Final Blog Analysis
The focus of our blog is on Victorian era ruin and how it portrays to instances in the present day. Ruin is described as the complete destruction of an object and can be both emotional and physical. The topic of ruin is one that interested each member in our group and was both easy and fun to write about. The topic was present in almost every reading and was a main focus in many class discussions as well as the class overview. For this reason we decided to create a blog completely centered around this fascinating subject. In each of our posts we analyzed historical texts in order to find how they related to ruin both in the Victorian period and the ruin of today. There are many distinct similarities and differences between modern and Victorian ruin, which proved intriguing to write about. Many practices that made our blog successful were the use of outside sources, group collaboration, and the performance of an in-depth analysis for each text assigned. Each group member was responsible for a certain paragraph or piece of the writing, which was then added to all the other pieces for a coherent and descriptive blog post. By delegating different parts of the text, each person was able to focus on a small section and deliver a much better piece of writing. It was easier to analyze the longer readings when each member was only responsible for a small portion. Some of the shortcomings of our group were both the lack of organization and also communication. By forming new groups during the middle of the semester, it was much harder to adjust to working with new people. Becoming familiar with the preferences and practices of different people made it more difficult to stay organized, which made communication that much harder. Also, because the blogs weren’t due on a specific date, the need to communicate and make sure the blog was getting done, wasn’t as important. This lack of organization was very different compared to the over organized feeling during the first half of the semester, with our previous blog groups. When the blogs were forced and had specific due dates, each member of the blog was held accountable and each post had to be done on time. The more lenient approach for the second half of the semester, though a lot less strenuous, proved to be a lot harder when it came to getting each blog posts done. With more structure, like in the first half of the semester, it required each person to both read the assigned material and also analyze it. Personally our group feels that the first half of the semester helped us learn more about each historical text and was more geared towards the way we learn. Overall group blogs were an enjoyable and pleasant way to meet new people and to get to know fellow classmates. These assignments were both helpful and interactive, but a more focused approached proved to be a better way to organize these blogs.
By: Katie Ramstad, Alex Holtman, Scott Wolf, and Michelle Davis
Victorianruin303
(1) http://victorianruin303.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/goblinmarket/
(2) http://victorianruin303.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/picturesque-2/
(3) http://victorianruin303.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/lust/
(4) http://victorianruin303.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/harlot/
