Midterm Blog

Before taking this class, I have never blogged before, besides putting posts on a discussion board but I think that it is a little different because there were certain questions we had to answer so it wasn’t just allowing your mind to wander and write about anything. I think that blogging is an excellent idea especially for a class like this. It is interesting to see and read other students’ opinions and I have also learned a lot and benefited from it as well. Each student has their own opinion and I was able to see the plays in various ways instead of just reading the play and knowing what happens. It is a great learning experience for everyone, although I still feel it is hard to sometimes choose the topic in which you want to discuss, sometimes it is easier when you are given a specific topic.

After reading over my three posts I have noticed that most of them talk about specific characters, mostly females. I talk about the differences between men and women, how they are treated differently but also how women have the same needs and wants that men do. I also discussed the meaning of the title of Much Ado About Nothing and also what the major points of A Midsummer Night’s Dream were. For example, in the most recent post on Unruly Women, I talked about the change of character that we see in Desdemona and Emilia as the plays unravel. A few themes that re-occur in my writing are the theme of love, and tragedy and marriage. I spoke about Beatrice and Benedick and why I felt that they were a perfect match. I feel that each blog I write, they become more thorough and in depth. When comparing the first blog to the third, the first blog was very short and didn’t necessarily say a lot, I seemed to just be rambling and it was all over the place. I remember being nervous and not knowing what to say or touch upon. I am finding it easier to choose a specific topic to write about and to focus on just that. I also think that I am starting to get used to it and it is becoming easier for me. It’s not always easy to just “free” write without having a specific question to answer. I think a way that I can improve my blogging is to quote more from the texts and be more specific, I also think that I should try to make them a little bit longer and more thorough. There was nothing that necessarily surprised me when I reread my work. I am not an English major so this course is a challenge for me. Also, I don’t remember doing Shakespeare in high school so all of these plays are new to me. I feel that there is always a lot more that I could add to my three posts. I think when deciding on a topic to write about I usually try to do something that I can relate to, such as the female characters or the theme of love and what it means in each play since it is portrayed differently. Overall, I think having students blog is a great idea because it allows us to write about anything we wish to and each student has their own style which we see as well.