Why You Should Attend College

College is likely the most difficult and stressful experience a person will ever encounter

over the span of their lifetime. The endless sea of papers, exams, and loans may seem nerve-

racking at times, but all the suffering it entails, college will be a rewarding and memorable time,

and many feel it rewarding to share their experiences with others through blogs and articles. A

blog is a personal and typically anonymous communication style in which people may freely write

their thoughts. Blogging is also incomplete, open, and ongoing. It is about process, not product.

It is about shared space, helping make the genre itself both informal and informative (An

attempt). On the other hand, are international news sources, or print journalism, such as the

Washington Post and the New York Times. With news sources, the journalists who write the pieces

are professionally trained writers who keep the genre formal, stoic, and in the second or the third

person. Blogs and print journals are two specifically different genres who use conventions to have

a similar effect on the audience. Where a blog will convey personal experiences through an

intimate writing style and casual perspective, an article will remain distant and precise; yet both

are efficient in meeting the expectations of the genre.

Bloggers follow specific conventions in the way they write, and that is how they can be

distinctly separated from other genres. To start off, blogs are considerably more technology based

than other types of writing genres. Before the internet, blogs were more likely diaries or journals

that were probably kept private as they lacked the ability to become anonymous internet posts.

Although Katie Meholic is far from anonymous, in her blog post, with her name and pictures

plastered on the face of the post, her article may still be considered a blog. This is because her

writing style is consistent with the typical conventions which are expected of a blog. Meholic has

a conversational tone throughout the piece, refraining from using expansive vocabulary, like when
she says Its obviously not foolproof, but I felt that this really helped me in weeding out what I

liked and what I didnt. The words foolproof and weeding are far from sophisticated, and

keep the piece more of a conversation than a test to see someones vocabulary. This allows the

reader to form a closer connection to the readers, which allow them to build a deeper understanding

of the topic at hand. Her paragraphs are short and concise, keeping the readers eyes moving to

help from being distracted. She formats the piece into an opener and five separate bolded points,

each with a paragraph detailing the main points of each topic. This formatting is common in most

blogs; it gives the readers a chance to simply glance over the post but still understand the main

points for the piece.

Meholic uses common blog conventions throughout the post, to clue in the reader onto the

type of genre it is, and allowing them to know what to expect. The title itself is a convention of

blog, 5 Reasons Why You Should Go To College. The word you is the first clue of a blog, as

it is conversational, like she is talking directly at the reader. She also speaks in first person

throughout the post, allowing for the reader to hear her voice, rather than their own; for example,

I think the uncertainty, while scary, is part of the fun of things. Meholics primary purpose for

this piece is to allow the readers to know why college is such a necessary experience. To her

readers, the comfortably provided in the text allows her to push her agenda about college in a

subtler way than typical international news articles. Her intended audience is probably just anyone

willing to listen. Blogs are typically not meant to be a serious thing, rather yet, just thoughts on a

page available to anyone. Blogs are purely meant for people who want personal opinions on topics,

and if the audience has experience and an understanding of a blog, they will be aware of why it is

the way that it is.

 In a newspaper there are articles that have been practiced and polished to perfection;

although newspapers were the original form of news communication, the prevalence of news

sources in the media remains boundless. Readers are able to distinguish this genre from others

through the common conventions which are expected of a professional news article. Professional

news sources typically follow precise conventions, where they tend to be voiced in the second or

third person, and keep a strict formal tone, and Leonhardt is no exception. Take, for example, the

phrase in which he says The pay gap between college graduates and everyone else reached a

record high last year, according to the new data, which is based on an analysis of Labor Department

statistics by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. (Leonhardt). He strictly states

information, refraining from any personal bias or emphasis which go against the conventions of

print journalism. Although some print articles are written for the essential purpose of persuading

the audience to sway their own way on a specific issue, where it is appropriate to use a bias, the

functions of an informative article are chiefly to remain unbiased. The most immediate

conventions of print journalism begins in the headline, Is College Worth It? Clearly, New Data

Say. Readers are immediately drawn to the article. The question Is College Worth It? draws the

reader in by making them think of whether or not they believe it is. He then answers the question

in which he posed by saying Cleary, New Data Say, which forces the reader to wonder what

exactly new data says. Next, journal articles will have clearly sourced expert opinions and

statistics, which will add to the primary purpose of articles being predominantly informative. Other

primary conventions of this genre are the use of visuals to support the argument, and opening

invitations included in the first paragraph that are used to be highly attractive for the reader.

Blogs and journalism prints are two distinctly different genres. A blog is a social piece; it

is networked and open. Bloggers are more normal people than traditional news journalists. They
are not trained to be detached from their work. That is why blogs are conventionally casual pieces,

personal pieces, more similar to a diary than to a newspaper. Journalism prints, on the other hand,

are professional. They are reviewed and perfected in a manner that allows them to be

acknowledged as a credible source by their audience. The conventions in both genres help readers

identify the genre and give them context on what they expect to get out of that genre. All genres

may be different, but all may give the reader the experience in which they are looking for.
 Works Cited
"An attempt to define blogging as a genre." Online Journalism Blog. N.p., 13 Nov. 2008. Web.
26 Apr. 2017.
Leonhardt, David. "Is College Worth It? Clearly, New Data Say." The New York Times. The
New York Times, 27 May 2014. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.
Meholic, Katie. "5 Reasons Why You Should Go To College." Odyssey. N.p., 03 Nov. 2015.
Web. 26 Apr. 2017.