Thinking About Blogging: A Pop Quiz

OK, class, now I'm going to give you a pop quiz about blogging. This is an open-book test, so I encourage you to consult your own hearts and minds.

Please note that all answers are correct.


Posts to a blog that's mostly about a particular subject should be:

1. Informational - readers should go away from the post more fully informed about the subject at hand.
2. Experiential - readers should go away from the post better understanding the blogger's life and heart, and perhaps relating part of their own experience to the blogger's.

2. Ideally, a blog's post should feel like:

1. An entry in a journal or diary.
2. A letter to a trusted friend.
3. A very small work of literature.

3. True or false: No matter what the normal subject of the blog is, it's a good idea to occasionally include pictures of and stories about cats:

1. True: Yes, absolutely.
2. True: Of course this is true! How could this possibly be false?

4. In most kinds of writing, the writer should have the needs of the reader foremost in his or her mind. In blogging, the writer should:

1. Put the topic and the blogger's relation to it first. The blog is a journey of sorts, and readers are welcome to come along or not as they choose.
2. Seek first to serve and nourish the readers. If the blogger is not serving readers, the risks of putting one's words online outweigh any advantage in having the blog at all.

Please pass your exam books to the center aisle for collection. And congratulations: no matter your answers, you get an "A".