I was recently perusing Burcu Akyol's outstanding EFL blog and I had a good read of the guest post there from Lindsay Clandfield about spreading your knowledge by starting a blog for fellow teachers.
The article describes six essential tips (Lindsay is very fond of the number 6, it seems - part of his beastly nature, no doubt!) for starting and maintaining a good blog. Given that I'm rather unsure of how well I am doing as a blogger, I had a careful read.
I seem to be doing reasonably well within five of his criteria (reading what's out there, being passionate about it, choosing a good platform, preparing material in advance, and having fun), but to my shock and horror, I realised I may be failing dismally on the second tip: thinking of my angle.
Lindsay describes this priority in these terms:
There are lots of reasons people blog, and no one reason is better than the other. However, people are more likely to visit and remember your blog if there is an angle, a certain hook to it. A few years ago, your hook could have simply been “An English teacher’s reflections” or “Thoughts on the English language” as there were not many of us out here in the blogosphere. That’s changing now. People are more likely to be drawn to something specific in your teaching context (e.g. the challenges of teaching senior learners, teaching English in a small town in North Korea) or about language (e.g. a blog about idioms, or new words, or typical errors). [See the whole article here]
So for me, and the English Raven blog - what is my angle? Where's the hook? What is there that is specific? I mean, Lindsay's advice is very sound, and glancing around my blog I felt like I was being slowly impaled by a sort of "six things" sense of perspective.
This blog has more angles than a badly drawn polyhedron that got stuck in a seriously cranky photocopier. One moment I'm blabbing about how to teach English or new materials I'm writing; in another instant I'm uploading videos of my son Jamie to showcase his thriving bilingualism (and/or young learner reading development), the next I'm doing a review of Teaching Unplugged, and then trying to impart advice to would-be ELT writers, then flapping away about Twitter, and solemnly introducing the idea of a book is a place, and - well, the list goes on.
I guess the truth is that I have far too many angles going on. And you know what? I'm perfectly happy with that. The various angles may not be heading anywhere all that fast (so there's no hook, I'm afraid), but they're well - heading off someplace... To me, a blog has been a very enjoyable way of unloading and exploring an overcrowded mind, and seeing which tendrils can be cast out to connect with other teachers/writers/bloggers out there.
I'm thinking of volunteering for a new guest post on Burcu's blog. My post will be "Tips for starting a blog for people with confused polyhedron-like thoughts" or "How to write a blog with 6+ angles." Only fair that we don't exclude those disorganised scatterbrains out there (like me) who don't have the demeanor for a nicely organised and cohesive blog with a definitive purpose or angle!
But Lindsay's advice is great, as is Burcu's blog - so get on over there and check them out!
Oh - and wait! I've just found something in Lindsay's article that may save me... He says: "Think outside the box!" and, more importantly:
That being said, if you write with a distinctive voice then people will come to see whatever you’ve written just for the pleasure of reading it.
How about: If you write with a distinctive but confused voice from one day to the next then people will come to see whatever you've written just for the confusion of being confused by it?
Oh well - if you're a polyhedron brain like me, welcome to the English Raven blog and enjoy your confusing adventure here, and rest assured I'll be just as happy to read your blog, too!
:-)
