The Power of Blogs in Intellectual "Ownership"

Blogs offer the opportunity for continual revision in the public sphere. The author has the opportunity to publish, then revisit the published text and change it as often as desired. This change may be precipitated by comments that viewers of the blog leave in connection with a particular entry, or the changes may be the result of the writer’s desire to sharpen and to hone their text. In either case, revision is a clear option, and one that the writer is able to take advantage of in the public sphere. The old post is replaced by the new post; the more thoughtful, cohesive “post” is what the world sees.

Writing traditional papers that are handed in to a professor is a linear, private transaction. The student writes, then gives a finished product to the teacher. Perhaps there are drafts along the way, lesser transactions of handing the draft to a tutor, to a peer reviewer, or to the professor for preliminary feedback. In any of these instances, the student is required to relinquish control over his or her document by rendering a static, finished product to an authority, thereby delimiting the development of the writing product by completing a transaction with an audience.

Writing blog entries expands the transaction between student producer and audience. In space and in time, the student is the primary agent of the text; the student’s voice remains dominant. The student never relinquishes his or her position as knower, as writer, as thinker, as reviser – as creator of the blog, “owner” of the domain. Others may comment on certain thoughts or ideas, but these comments are physically relegated to a secondary space on the Blog, the comment box. It matters that anyone and everyone can read these comments, because the comments are then subject to analysis and criticism (very unlike traditional teacher grading). The student has the opportunity to revisit and grow his or her ideas immediately by engaging these comments.