Will the real assigned post please stand up?

All right, all right. The "real" post is nigh. I promise! Thus, without further adieu:

Blogs and I have a rather fractious relationship. It's not because I don't like them; quite the contrary. It's just because I have little time to read them, and I find that it often takes awhile to get to the real "meat" on the proverbial (blog) bone. However, I have been fans of the academic blogs belonging to Collin Brooke (collinvsblog.com) and Rebecca Moore Howard (Schenectady Synecdoche). I also read my boyfriend's professional blog that he maintains for work. There may be others I read from time to time, but again, given the demands of a Newly Crowned PhD student, I have little time to read anything other than what's assigned. In short: I read with a vengeance, though perhaps not the kind you think?

Setting up this blog was quite easy! I was not so exacting and meticulous as Marla; I did not even go to "Wordpress" to create the template (probably because I'd read all the other posts about setting up this blog). It was also much easier than myspace, which I (fairly) recently got but stopped paying attention to. Despite the relative simplicity of setting up this blog (which, I think, is easy because it has a very user-friendly and intuitive interface), I'm not very good with technology. Someone tried to teach me HTML once -- a basic, basic format -- and my head exploded. So this is about all I can handle, for now. That said, I am eager to learn to use Photoshop and iMovie, since they're so cool looking! (Note: I LOVED "paint" when I was a kid).

I chose the template I did because I like polka dots and purple (and green). It also seems to "look like me" -- whatever that means. It's easy to read and navigate (I think). I did, however, pay attention to some basic graphic design principles: dark colors (like blues, purples, and greens) with a sans-serifed font (as the text will be read on-screen), and contrast coming from the layout/colors instead of the type (bold, italic, etc) of the font. I felt this was necessary, considering this is a Rhetoric and Writing class, and that others will be reading this quite often.

This brings me to the final "bullet" that I'm supposed to answer. As many others have already written before me, my writing is different in this context because I am hyper-aware of the audience. Not only that, but this audience needs brevity, clarity, and intellectual stimulation (we're all academics here). I've noticed from the minimal posting I've done on this blog, though, that my writing here appears different from the writing I do in other contexts; I find I am wittier, more "informal," and more "like myself." I'd never write something like "Newly Crowned PhD Student" in a "formal" paper. I would also not qualify myself and my statements quite so often.
However, I also find that I share more of "myself" when I'm writing in this context. Take a look at my profile/"About Me" section, for example. I mention that I'm a PhD student in Rhetoric and Composition, but I don't say anything else academic after that. In fact, I list things that define me outside of academia. I did this without even thinking; it's the m.o. of internet writing, I assume. Writing for facebook and myspace have obviously rubbed off on me, with their categories and assumptions about what readers/viewers "need to know." Thus, I automatically delivered that information to you without blinking, though I am sure that you're interested in my academic pursuits. It's funny how our roles in communities really define us and construct (restrict? deconstruct?) our perceptions of others. I know this sounds like a 101-style revelation; it IS. That doesn't mean it's not just as "deep" or important for us to think about, especially as we engage in writing for communities of "academic" readers.

In short (in long, perhaps?, since this post has gone on much longer than I wanted), my writing is different because I have a different relationship to this writing. That is, my writing just "flows" and I edit minimally, though I do feel heightened self-awareness about who's going to be reading what I'm writing. I'm beginning to wonder if the very fact that this is "informal" writing is actually helping me get to the ideas in my head than the more "formal," "academic" writing that I'm used to doing to varying degrees of success. I love writing on this blog, and I must confess I don't love my writing in papers, though I do love writing papers.

Maybe these paradoxes will work themselves out. Maybe not.