BLOGGING

 

BLOGGING

By Nurul Chojimah

 What is blogging? In a simple term, I can define blogging as the activity of writing a composition and upload it in a blog. What can we upload in it? It can be any genre of writing. If you are a food lover, you can write anything about food such recipes, your favorite food, procedures of cooking the food, and others. If you are a traveler, you can pour your travelling experiences in short or long compositions. If you are a teacher, you can share your teaching materials in it. You can share anything, simple or complex things.

What is the benefit of blogging? At least, it can be the medium for sharpening our skill in writing. Writing is a skill. Skill needs consistent and long duration of training. The more frequent we learn, the more skillful we will be. Blogging facilitates the learning so that consistent blogging enables bloggers to be skillful in writing. Another benefit of blogging is that the blogger is ‘urged’ to be confident in their writing. Most new writers do not publish their writing because they are not confident with the quality of their writings. They are worried about negative comments from reviewers and the publisher’s rejection. Blogging does not require bloggers to pass the editor’s review, and it does not need the screening from the publisher. A blogger is the owner of the blog; she/he is the editor, the reviewer and also the publisher of the writing. Blogging enables bloggers to publish their writing without review and screening.

Relying on the benefits of blogging, I assign my students taking Creative Writing course to do the blogging. I assign them to write a short composition, be fiction or nonfiction, weekly and upload it in their blog. Their writing should be at least 10 sentences in length, and it should be away from the hate speech. They are not confined to the topic. I let them free to choose the topic. Their productivity and their commitment to learn in English writing is my main concern. They can write poetry, proses, letters, recipes, advertisement texts, diaries, prayers to Allah SWT, and others. Despite the importance of understanding theories in writing, consistent practice to write is the shortcut to be a writer (Naim, 2022). I truly agree with his opinion.

As they upload the writing in their blog, they have to share the blog link in the WhatsApp Group, so the members of the group can read it and share comments. The comments are required because they serve as the energizer for the writer.

Through blogging, my students are trained to be able to verbalize what they see, hear, and taste. Hopefully, verbalizing simple things surrounding them might change their impression on writing. Writing as a burden is transformed into writing as an enjoyment.

 Malang, September 1, 2022