Why Blog?

I have to admit, blogging is not my thing. Before this course, I had never blogged before nor had I read any other blogs. The only reason I signed up for a blog is that it was a requirement of this course.

In order for me to blog, I needed to do some research on why it was important to blog and how it would help me. For those involved in adult education it is the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me).

My searches on why blog and the benefits of blogging returned various books, articles and web pages on the topic. Generally they all say the same thing, that people blog for various reasons:

• To let it all out
• To share experiences
• To receive positive feedback from others
• To learn to write better
• For scholarly / educational purposes
• To further their career
• To make money

For me the driving force for me was due to scholarly and educational purposes. This was the original reason to blog. Now that I reflect back on the benefits, I expand on that. Blogs can be a place for reflection and reflecting on topics helps me learn and retain the information better. In addition, writing a blog can help me in writing better. My focus for writing for years has been for a corporate world where the writing was to be informal, succinct, and direct and to the point. I’m finding academic writing much more formal, which I struggle with. A blog is a way for me to write a little more informally while learning.

I’ll keep these benefits to me in mind while I blog and hopefully blogging will become more natural for me.

References:

Pedersen, S. (2010). Chandos Information Professional Series : Why Blog? : Motivations For Blogging. Cambridge, GBR: Chandos Publishing. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com

Reich, D. (n.d.) 9 Reasons You Should Blog. Forbes Magazine. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/danreich/2011/10/15/9-reasons-you-should-blog/