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| Blogging does not equal diarising Photo: http://www.writingequipment.com/tag/journalling |
I started this blog before Cam23's renaissance, though not so long before as to be completely confident and au fait with this blogging lark. I had always resisted blogs because they seemed somewhat self-indulgent. I wasn't convinced that I had anything to say that would really be worth reading and the last thing I wanted to do was to find myself writing an online diary, full of mundane and personal stuff which should be confined to a pretty notebook underneath the mattress.
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| Would a view like this inspire me, or is it all a question of practice? (Photo: Writing Sunset Italy-Roma by http://www.flickr.com/photos/gnuckx/3491709853/) |
However, my aversion to blogging had to be confronted after an engaging talk by Jane Secker at LSE (for full details, see my blog post of 7th May here), in which she outlined the importance of a PhD student's online presence and how tools like blogging can be used to share ideas and initiate discourse with people all over the world. As a postgrad-to-be, it seemed that there was no time like the present to get to grips with the software and the medium in order to make the most of them once I'm actually a fully-fledged Linguistics student once more. In addition to and as an extension of this, I thought it would be useful to practise writing again, as I hadn't written any kind of extended prose since submitting my baby (my one and only published article to date) in October 2010. I love reading and I will devour anything - fiction, biographies, histories, poetry - but I long to produce something myself, as well as just being able to enjoy the fruits of other people's labours. The magnum opus has not yet begun, but I feel that this blog is slowly bringing my creative and wordy side back to the surface after too long a period of hibernation...I promise nothing in the very near future, but hopefully the mist of creativity will descend fairly soon!
As I mentioned, I'm an avid reader and, to my credit or detriment I don't know, quite a nosey person, so having a poke around other Cam23 blogs has become quite a pastime already! I was already a bit of a lurker on Annie, Katie, Jen and Erin's blogs (just a hint of grad trainee solidarity there), but of my more recent discoveries I particularly like Jenny's writing style, and I went back on Anna's Pocket Universe blog to discover her incredibly attractive Bewitched-esque new theme, of which I am very much a fan!
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| A very pretty font, but a strain on slow internet connections and older browsers...and is it professional enough? Font from http://www.ffonts.net/Calligraffiti.font |
On the theme of themes, for the Extra Thing my blog also underwent a bit of a revamp - in the excitement of using a new tool, I initially had a very bright, busy theme with all the brush-style fonts I could cram in. It was also incredibly pink and girly which, as people close to me would know, is in no way representative of my appearance or personality! Consequently I've now opted for a much cleaner theme which is less cluttered, the basic fonts are easier to load on all browsers and the blog posts, not the borders, are the focus. I know the book image may be a smidge clichéd but I thought a nod towards libraries would be welcome, seeing as my blog title isn't at all book related. Where I allow a bit more colour and imagination in is with the pictures that I attach to each blogpost - each image should enhance and relate to the subject matter but also liven it up a little and break up the text.
I hope that my blog conveys something of my personality without becoming overly personal; that I am a professional, analytical person with something to contribute, but that I also know how to smile.
Becky, it seems that our minds having been running in similar directions. I too am wary of the self-indulgent side to blogging, and I've just been pondering blogging and professionalism in my most recent post. I'm finding it a tough issue to get my head around! Jenny
ReplyDeleteHey Jenny,
ReplyDeleteI just popped over and had a look at your blog - it might be helpful to read Andy Priestners' blog = http://libreaction.wordpress.com/ as he seems to handle the balance between professionalism and personal comment extremely well, not to mention having become something of a minor celebrity thanks to one post about librarians in Star Wars...I think you'll have to read the original as I cannot do it justice!
Let me know what you think :)
Thanks for your appreciation of my blog design, it was a nice surprise to come across it as I began my own mooch through other people's blogs. I wish I'd could say I'd created the background myself, but it is really just one of the options offered by Blogger.
ReplyDeleteI had a look at Andy's blog. The StarWars story is brilliant! It did however make me wonder how a journalist came across his posting in the first place. And the very idea that a journalist could make a whole article out of someone's blog posting without contacting that person at all threw me into a minor panic! Then I got back to reality and realised there was nothing in the least bit newsworthy on my blog, and is never likely to be, phew!
ReplyDelete