When I first began this semester I was a young, inexperienced, and scared blogger. I had never shared my thoughts or feelings on the World Wide Web before, let alone when writing about Politics or academic argument, two forums in which I had little expertise. However, I dove in and I'm pretty happy with the results.
I learned alot from blogging. I learned how to streamline my thoughts on an issue in an effort to make them flow logically. I learned about the importance of substantiating a warrant with a claim and evidence while throwing in bits and pieces of ethos, pathos, and logos along the way.
I didn't realize how basic the rubric for creating a strong argument was when I first started dozens and dozens of months ago (ok more like 3). You simply need to always define your terms, back up your arguments, make sure they make organizational sense, and are crystal clear. Ok, maybe that is a little bit easier said than done, but having that rubric out there certainly helped.
I also learned that there can be more than one answer to an argument. Just because there may appear to be two clear sides to an argument does not mean that there is only one correct answer. Often, the answer people seek is the one that is best argued. However, a strong argument is often the result of a strong writer and is not necessarily the correct option.
You could argue that George W. Bush was a great President for America. Even if that seems incredibly illogical and blatantly false, if you could piece together enough strong logos, put in a strong emotional appeal, and appear to have credibility, then even with such a seemingly false claim you could create a very strong argument.
While I may decide to pick up blogging again in the future, this is certainly my good-bye for a little while. I have enjoyed sharing my thoughts with you, my faceless audience, and hope your lives are not too devastated with my departure. With that, I'd like to say adios, it has been fun.
-Matt
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