The past 2 weeks have been a different experience for me. After having the worst semester ever last semester I came back a brand-new person ready and willing to learn and graduate. The beginning of the semester is always insane, not to mention even more insane when the last time you were in an actual class was September of the semester before. At the start of this semester, I have taken some online classes but nothing this intensive, and never had three of them at the same time. I am very nervous about taking this many online classes and sometimes my motivation to get things done is very minimal.

When I looked at the syllabus for the first time, I became very scared and overwhelmed. After receiving emails from the professor, and watching our class website, I became less overwhelmed and more confident about being able to complete the class. I became even more confident when I went to the professor during his office hours.  I am slowly settling back into campus life, but am not full in “school mode”, but as the weeks go on and I am back here full time I am fully confident that I can do this.

I am looking forward to learning all there is to learn about technical writing, and I do feel it is rather important to know how to write in a technical way for the workplace. With this being said, I also look forward to knowing how to read someone’s technical writing as well. As important as it is to be able to physically write professionally, it is just as, if not more important to understand the language to read it as well.

For the past 2 weeks in class we have been setting up this blog and learning the basics of what technical writing is. I truly struggled setting up my blog, as I am not a tech person at all. Even though I struggled I learned a lot in those challenges. One of the main things I learned is to not be afraid to fail and ask for help. In creating this blog, I failed multiple times and in being naïve I almost gave up and refused to ask for help. I am big on trying to solve the problem alone and always saw throughout my education that asking for help showed weakness to any of my fellow classmates. This semester I am hoping to get better at asking for help when I need it because, it is not weakness it is just showing strength and how smart you really are.  

I am really hoping that now that I am into the swing of school again things will go a lot smoother moving forward. As I continue to learn new and exciting things in the weeks ahead. I hope this course helps me see my writing flaws, as well as, helps me continue to help me fix the flaws that I didn’t even know I had. As we move forward in the semester, I am excited to see all the new things that can open my eyes and mind to the professional world around me.  I currently have a job at home, which I go home every weekend to do. My current position is the weekend Night Audit person at the Comfort suits, included with night audit two days a week, I do what we call “side jobs” on Monday mornings. For now, the position is only part time, but I have been guaranteed full time in May after graduation. There has even been talk about me possibly taking over and over-see the day-to-day operation of our wedding venue attached to the hotel. If this happens this class will come in handy every day. I will need to interact with other professionals and the everyday public on a daily basis. I am super excited about this class and looking forward to see more it has to offer me.  

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.