[This is an essay I wrote for English class last semester. It is an argument paper for the use of blogs. :3 As in, "yay for blogs, they're awesome and everyone should use one." XD I hope you enjoy reading it! I kept in all of my citations and everything to be totally official, too. No plagiarism, thankies.]

Have you ever wanted to tell someone your deepest, darkest secrets but were too afraid to confide in someone you knew for fear of confidentiality? Ever wanted to just let all your feelings out in a stream of incoherent typed ramblings yet still receive encouraging feedback from friends that could make sense of it? The answer to all your problems is in the internet—a wonderful form of communication, journalism, and stress-release—the blog. Short for “web log,” it is an internet-based journal, or diary, where the blogger (person that updates the blog) can write to their heart’s desire and receive comments from friends or contacts with similar interests on the website. Like many, I carry on a blog, and I can safely say that it is one of the best things out there. I cannot count how many times I have updated it, writing about my worries, interests, and just my day-to-day life, and how many times I have gotten such positive feedback in the form of comments. Thus, from personal experience and other sources of recommendation, maintaining a blog on the internet should be encouraged to people of all ages because of its positive effects.

Creating and updating a blog calls for typing skills, and it is a good way to practice writing. Anything that involves writing on the computer obviously requires typing skills, and the more typing is practiced and performed, the better the person will be at typing. If a blog is updated frequently, that means a lot of typing, especially if the person is a verbose writer. The more writing is done, the more the typing skills are honed; therefore, blogging is a wonderful exercise for improvement. Also, whether a person is an established writer or someone just wanting to show off a poem they wrote while bored, a blog is the perfect place to post it and obtain criticism. As John C. Dvorak states, “A lot of people want to be published writers. Blogs make it happen without the hassle of getting someone else to do it or having to write well…” (127). The experience of writing and blogging in itself is a good way to practice, and as mentioned before, a good way to have the piece constructively criticized, thanks to the option of commenting.