically I will relate to the either or both sections "The Human Voice" and "Corporate Blogging". I discuss both topics in my essay, and the possible co-existence of a personal identity, or human voice, and a corporate influence in what I think could be considered somewhat of a corporate blog. While the "Blogging Brands" chapter primarily focuses on the money side of things, it still relate to key points I raise in my blog, in fact it can even help me expand my points and argument. Scanning through the chapter I see the portion of the text where it explains that companies create blogs to communicate directly with consumers (though that doesn't quite apply, seeing as my company is a sports organization) and to establish themselves as experts and thus the number one source in the field. I believe I can fit that into the arguments I raise in my esssay. This is a perfect fit and because of that, I feel that the Blogging textbook will be an excellent supplement to my essay and my arguments.

Writing Conference and Essay Revisions

I feel that the writing conference provided an excellent amount of help and input to assist me in writing my essay. The two primary benefits I got out of the conference were the clarification of the purpose of my essay and analysis of the blog and an idea that more or less brings my two points together. Out of clarification of my purpose and an overall summary of my analysis, I will add to my introduction, stating more about the blog the nature of it that I see and will go further into and analyze. Then with the idea that brings my two main points together, I will write a third body paragraph analyzing the title of the blog and the importance that it holds in the meaning of the identity of the blog.

My Research So Far

So far I haven't had too much trouble in doing research for my essay. I had no trouble finding a blog, and it seems that I won't have too much trouble when it comes to analyzing the blog for my essay. I suppose challenge could come in analyzing the blog I've chosen for my essay through the fact that the author doesn't make too much of a presence of his identity in the blog. The about section only states the purpose of the blog, no mention of the author is made. In light of that, all I can really do is scrutinize and scour his posts, looking for the presence of opinion and his own voice. There are some posts that are either straight news or match previews, but some posts offer analysis and the author's own insights.

The Reading

Chapter 4: Blogging as a Narrative (Pg. 125), entire second paragraph

“Yes we cry over novels and movies, and we sit on the edge of our seats begging movie heroines to “look behind you!” or “turn on the light!”, but we’re protected, emotionally, by the knowledge that it’s make-believe. That protection wasn’t there for the readers and viewers – and participants – who truly believed that Kaycee Nicole and Bree were real” (Rettburg, 125)

Paraphrase: We get emotional over books and movies, but we have protection through knowledge that it is fake. Those who got emotionally invested in the hoaxes online didn't have that sort of protection.

I find this passage, and that specific quote, incredibly intriguing. It shows that people willingly open up, become attached and emotionally invested in some online persona. In doing so they’re inviting themselves into all sorts of trouble and hurt and the examples presented are perfect representations of that.

One should only make connections and become emotionally involved like those in those the hoaxes in real life, plain and simple. It’s true that you can be led on in a similar fashion in real life, but it is far easier and far more likely for it to happen on the Internet.

The anger of those who had followed and became emotionally involved with the hoaxes examples in the passage is certainly understandable. To be tricked and led on like that… I would certainly react the same way. But there is something to be gained and learned from that experience: you have to be wary of what is on the Internet. Nothing can be as it initially seems, and thus you shouldn’t take anything at face value as well as guard and protect yourself against everything. Otherwise, if you invest yourself in something, like exampled in the passage, and it is revealed to be a hoax, you bring it upon yourself.

Writing and Research: Interests and blogging

I have many interests, but the three I'm most keen about are music, sports, and technology. The one interest I would most likely want to follow a blog about, through sheer enthusiasm, is sports. I'm not talking about sports in general either, I plan on focusing in on soccer. Up until about a year and a half ago I had no real interest in professional sports. Then came the Seattle Sounders FC. Now I am incredibly obsessive and passionate about soccer, albeit exclusively the Sounders. Secondary comes technology. Like with sports, my focus is specific, computers. And it gets even more specific than that, Apple computers (seeing as I have an extreme distaste for anything PC). I follow all the latest news and info about anything having to do with Apple and that would pair excellently with this assignment.

What am I hoping to learn from this? I suppose it would be interesting to find out how the blogger goes about presenting the information and news, what sort of spin they put on it, whether they interject they're personal opinion or not.

Who am I as a writer?

That is definitely a question that I haven't considered before. I think that really hinges on what it is that I am writing about. When the topic is something that I am passionate about (I.E. Seattle Sounders) or deeply interested in, I am a confident writer and everything just flows and comes easily to me. When required to write about something that doesn't interest me, I struggle and it doesn't come quite as easily to me. There are some examples I can draw from my senior year in high school. For a major paper in one class we were free to choose our topic as long as it pertained to the Pacific Northwest, and so I chose the Sounders. That is probably the most I've enjoyed writing a paper. In contrast, in AP Literature and Composition we had to write essays about the novels that we read, and I often times struggled with coming up with what to write and consequently I had to go through a revision or two before I got things right. In light of this, I am  hoping that with more time and practice overall I can become a stronger writer, no matter what the subject is.