ENGLISH FINAL!!

8.
A blog is a place where you can write down ideas, memories, opinions, or even the most random of things. You can get a mob of followers and even "stalk" your friends, making your experience more amusing. Comments that strangers or buddies provide can be encouraging or hurtful to you, but helping the long run. My first year having a blog has been interesting because I gradually chagned. On my statement of purpose, I stated that I would write about my hobbies, vacations, and goals. So far I only wrote about a recent vacation that I experienced, I like being able to slowly write it chapter by chapter. Using this new system will be something I will try to continue even after the school year.
A blog changed the way I write by having more freedom in what I write. It is unlike normal school subjects, where we have to write about a certain subject or pages. Writing beyond the minimum amount of 300 words is never a problem because of being able to write whatever I want. In blogging you do not have to impersonate someone like in history class, write formulas for math or science, or even attempt to translate a foreign language.
Being one of my weaknesses since elementary school, writing is something I have limited confidence in. Blogging has changed the way I think about writing because English class does not seem as terrifying as earlier years. Back in middle school, English class was a class I never understood because of the grammar ... adverb proposition, conjunctions, and others. Those words were so foreign and scared me every time I saw them because we would be forced to analyze a sentence. Now with blogging we do not have to worry about these minor things and let our thoughts flow naturally.

3.
Many people get comments about how interesting or horrible their writing is but I get simple comments from my English teacher. One feedback an audience gave me that helped me with writing was that how much detail is actually necessary. The first comment that I received on my blog was, "OK, Nathan. Here's my question. When you're telling a story like this, which details are important to leave in, and which aren't? This feels like you just wrote whatever you remembered about your trip, as soon as it came into your head. But it doesn't seem to me that the taxi driver's shorts, for example, have much bearing on the main point of your story, which is to talk about your whole trip. So think next week about what to LEAVE OUT to make your story get to the point more clearly." This comment showed that I usually write with too much unnecessary detail that lowers the quality of my writing. When I first read the comment, my reaction was that why can't a long story about my vacation include small details and information? The main point of the trip was more like having memorable events that I felt like sharing. Apparently, I felt that the taxi-man was important in my story as he gave me my strong impression when going to Hong Kong. These kinds of comments give an idea of what people expect from my narration.
After two more blog posts, I received the comment, "Dude, your memory of this trip is pretty fantastic! Are you working off notes? Did you take a journal with you on your trip, or something? The ordered detail is pretty impressive." This made me deeply feel proud of myself because I did not take notes and it was purely from my memories. It told me that I improved in writing. The idea of having a diary did not come to mind when I went there as a main focus to have fun. It felt like an encouragement that I should keep writing and what I was writing is right. This feedback helped me reflect on my changes on my blog. I was amazed that I progressed, even though I only subtracted a little amount of off topic details. With the idea of getting to the main point, most of my blog points concentrate on one event that happened in Hong Kong and I do not have to stretch it into continuous blog posts.

7.
Writer's block is a natural thing that occurs to everyone eventually. Depending on the subject, you will run out of ideas to express no matter if you wrote 100 or 1000 words about the subject or question. Learning to get past this challenge can be difficult or easy depending on what you are writing about. With the freedom from a blog, usually you would not get writers block because of you can write from different points of view. When you get stuck from writing from your point of view for example about the French Revolution, you can talk about how the king, nobles, or clergy reacted. Through this process, many more paragraphs can be formed because some people liked the revolution and some passionately hated how their way of life was changed.
I tend to get stuck when writing because in my heads, I feel like there is nothing more to say. This can be easily solved if I have a little conversation with a group of buddies. When chatting ideas can connect from other experiences that you had and inspire you to write more. The problem with having nothing to say can sometimes be why are we doing this? Is it just because you have to or because you want to? So in that process, thinking, I try to meet the requirements if there is any or write some more views and experiences. The problem with writer's block is that it often causes me to go offtrack when writing about a certain question. With the help of blogging, we are allowed to go off track as long as acquire the 300 word minimum, making me grateful for this factor.