Monday, April 11, 2011

"I am not what I am": A Self Evaluation of this blog

The semester is almost over and it has really been a wonderful opportunity to explore the works of Shakespeare through this research blog.  It started out very generally, with just a few posts about my thoughts as I read several plays, but then it really took off as I developed my focus of studying how Shakespeare has been accepted, appropriated, and interpreted by the Germans.
And now is the time when I step back and reflect and discuss what I have learned, following the guidelines set forth by my professor.


  • Posts
    • Quantity--  Over the past 3.5 months I have 55 posts, of which 15 are tagged about Germany and 18 are tagged about Hamlet.  I believe that's quite a focus, that's quite a few posts devoted to my theme.
    • Content -- I have tried to do a variety of posts, with some being textual analysis, others being about productions and performances, and others being about secondary sources regarding Hamlet and Germany.
    • Format -- I have used titles that help introduce what each post is about, and I have used the jump break to break up my longer posts.  But I am most proud of my tags, this has helped me review what I have talked about and find older posts again when I wanted to reference them.
  • Research
    • Thematic Focus-- My theme as I started out was just looking at how Shakespeare has been treated in Germany, but as I did my research and wrote about it I found that Germans are particularly fond of Hamlet. So, I began to focus on how Hamlet has been interpreted and adapted throughout its history in Germany.
    • Thesis & Cohesion--My hub post, wherein I argue that Hamlet is now more German than English, links back to several of my older posts where I argue my point.
    • Sources -- As I detail in my Sources and Other Links pages I have read books and articles as well as visited websites devoted to the study of Shakespeare in Germany.
  • Personal & Social
    • Author identity -- I believe I have allowed my identity to come through on this blog, I mean, if it weren't for my identity and my love of all things German I would never have developed the focus that I have.
    • Documentation of Process-- I have a few posts where I describe not only what I have learned but which resources I gleaned my information from.
    • Interactions-- I will admit, I haven't done a lot of interaction with others in the class, but that is mostly because my focus is so narrow that others are not talking about the same subjects.  I have appreciated the comments I have received and I have enjoyed reading the blogs of other members if the class. 
  • Design
    • Appropriate to Theme -- I didn't put a whole lot of thought into the design, I just used one of the default themes, but I like the simplicity of it, putting focus on the content of the blog itself.
    • Side content -- I really like the tag cloud that I have in my sidebar, and I have used it a lot to find older posts of mine about certain topics, which is particularly helpful when doing a post like this and I want to link back.

Comments (3)

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I just wanted to say thanks real quick for the help that you gave me this semester. The comments you made in class about the blogging process, as well as the comments you left of my blog, helped me out while doing research in this new form. Thanks. :)
This is a great article and we can learn lots of lesson from their. It simply teach me that I would never have developed the focus that I have.
I also like the simplicity of the design of this blog. The content, is what you should be focused on.

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