Hi guys!
How are you? What have you been up to?
I want to give you a brief report on my first two weeks as a blogger. To be honest, it was a new experience since I wasn’t used to read blogs and I’ve never created a blog before! You’ll never believe me... but this is the pure truth!!! So I feel thrilled and excited at the same time for the big amount of things I’ve just learned in these two weeks. What’s more surprising is that I was used to write in a very academic style last year (when I did a huge and tough work with Mr Falinski, Mr Garfield and Mr Scott). Now, I find it odd to write in such an informal way but I will catch up soon, I promise!
In these dark and raining days I was longing for a wave of life and so I took up surfing on the web. I read through many posts you sent me and I found out that I can learn a lot from what you write and what you think. I appreciated your comments on my posts and your compliments very much (I hope they were sincere!!!). You wrote me many compliments but I didn’t feel flattered because you also highlighted the weak points of my posts! Thank you!!! Don’t stop showing me my mistakes...Your constructive critics are more than welcome!
In order to make my blog more interesting, useful and effective I’ll create two boxes: help box, and friend’s box. In the first box, I’ll cajole the best links I can find, in order to divulge the kind of information you would never find in any other blog; in the second one, I’ll put the links of my friends’ blogs, just to enlarge our community! In my page, you’ll read the most enticing topics, featuring everything you need to know about what is going on, here in the fantastic university of Padua ;) Excited? You will be! So, for those of you who demand adventure, excitement and allure and look for interesting sounds, exotic tastes, odd stories... this is the page for you!
Every week I will regularly write a post on a specific topic you may find interesting. For those of you who are still wandering around Padua, looking for a decent room to share with “the perfect housemate”, here they are some Priceless Tips on Picking the Perfect Housemate. I’m offering you a brilliant page that will enable you to find out a way to cope with housesharing. If you want to find more on the argument, keep on visiting the fabulous site of the University of Aberystyth,Wales. And I am delighted to announce you that I will keep on adding many pictures, videos and stuff to my page, so remember to visit my blog frequently =) Oh... don’t forget to jot down the tips and links I will generously give in my posts.
I want to have a look outside myself and my life, I’d like to know what you like and what you dislike and also if you agree with me or not. I’m writing to you not because I need to get things off my chest but just because I want to share with you everything it comes on my mind ... and I hope you may find it interesting! I want to let you know that whatever opinion you have, I am really interested in reading it. Tell me everything and anything that’s on your mind. Far from laughing at you I will answer you. =) So, what are you waiting for? Just write me!!!
See you then!
Photo Source: Martina Urbani
5 comments:
Dear Martina,
I've just read your comment on my post. Thank you!
I completely agree with you about the activity of peer reviewing. I do think that peer reviewing is very helpful. On the one hand you can correct someone’s work and develop your critical sense. On the other, you can learn how to improve your language by reading the correction of your post. Therefore, if you see some language mistakes in my post please point them out! I can learn a lot from your corrections but also from your mistakes because we often make the same ones!
Constructive criticisms are very helpful to improve our writing skills!
As far as your style is concerned, I really love your way of writing. Your posts are clear and well-written. Good job!
See you later,
Silvia
Hi Martina!
I read your comment on my post and I thank you for your contribution! I agree with you when you say that register should vary according to the context of the posts. When you are writing about your thoughts and personal experiences you can use a more colloquial register, while when you are talking about language, register and style you should prefer a neutral register.
As far as your post is concerned, I find it very friendly and nice! You wrote in an informal (but correct) way and I think you expressed very well your sunny nature! I appreciated the fact that you used colours to highlight some words that you considered important. Your decision to put two ‘personal’ photos on your blog contributes to render your blog more intimate.
I liked very much the idea of the two boxes! It is a simple and original way to arrange the links on your blog! In the first box you can put all the interesting links you suggest to other people, while in the second you put the links to your friends’ blogs! I agree with you; this is a good way to enlarge our community!
Job well done!
See you soon
Veronica
Hi Martina!
I've just read (or should I say "I just read" in AmE? I do prefer AmE, it sounds better to me!) all the posts in your blog and also the comments you left on my own blog! Well...let's start with register!
You asked me what kind of register we should use, but I have no answer to this question, I can only tell you my humble opinion! I think that we all should try to use a more informal and "relaxed" English, I don't know if you can understand what I mean!
Informal does not absolutely mean incorrect: grammar, prepositions, verbs, punctuation (at a smaller extent) and spelling should always be right, but what changes is style, register, word choices, in order to make each post more personal, pleasant to be read, and easier to understand and follow!
Basically, the point is to express our personal style, whereas Academic English should be impersonal!
As for your blog, it's very nice, and you really look very interested in getting into the blogosphere world!
I should add boxes and photos as you did, but I had not time to explore all the tools of my blog yet!
Maybe you can teach me some tricks!
As far as I'm concerned I can tell you that I don't like colours, in my opinion they're really confusing (as you can see, in my blog there are no colours, except for the blue of the sea and of the sky, which is the only colour I like), but I know that people do like colours, so maybe I'll try to use them too!
My favoutire colours are "non - colours" like grey, brown, beige, and most of all white! I love the B&W style!
Ok...it's better is I stop here!
See you tomorrow!
And as it's "Trick or treat" time...have a good Halloween!!
Camilla
Hi Marty,
how are you keeping? Here is not so bad, weather apart…It keeps raining all day long!
Thank you for your post!
I see that the big problem for all of us now is that we all come from three years at university where we only learnt how to write an academic essay or translate an academic text, and the first rule was…avoid contracted forms!!! Fancy that! What a rift! If you think that now the first rule is exactly the reverse: always use contracted forms!
In your comment to my post you asked me what kind of register we should use in our posts…Obviously, it depends a lot on what the subject-matter is, but I have come to a general conclusion in these days…Have you had a look at my comment on Camilla’s post? There I put my idea about register…
Well, we must see this last English course also as a chance to practice everyday, informal English (finally!) so I’ve decided that from this moment on I’ll write my comments on your posts in an informal way…Silvia and you correctly pointed out that we are not used to using slang or informal structures; therefore, now we should start using informal English! Yes, now we are at the beginning, but I am convinced it is only a question of becoming familiar with informal register…In the end, perhaps, it will be difficult for us to remember how to write in a more formal way!!!
However, I think I’ll still use a neutral style in the posts on my blog because there I want to discuss not my personal life but my learning, my scholarship or other relevant issues that might interest also people I don’t know and visit my blog to learn something about a subject. If only it happened! Thus, a neutral register is the happy medium! Do you agree?
Anyway, thank you for suggesting us the link to ‘Priceless Tips on Picking the Perfect Housemate’…Although I still live with my parents and am a commuter, they could be of help some day! And it is really a good idea to deal with a different topic every week! I like also how you organized your page: help box, friends’ box…Nice work, Martina!
Cheers,
Elena
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