It's a blog world - Magicesca -

Hello everybody!

Welcome to "It's a blog world", the first indipendent blog edited by Francesca.

I'm studying Languages at the University of Padova and this is an "experiment" that was born during the English course of the second year of Specialistica.

I live in a small village near Verona and I love writing, especially poems, but if you want to learn more about me, go to http://www.bloggingenglish1.blogspot.com/ and read my presentation carefully.
I’m trying to create an original blog and I think that repetitions are highly tedious.
Do you agree with me?

I don’t know how to start this new blog… two photos could help me.

The first photo is of my family including also my boyfriend, my sister-in-law and my grandmother and the second one is of my friends and me when I graduated.
I believe that in order to know better a person you must be able to classify her according to a specific context and here is mine.

I must admit that during the first two weeks of blogging a lot of questions came to my mind.
I’ll try to answer to some of them. Help me if you can!

First question: what a blog is?
Surfing the net I found many possible answers but none of them really satisfied me.

• A typical blog combines text, images, links to other blogs, web pages

  www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

  
  And what’s the difference between blogs and web sites or hypertexts?
  
• A blog is a personal diary, a daily pulpit, a collaborative space. It is whatever you want it to be

  www.blogger.com/tour_start.g
  

  I understand it could be one thing and its direct opposite
  
• A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and web links

  www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/blog/
  

  To keep the reading simple the presentation of events must follow an order which is not necessarily chronological!
  
• It is posted online and 12% of internet users have posted comments or other material on blogs
  

  www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/144/report_display.asp

  
  Too rough definition

I will try to let you know my personal opinion even if I’m perfectly aware that a blog is a global universe on which people of different ages and habits converge. So, it’s difficult to give an accurate definition of it.

I thing a blog is an interchangeable entity; it can be a free collection of thoughts (something like a diary) or a discussion in progress on one or more topics.
It is a particular web space in which the blogger may express himself, a new and cheaper way to explore the net in contrast with big web sites because it focuses on people.

Second question: What’s the aim of a blogger?

In my opinion, the main purpose of a blogger is communication.
There are many ways to achieve it:

Style and language
The style is essential to distinguish one blog to the others but the important is that the readers can understand what the blogger is writing. So the language must be comprehensible and target-oriented.

Layout and creative devices
The structure is very important (logical order of topics on the page) and could determinate the success of a blog.
I believe that a blog must entertain the readers not only by means of its contents, but also by means of the photos, links or music used to embellish it.

The interaction with readers (e.g. with a section for comments)
When you receive comments, you have to answer to them because that indicates that you payed attention to the others’opinions and you are self-critical enough.

Third question: Can this experience influence my english learning?

Now I say YES.

At the beginning I was totally concentrated on avoiding language mistakes and, as a consequence, I chose only simple linguistic patterns and structures. Then I decided to risk more and to say more.

I feel that I’m gradually improving my language knowledge for two main reasons:

• I’m interested in the arguments and to say something different I have to find new terms on the dictionary, enriching my vocabulary.
  
• I’m learning a lot from my classmates. I think they are good at English and their pieces of writing can help me in my learning process. I must confess that they stimulate me to do my best in the tasks because of a healthy comparison and to reflect upon what they are saying.
  

I believe that the blogging activities are able to satisfy the three parts of a language learning: reading, writing, speaking (concerning comments in class). In addition, they allow students to take a look at a non academic language: the everyday English which is, in my opinion, more useful for work.

The first two weeks of blogging have been strenuous but rewarding: you had to develop your computer abilities and show your language knowledge (which is taken for granted, at this level).
The tasks had to be promptly executed and you was to organize your time.

Now I have my own blog and I can say whatever I want, always respecting the etiquette. This is the result of my long work.

:) Let me have your comments about. :)

Francesca

(all the photos come from my personal albums)