First Post Do's and Don'ts

Well, I have blogged before, but never in the realm of a professional blog.  I'm looking forward to having the opportunity to share my thoughts, ideas, and opinions as well as receive feedback from others in the same field.  So join me in this new endeavor as I start a new style of blog.

In my opinion, there are two types of blogs: personal and professional.  Even though both should be monitored with precision, a professional blog should be just that, professional.  What that means to me is stating correct information and portraying  it in a way that could be used as an interview piece.  In class we were given different blogs to look at to find characteristics of strong and weak blogs.  I looked at four in depth and found that the blog titled History Tech was one of the most professional blogs that were listed.  I thought that it had valid sources and cited them well.  It was also very well written and to the point.  However, the author did not include proper citation, as far as where a person could find the source.  Another blog that I found to be a relatively professional was the one entitled Blogging in Education Today.  This blog is set up in a simplistic way with a format of briefly explaining and then continues  with a few links of examples for the reader.  What I did not like about it was that the explanations were very short and did not fully explain why that blog was best and etc...  The blogs with what I  believe to have the least amount of professionalism are Practical Theory and Hey Jude.  Although each had their strong points, for example Practical Theory talked about a specific school and Hey Jude talked about a specific student activities, both had grammatical errors and were set up more as a conversational piece.  Therefore, it came across to me as if they were put together with little thought and time.

In general, characteristics of a strong blog include one where sources were cited, explained, and the author gave reasons as to why it was important.  They were done in a way that was interesting, but that was also professional, i.e. no grammatical errors, at least some correct citation, and relevant information.  Blogs that had more weaknesses consisted of a lot of grammatical errors and were done as if they were more personal blogs asking colleagues what they thought.  There is nothing wrong with having a personal blog, or one that only your colleagues comment on, but I think those should be kept private and not for the whole world to see.  A blog is in part a representation of who you are and what your skills are in and out of the work place.  It could in fact be a first impression, which should be the exact reason why it should be well thought out and done in a professional matter, especially if it is open to the whole world.

Readers can expect a blog that is interesting, informative, and thought out.  I plan to explain my thoughts and ideas, but also to keep it short and to the point.  I am going to try and include bullet points whenever possible because I find it easier to read and follow.  If my blogs are longer, I apologize in advanced.  Readers can expect my blog to contain relevant information, with citations so that they can use the same sources I have used if they want further information.