As I continued to blog, I did a better job of incorporating outside sources and giving the reader an easier time. In this post, I summarize the article that I am referencing by saying "as it states in this article," but also give a link to the article so that the reader can not only see what I got out of the article but also form their own opinions should he choose. The article was also a summary of the part of the Geneva Convention which I was referencing. This makes my argument stronger because the summary means that the reader doesn't have to interpret any language and give them a better chance at coming to the same conclusion that I did.
Along with not doing enough incorporating of outside sources, I over-incorporated an outside source which was just as hard on the reader, and me!, when reading that post. In that over-incorporated post, I spent the majority of the time summarizing the article where I got my historical context instead of just taking what I needed from it. This summary included a lot of details that are unimportant to my argument like saying that Lincoln park had "German farmers and shop keepers in the North." This is just a detail that blurs the argument I was trying to make. Even I found it hard to follow my train of thought in that post.
Toward the end of the semester, I really think I hit my stride using outside sources in my posts. In my post about the LYTRO camera, I did a good job referencing a variety of sources and including enough to make my point but not enough to bog down my post. I first cited the LYTRO website which had a review of the camera and how great it was, but I wanted to argue how it wasn't as good as the press it was receiving said so I found a blog post by professional photographer Chase Jarvis and quoted his blog and the problems with the camera. I quoted Chase writing that this technology could create great pictures "unless... your pictures have no focus." I then gave a two sentence analysis of what I thought that quote meant and continued on with my argument. This was quick and gave the reader a reason why my argument had merit.
The reason I chose to write about this particular aspect of my writing is that I feel it is very important in all of the writing that I do. If I write a paper that doesn't have any evidence to back up my claim, it will be dismissed because I don't show the reader why I have a valid point. Also too much of an outside source takes the reader away from the point I am trying to make. The great part about blogging is that I can practice this technique on a weekly basis in a stress free environment. Also, I have the ability to read my classmates blogs and learn more about outside sources and what works the best. Next semester I hope to continue improving on incorporating outside sources in order to better argue that which I am passionate about.
