How Not to Write a Blog, and a Few Lessons About College Living

I apologize in advance for the length, I can’ t promise you it’s worth it, but I was personally very satisfied writing this one.

How Not to Write a Blog, and a Few Lessons About College Living

Today, I’d like to give an ironic tutorial, but let me explain first so the irony is not lost on the audience. I’m going to explain to you how to keep a blog. Bear in mind I have never had a blog in my life, I’ve managed to now miss most if not all the due dates, and with my poor organizational skills and tardiness, I’m arguably the last person on earth who can tell someone who to write a blog.. With that said:

It happens from time to time. A professor may decide to have you keep a journal, and you’ll make your entries and at the end of the semester hand it in for what should be an easy grade. Well, in the modern era professors can finally save the paper (you’re welcome trees), and have you keep a journal online. This form of journal is referred to as a blog and crazy as it seems, blogs are pretty legit. In fact, some writers and journalists started their careers in the blog circuits; it may take luck and patience, but that could happen to you.

However, for now and for the sake of simplicity, let’s just focus on the grade. Real quick though, here’s a story:

Welcome to my first semester at Westfield State University; I’m only taking four classes this semester but I assure you the workload is no joke. Accounting and Economics have me strapped, my total inability to understand computers has left me at a loss for Software Apps, and worst yet what should have been my favorite class (English, of course the one I don’t major in…) has unfortunately taken the fall in the face of courses that apply more directly to my majors and require much, much more strain on my mind (so to the extent that in the week before any Accounting test, I have stayed up all night for days at a time in preparation and still pulled high C’s at best). That said, my English class is somewhat of a release. I love English and writing and the class structure is great: read some goods books, write some papers, learn a thing or two. It was fairly easy going until I heard that fateful word: Blog!

To reiterate, I am computer illiterate. So this word set off some pretty early alarms in my head and this may even be the case with you, my fateful reader(s). But fear not! I’ve always said mistakes are the only way to learn (anyone who tells you they learned something without screwing something up is lying to you), and I’ve made more than enough to share my experiences here. The assignment was simple; set up a blog, email the link to my professor, write 6 entries, one from each of four categories, and two of my choosing. The dates weren’t flexible, but they were spread out and the individual posts were dramatically shorter than the writing I usually do on my own (professor, if you’re reading this…I apologize if my posts are on the lengthy side… I love to ramble). The whole goal was to maintain a consistently posted blog throughout the semester, which was and still is a relatively relaxed “easy A” assignment… but mistakes can be made. So follow me and try to learn a thing or two.

What not to do when keeping a blog for a class.

First, don’t forget to email the link to your professor. How can a professor check the status of your blog if they have no idea where to find it? It may seem impossible to make this mistake but I assure you one minute you’re telling yourself it’s late and you want to go to bed so you’ll just shoot the email out first thing in the morning… next minute it’s two weeks to the end of the semester and you’re realizing you completely forgot. Also, if you can’t figure out how to set it up or link it, then please don’t hesitate to ask. I hesitated to ask and this may sound surprising but… I ended up forgetting to ask. We’re all capable of forgetting huge things (how many guys forget their anniversary year after year after year, despite that the date never changes?), but try not to let this be the case with you as it was me; nothing more embarrassing then the “beg for forgiveness” email I’ll be writing later, I assure you. “…Dear Professor, I’m a moron…” is not how you want to end the semester.

Second, don’t miss the due dates. And if you do miss the due dates, don’t miss ALL the due dates. I’m sure this sounds incredible to some. You might be thinking “but Will, how did you manage to miss every single due date?” and my answer to you is simply I don’t know. I could have easily written down the due dates at the beginning of the semester, stuck it on my wall and set up some reminders on my phone. In fact, I suggest YOU do these things. I’ll even learn to do them myself; after all, these are MY mistakes we’re learning from here. So somehow I’ve now missed the due dates, but because I’m mindless, not lazy (and cause I really do love to write, but don’t tell anyone or they’ll always ask me to write things), then I have still completed the assignment, late as it may be. Better than nothing? Who knows… but I’ll sleep better at night knowing I’m forgetful, not a slacker.

Third, don’t underestimate the assignments. Maybe you’ll think “oh that’s easy, I’ll worry about it later”. This will be your first mistake (trust me, it was mine). I underestimated the assignment and once I had put it out of mind… it stayed that way. Remember, every assignment worth even 1% of your grade is as important as any other assignment and deserves the same attention. Learn this lesson before the last two weeks of the semester and you won’t find yourself in my shoes. Trust me, It’s not fun in these shoes; you don’t get a lot of sleep when you cram a semesters worth of work and attention into such short time. I wouldn’t lie to you after all!

Lastly, and this is a big one, don’t, and I repeat do NOT blame anyone but yourself if you do make these mistakes. It’s not the professor’s fault; the assignment makes sense, stretches your writing legs, and gives you a chance for some easy course credit. It’s not your friends fault; just because they want to go out and play, doesn’t mean you HAVE to blow off your work. College is about responsibility and learning to manage your own time; people stop holding your hand once you hit this age, get used to it sooner rather than later. It’s not your roommates fault, not the TV’s fault, not the computers fault, not social media, and not other classes. This one is on you, as it’s on me. Learn to take responsibility early on; people will like you more.

So those are all the things I’ve learned this year. I’d like to thank my English class because frankly, these lessons are actually pretty crucial to me (if you hadn’t noticed, this was the only entry thus far that wasn’t written in a satirical, humorous format), and writing them down just now really helped me out (should have guessed, writing is one of the only ways I can get through to myself). To leave you with a little more advice about blogs and writing assignments, some more things I picked up on. If you don’t like writing journal entries, make them entertaining for you. Make them humorous; invite your voice into your writing. In an informal setting, it’s actually better to let people really believe you are speaking to them, not talking at them. This isn’t a research paper after all, have fun with it! I did.

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