Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Blogging is the New Persuasive Essay

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

The thesis statement - stated in the title and defended in the post - makes sense on the face of it, but I wonder what's different about blogging and the persuasive essay. True, the format is certainly different: blogs have shorter paragraphs, they're written less formally (thank goodness), the ordering is different (though I think in a good blog as in any good writing the thesis ststement, if you have one, is at the top, front and centre), and yes, the voice is different. Also, blogs, unlike persuasive essays, typically have a readership to which you have to be accountable. But here's the kicker, to me: not all blog posts are persuasive essays. Sometimes they set the scene, define terms, flesh out detail, and a host of other non-persuasive tasks such that, once the reader hits a blog post intended to persuade, they have some sense of wherre the author is coming from. And a blog might not even have a point it is trying to make; not everything in the world is about persuading people. Blogging is more complex - far more complex - than the simple persuasive essay, because a blog is not a single blog post, it is a totality of blog posts, with a myriad of purposes, all blended together.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Apr 19, 2024 7:29 p.m.

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