Blog Self-Interview

A moment of self-reflection....

Q. What is the purpose of this blog?
A. The purpose of this blog is to communicate the science behind lasers and their applications to an audience that may have an interest in the subject but would like to know more.  I would also like to communicate some more complicated ideas that typically require a background in laser physics to understand.

Q. Who is the imagined audience(s) of this blog?
A. My intended audience consists of curious individuals that have wondered about lasers, as I have since I was young, and want to know more.  I try to include fun pictures for more visual audience members, and news stories with a short analysis for those more political- or physical-minded individuals.


Q. Have my posts matched up with my purpose/audience?  What/who might I be overlooking in defining my purpose/audience this way?
A. My posts have generally been more scientific in nature than I intended... mainly due to the fact that I have conflict between my desire to communicate the nitty-gritty of lasers and my goal of being clear to an audience that isn't physics-oriented/learned as I am. I am working on that problem, however.


Q. What can I do to encourage more reader participation with my blog?
A. To encourage more reader participation, I can add more metaphors to relate to my audience.  I can also use more visuals and attempts at comedy in my posts to encourage people to visit for learn-and-laugh experience.


Q. How can I expand my audience in this class?  Outside of this class?
A. I can expand my audience in this class by commenting on their posts and relating them to posts I have written, which would inspire some curiosity in them, hopefully.  Additionally, I can make my posts more reader-friendly to encourage viewers to come back to my blog often.  To expand my audience outside of class, I can participate in more outside blogs.  Commenting on those posts will inspire the authors and readers of those blogs to be interested in what I have to say.  I can link to my blog in those posts so they can see what I am about.


Q. How would I characterize the tone of my blog?
A. The tone of my blog is conversational at times and scientific at others.  I usually try to grab the audience's attention with a question, contradiction, or story so they will want to read the science to reach a resolution in the topic.  My goal is to inspire in the readers a desire to learn about lasers.  I may want to give the scientific-toned portions of my posts more of a conversational aspect to them to keep interest up.


Q. What do I hope to get out of writing this blog?
A. I hope to reach a better understanding of how to communicate effectively to a target audience.  I also hope to arouse some curiosity about lasers in general readers so that I can share my fascination with them.


Q. What would I like others to get out of it?
A. I would like readers to learn more about lasers and their applications in general, but also to possibly inspire an interest in them to continue learning about the science behind lasers.  I also want my readers to comment on my posts to critique my messages, views, and communicating abilities so that I can learn too.


Q. What are the strengths of my blog/my blogging?
A. I think I am pretty good at grabbing attention, providing a nice-looking design, and taking or making pictures to describe my points.  I also make sure links open new tabs and the overall look and feel of my blog is simple and easy to navigate.


Q. What are the weaknesses?
A. I am having trouble using layman's terms to describe the phenomena I am trying to communicate.  I also need to adjust my tone to keep my audience's interest after first grabbing their attention.  More pictures might help, and shorter, more manageable posts would be ideal.


Q. Have I used a deficit model in my writing, or something else?  How would I know?
A. I have in the past used a a deficit model in my writing, but I have edited posts to try to involve the reader more.  I try to use imagery and metaphors to give the reader something to relate to, and I ask them to remember experiences that lead them in the direction I go with my posts.  I know I used the deficit model because I have been told so, and I have just recently started employing methods to avoid that kind of communication.


Q. How have I characterized (implicitly or explicitly) science, engineering, and/or technology in my blog? 
A. I have characterized science as a way of understanding concepts that may be difficult for others.  I support the use and advancement of technology in my posts due to the applications that result.  I often give my opinion on certain political topics pertaining to the technology, but I leave the reader to decide for themselves about these issues, which I believe allows them to trust me and to be more accepting of my opinion.


Q. How have I characterized myself?
A. I have explicitly characterized myself as a "Laser Physicist Extraordinaire --- in training."  This description is meant to describe me as a student who is very interested in laser science with high aspirations, but one that recognizes that I have a long way to go.  This hopefully gives me a knowledgeable and trustworthy demeanor as an author.

SELF EVALUATION:

In every aspect of my life, I have always tried to put forward my best effort.  I am something of a perfectionist, but  I realize that I still have a long way to go before even coming close to being perfect.  When I first started my blog, I was very excited and tried to tell the audience all about lasers and applications in my first few posts.  There were a couple of problems with my first eager attempt... 1) I told the audience (deficit) instead of trying to relate to the audience and invoke some creative thought within them. 2) I jumped the gun and dumped several separate posts worth of information into only a couple posts...  After being critiqued about these issues, I made an attempt to fix those problems by relating to the audience more and splitting those posts into several separate posts.  I also added multimedia elements and related to other topics that might be of interest to the audience.  Even then, I still had a lot to work on.  I have found myself continually reviewing my posts and changing wording here and there to make things more clear.  I have put a lot of effort into making my blog a site that people will want to visit every so often to learn and laugh, hopefully.  I also have asked the audience to comment and participate in polls to spur some active involvement in them.  I have learned and improved quite a bit from that first day of blogging, but I know there are more aspects of my blogging to improve on.  I am excited to see how much I do improve over the rest of the semester.

As for commenting, I have made sure to keep up with a number of blogs that catch my attention and to comment on their posts.  I always try to add some new idea or concept to their posts, or maybe pose a question that would further the discussion.  I have spent a lot of time reading and commenting on other students' posts.  Additionally, I have commented on a couple of posts at IEEE, one of which I link to in a post of mine (Dark Horse) and another that is linked to that one (Green Light).

All in all, I have taken my participation in blogging seriously, and I have so far enjoyed the experience.  I have met and surpassed all of the requirements assigned each week.  I am sticking to the rubric for an A grade because that is obviously the grade I want to earn.  But I am also trying to think about the theory of effective communication.  Imagery, metaphors, entertainment, and rhetoric are aspects that I am trying to utilize to not only meet requirements on a rubric, but to get the most out of the innovative style of the class.  I plan to use what I learn in this class throughout the rest of my career, so I am trying to do my best and learn the most I can.