Blog One Appendices

1. Theory

I think if one was to point out the weakness of my blog essay it would probably be in its use of theory. Although theoretical literature was used successfully within the text, I think I could have used a more varied selection. It was difficult to find adaptable theories that can be applied to such a strange and unsystematic 'thing' that is public policy. Also providing theory that encompasses and represents such a major area of psychology proved to be hazardous. On a side note, one of my own weaknesses in psychology is indeed definitively differentiating between theory and research.

2. Research

I found the body of research on attitude change, and specifically anti-smoking attitude change, to be plentiful. This, I believe, resulted in the inclusion of many diverse sources in my blog, of substantial value. I could have easily written 3000 words on the topic. The trick was to decide what I couldn't put in! I think identification and understanding of the utilised research was relatively well demonstrated in the blog.

3. Written expression

Flesch Reading Ease = 17.7 to 18-8 (varying score - please see this post for a further discussion)
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level = 12.0
Word Count = 1337

My attempted strong adherence to APA format is a result of nearly three years of psychology. The blog contained textbook APA in-text referencing and reference list. Although I often find a few mistakes regarding references after assessment submission, it is not from lack of trying.

A concept map was included as required. I have never done one digitally before and it took a lot longer than expected (via MindMiester), but the result looked somewhat professional.

In an effort to maximise readability of my blog I stuck to dark text with Arial Font. [I remember learning in first year that Arial Font was the easiest to read according to a specific psychological study.] Subheadings were used to aid readibility also. After glancing through a couple of blogs earlier in the semester it also occured to me how much nicer it is to read paragraphs that had a blank line inbetween, so I made a special note of doing this as well. Lastly some URL links were also included in-text to encourage further interest.

4. Online engagement

My own online engagement from a personal point of view only occured a couple of weeks in the lead up to the first blog. I have never had a blog before so my low online engagement reflects my adjustment to this new medium. I now realise that online engagement is not as daunting as it sounds and anticipate a high level of engagement for blog two. My blog now contains about six different posts, with only one illiciting comments. Although I did have a look at many of the classes' blogs, I realise now that this was not properly demonstrated as I didn't comment at all.