My New Blog

I’ve decided to start a blog.

While many blogs center on a theme, such as travel, or politics, or fashion, this one takes a different approach that’s based on the original definition of a blog. In other words, it’s similar to a personal journal but written for a public audience. In that sense, the topics stem from my life yet are hopefully interesting to the general reader.

In the past, I’ve taught people how to write blogs, and I’ve written blogs as part of my work, but I’ve never kept a personal blog before. I’m curious to see how it goes and what readers think of the topics I select. Will I hit the right tone between personal and public? Time will tell.

Throughout my life, I’ve kept both personal and academic journals. The personal journals were for my eyes only, and I started writing them in elementary school when I asked for and received my first five-year diary. It looked a lot like this one, only the cover was tan leatherette instead of floral, and the lock was different.

A blue floral locking diary next to a pair of dark-rimmed glasses. (Courtesy of Pixabay)

Since owning that diary, at times I’ve written daily, while at other times I’ve not written at all. Still, a journal has always been close by, ready to record my thoughts.

As for the academic journals, those were written as course assignments over the years and were handed in for feedback from my professors. I remember keeping a few when I was a student at Rollins College, one for a course called Expository Writing about the Environment, another for Existential Philosophy, and another for a study abroad program in Melbourne, Australia. One year, as part of the Honors Degree Program, I completed an independent study that was titled Journaling in Utopia. Those of us who worked in the Writing Center even kept a group journal where we reflected on our work as writing consultants. 

I’ve also kept academic journals for courses in my graduate degree programs. For example, I kept a journal for a course in community literacy at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and again for a community literacy course at the University of Arizona (UA). The journal for the course at CMU was an individual journal where I reflected on my experiences at the Community Literacy Center, whereas at UA, we kept a group journal using bulletin board software. In this journal, as in the group journal I was part of with the Rollins College Writing Center, we each responded to and cited from our classmates’ journal entries on a regular basis. I later used this journaling technique in my own teaching. (As an aside, the community literacy course at UA later became the foundation for the Community Literacy Journal.) 

In this blog, you’ll find a collection of my thoughts and ideas on a variety of subjects. You might find musings on articles, speeches, or videos. You might find recollections of trips or events. I might write about new research reports or local happenings. Maybe I’ll write about the current book I’m reading. Whatever it is, I hope you’ll find it interesting!