blogging - writing or discourse - have I answered my own question?
Having just finished the marking of my student?s on-line journals, I need a bit of self-reflection. Not that the task was an odious one mind you. Actually, in the main it was just the opposite.
It’s just that, some of the students embraced the weblogging idea with extremely reflective writing. Not only did they reflect upon the course itself, but some managed to find time to pursue other lines of thought and commentary as well.
Most students, who really ?got into it?, had some great discussions with themselves. The strange part is, in their feedback sheets, I now realise that in nearly every case I complimented them on these ?discussions’ without even thinking about it.
And I have been pondering as to whether weblogs are writing or a form of social discourse? Maybe I have inadvertently answered my own question.
It seems as though Barthes may have been right when he said that writing in a journal is not a text but a discourse. Mind you, that sets him at odds with his theory of the author being killed off in the writing. Doesn?t it?
