This semester I attempted to improve my passion blogs by incorporating pictures and outside articles. By including such improvements, my blog is easier to read and more engaging for readers. A few of my blogs really engaged readers, as demonstrated by the resulting comments. One of my favorite posts from this semester was my passion blog about total artificial hearts at PSU Hershey Medical center. In this blog, I explain a concept that might be foreign to many people in an understandable way. I include pictures and humor that make the science less “bland” for people not immediately interested in science. Particularly in this blog, my writing structure makes the science more engaging for others. For example, I write about the specific research and then I comment on the larger issue at hand and how the research may ameliorate certain issues. After this, I return to the specific PSU example. This is similar in all of my favorite blogs.
Another blog I thought exemplified my best writing this semester included similar qualities. This blog centered around the research done at PSU about a certain kind of sponge that might be able to clean up oil spills. In general, this topic is not considered to be extremely interesting to many people. However, the humorous memes and writing helped make the science interesting and applicable to readers. I link to the research in case more scientifically-inclined readers are interested. Furthermore, I provide examples of real-life applications of the research and how it might change the world. My blog ended in thought-provoking questions, which produced many comments (by many I mean 4). Each of my blogs included my creativity in explaining concepts that might be considered boring or uninteresting to many people.
