A conversation held at Oktoberfest.

I had a fairly long conversation with another member of this class at Oktoberfest in Clark I courtyard today, and I realized probably other people in the class feel the way they do regarding this blog. They (the conversation-mate) treat each blog entry as an assignment, a mini essay to be handed in each week concerning the readings, that they have to sit down and forumlate beforehand. This is nervewracking, and it is in the forefront of their intentions that this blog is part of our grade. This helped clarify for me why so many of the blog postings are lengthy and sound a lot like an academic paper. Unfortunately, though, this person does not seem to view the blog as something "fun" to post on, due to the nature of things they feel they're supposed to post.

I, however, have been blogging the way I see blogs done in the real blogosphere - a link, an amusing comment, a musing. Sometimes they aren't more than a sentence or two, if it's a short thought; sometimes, if I'm inspired, I'll write more and comment all over the place. My language is not quite as academic in this medium, recently evidenced by the word-for-word transcription of a conversation with my boyfriend regarding World of Warcraft. I'm trying to forget that this is a graded medium and treat it as if I'm fully immersed in blog-land. Is this the correct way to go about it? It's certainly more fun and makes me think more like a blogger.

If not, then please tell me soon, Professor Fitzpatrick, before I fail the entire blog component of the class because I haven't been posting mini scholarly papers every week.