Hi! How are you, guys? Perhaps, lost in technorati like me?! But, in the end, after hours and hours spent searching for blogs, I decided to suggest you these three wonderful blogs! I hope you enjoy reading them!
The Thinking Blog is a very, very curious and weird blog, really worthy of a look. It definitely stands out: its main feature is that it is written by many people, and anyone can add a post to start a new discussion; moreover, it can be seen as a “stream of consciousness” , a “cornucopia of eclectic topics from exciting ideas to cultural curiosities”. Its aim is , as the title suggests, to make people think, reflect not only about hilarious and funny episodes occurring in our world but also about sad and tragic events. To see an example of what this blog is, click here. Isn’t it astonishing? What I also appreciate is the motto ‘Curiosity is the key to all wisdom’ put at the top of the page near a symbolic black cat’s head with white eyes; this blog, in my view, should be read precisely with this thought in mind in order to enjoy it…
Style and structure: I have to admit that this blog is mainly made up of videos taken from youtube or of photos, but whereas the language used in the posts is quite neutral, the comments are often more informal; they are written as if they were spoken (abbreviated forms, no use of punctuation, nor of capital letters after full stops or for the first person ‘I’, short sentences and a lot of exclamations). The structure of this blog is quite good: on the left side you find a black column with the archives, links to the most recent thoughts and to tags that allow you to reach quickly all the posts with a given tag.
London-underground is such an original blog! It is written by a woman who daily takes the London underground and, in her blog, she posts all the strangest things that happen on the Tube: funny sketches or pictures about commuters and their fashion, etiquette on the Tube, violence and crime, derailments, strikes and other cases of inefficiency regarding this means of transport…Perhaps, I chose this blog because I have never taken the subway in my life and I wanted to know more about it and also because, for a tourist, it is part of London history! What I particularly enjoyed is that I have realized that Tube commuters have, more or less, the same problems that we experience almost everyday in Italy with Trenitalia! Consoling, isn’t it?! Also ‘the well-mannered Brits’ use public transports as a dressing room or as a private bathroom to make up or cut their nails; they also listen to music loudly or put their feet on seats to have a snooze…
Style and structure: This blog is written in an informal way (contracted forms; sometimes the subjects are not repeated) and is structured clearly with a section on the right where you can find links to other web sites or blogs talking about the London underground.
4 the love of animals is a blog that anyone who loves animals must visit! According to the author of this blog its purpose is to promote animal rescue, conservation, and animal welfare; as a matter of fact, there you can find a number of news regarding organizations who rescue homeless animals, stories of pets – above all dogs – who have been saved and, moreover, you can watch amazing videos or look at funny pictures about our sweet friends!
Style and structure: This blog is very simple and written in a clear, quite formal way, with short posts and eye-catching images and colours. Above all, I appreciate the name “4 the love of animals’ and the fact that green, the colour symbolizing nature, is widely used, especially in the right part where there are some links, for example, to pictures of animals taken from Flickr, to tags used in the posts, or to other web sites and blogs dealing with animal protection.
Comment: The majority of blogs, in my opinion, are written in a register that goes from neutral to informal; maybe, blogs that regard the private life of a person are written in a more colloquial, informal ways, whereas blogs that deal with topics that interest the public opinion (current affairs, politics, religion, education, climate change,…) are written in a more formal language. As regards the use of links, I have noticed that bloggers usually make a wide use of links and create hyperlinks, rather than putting the full URL.
Let me know what you think about my blogs!
Bye,
Elena V.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Group E: Elena e-tivity 2
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Dear Elena,
I really enjoyed reading through your comments and I found the blogs you suggested very interesting.
I had a look to them and I particularly liked the first and the third you suggested us. In your post, you clearly point out the basic feature of the blogs highlighting the strong and weak point in their structure.
The first blog I visited caught my attention because of a particular video I watched. I find it odd! Did you have a look at it? The title is “IF THERE IS A WILL, THERE IS A WAY” and it deals with an armless mum who tries to look after his baby and to cope with her handicap.
Actually, she manages to use every part of her body in order to do normal things such as driving, writing on her computer, caressing her baby... she cannot use hands and so she uses her feet as if they were hands... it’s so amazing and bizarre!!!
I couldn’t imagine that a person can do such a thing...wow!!!
As we pointed out last week, in our group there are many people who love animals and the blog you suggested us was very nice. In my opinion, it’s important to promote animal rescue, conservation, and animal welfare.
In the end, I think you wrote a very good post because you described not only the contents of the blogs but also their structure and form. I find your post useful and interesting!
Good job!
See you soon
Martina Urbani
Hi Elena, I agree with Martina… Your post is really well-written! You clearly describe both the content and the structure of the blogs you chose.
I visited all the blogs you suggested. I really liked the one about London Underground. Even though world travellers have voted London the best city for public transport, the blog you chose shows that the situation is not so perfect.
What impressed me is that the “best public transport system in the world”(and the most expensive) has the same faults as our trains (among them strikes, derailments, mugging).
I loved this blog because it reports something I see everyday… People do the strangest things when they are travelling by train. This morning, for example, the woman who was sitting next to me was painting her nails!
However, I love travelling by trains. When you are driving you have to pay attention to the streets, whereas when you are travelling by train you can relax, read a book and if someone is speaking too loudly you can switch on your i-pod…
See you tomorrow
S
Dear Elena,
I've just finished reading all the posts of the members of our group and yours is defenetly my favourite one!
First of all your post is really well-written, it is not too long, and the structure is really effective because first you present the blog and then in a separate paragraph you give more technical information, good choice!
Moreover, your style is friendly but accurate and quite formal at the same time, and I appreciate it very much, because it sounds well-written but it is also nice to be read.
And, last but not least, I really liked the blogs you choose because it is evident that you spent time looking for something that was REALLY interesting...and you do not stopped at the first couple of blogs you saw!
I really have nothing "bad" to tell you!
Camilla
Hi Elena!
I enjoyed reading your post. I think it is well written and well structured, since you wrote in a very clear way and you divided the test in paragraphs according to different topics. In each paragraph you suggested a blog, you give your piece of advice and you wrote a comment about the style used. Finally, you wrote a final comment. Good job!
I visited the blogs you suggested and I found them really interesting. I saw the video about the armless woman who tried to coexist with her handicap; I was really impressed by the amount of things she could do and how she managed to make a normal life!
As far as the second blog is concerned, I found it very funny. I travelled by underground in London and Paris, and I must admit that the photos of the blog are very similar to what I saw there! However, strange things happen everywhere…I go to university by bus and I often see people doing bizarre things; yesterday, for example, a man was paring his fingernails! Bleah!
That’s all for the moment.
See you soon
Veronica
Post a Comment