When reading the article about academic writing I learned there are many different ways approach writing. The author, L. Irvin, starts out by telling the reader some of the myth behind writing. One of the myths he said was that you don’t have to stick to the five paragraph essay format all the time, it is okay to stray away and have more or in some cases even less. I still like the structure and security of a five paragraph essay. The writer then goes on to say how important it is to communicate the tone. Tone I believe is one of the most valuable pieces of an essay, the tone sets the mood for the essay. Another useful tip the author gave was to do lots and lots of research. Along with digging deep for research you also need to be able to read and understand complex texts. There are three common college writing assignments: closed, semi- open, and open. Overall I like closed the best because I believe it is the most straight forward one. Next on the list was the characteristics of academic writing which consists of: clear evidence, dominance of reason, and rational reasoned responses. The main point of the text was to provide the reader with a better understanding of different writing styles and assignments and to get them comfortable addressing them. Overall the author gave many good reasoning and examples of all sorts of important writing tools that some may never even knew they had within them. The article is a good read for anyone confused on what college writing is like and all about.

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.