Students Begin New Blog Adventures

On Sept. 11, a student in my writing class works on a blog post draft.

I am teaching a writing class in this odd fall semester of 2020, and students in that class will be sharing their perspectives via personal blogs. I’m writing this on Sept. 11, 2020—a somber anniversary, but many students are choosing to write about the global pandemic. They are in a writing lab, drafting their first posts that should be published next week.

I always like this blog assignment—it’s one I often use in almost every media writing class. For one thing, it means students are gaining experience actually managing their own personal web sites. It also means that their writing is what professional writing should be—public. We get used, in school, to writing for each other and not writing for the world at large—but for my media students, the world at large is meant to be their audience.

A student in the school uniform of 2020. Masked, and focused on writing.

I have told students before about Jenny Valliere, the program manager of Z102.9 radio station here in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Jenny has told me that having her own blog was helpful to her in launching her radio career because she was able to show a prospective employer that she’s already active online and creating original content. Her blog.

Lindsay Leahy, another former student, writes a very interesting blog about how faith has helped her overcome adversity. She graduated long enough ago that I don’t think I required her to write a blog, but I did have a hand in helping her become a better writer, I hope—most of all, she was managing editor of the “Mount Mercy Times,” and although I thinking this blogging exercise is valid, student media experience is gold. Her blog.

Anyway, once students have started their blogs, I will share some links. In the meantime, it’s nice to see students at work, creating something new. That’s the power of writing—we writers get to be creators.

The power of blogging is that we then get to share those creations so easily with the world.