The Last Hurrah by Murriel Mapa

From ransom notes to spelling bees, and all of the grammar a person could handle in-between; it has been quite an interesting term. When we were told in the very first class of PROW 100-2, that we would be participating in a blogging project, I didn’t know what to think. I have kept several blogs and mainly joined them for curiosity purposes; however, I found that being free to write whatever I desire in whichever format I wanted was exhilarating. Therefore, when approaching this project, I believed I would be very restricted in what I wished to write, and that this blog would be treated more like homework than leisure. Though I would have enjoyed more free-reign on the topics we were to blog about, it was also an excellent practice in learning the tools a writer requires. As a writer, I believe that reading the blogs of my peers about the material we covered in class to be very helpful. The concepts I couldn’t quite grasp and the grey areas were all clarified just upon one reading of a fellow blogger’s post.

The role of technology in my writing personally has become a huge aspect in how I perceive how I express my thoughts. With the constant use of social-networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter, it has become such a widely-known form of communication. People would rather use mobile phone text-messaging than writing letters, or e-mailing a friend in place of using the telephone because that is just how the modern lifestyle is now. Instead of ruling against technology and its various flaws, we should embrace just how far we have come as a society. Technology has allowed us, as a class, to share all that we have learned throughout this term with others who may even be interested in applying to a program which requires this class.

In my next endeavors, I believe I will keep up with the blogs I already currently belong to, but this time around I may pay more attention to my grammar and punctuation. I’ve discovered while take this course, that as a writer, the little things such as spelling errors or simple punctuation mistakes can take a profound and thought-provoking piece of writing and turn it into just another piece of writing to disregard. The power that writing and the perception of it by viewers is very important. Receiving comments and suggestions, and also offering comments to others for the duration of this blogging project has helped me immensely in my writing. Feedback and advice from classmates has probably been one of my favourite aspects of this assignment and I hope to embrace more thoughtful comments in my own blog in the future.

Links to Comments:

"Spelling" by R. Traxel

"Txt Spk - Convenient or just sloppy?" by Sarah.Rachel

"Trouble With Proofreading" by Andrew Heck

"People First: A Response to 'Bias Free Language' " by Jenny Nielsen

"Is Spelling a Lost Art?" by Shawna Blumenschein

"Grammar Detective" by Kayla Gaffney

"Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Editing?" by Sarah.Rachel

Blog Posts

Introductory Blog

Response to Lecture 4

A Time and Place for Txt Spk

Word Power

Can Proofreading Be Fun?

Grammar Detective

The Last Hurrah