Non-Fiction Writing Lesson 10

Diaries and Blogs

 Learning Objective
To investigate more personal styles of writing.

Success Criteria
• To consider similarities and differences between diaries and blogs.
• To consider industrial and technological influences.
• To consider what makes such writing newsworthy or valuable to a
wider audience.
Ramblings of a Teenage Diary Writer

Thursday 5th March

OMG, today Jack Griffiths What is the purpose of a diary?
was even worse than
normal!!! I swear he doesn’t
even belong to our species.
He came to school dressed as
MR TWIT for World Book Is there much of an audience
Day – I mean, how old is for a diary entry such as this?
he?! He’s definitely
disgusting enough to be Mr
Twit but that bit of fluff
on his chin wouldn’t hold a
grain of sugar, never mind a How would you describe its tone?
sardine! LMAO
For My Eyes Only
Diaries are traditionally written for
your own personal consumption – to
read somebody else’s diary is
considered a gross invasion of privacy.

They typically reach a wider audience

in retrospect if the context or theme
strike a chord.

Examples:
The Diary of Anne Frank –
context gave it social and
historical significance.
My Fat, Mad Teenage Diary –
semi-fictionalised in adulthood by
Rae Earl, whose adolescent mental
health and body-image issues
connected with others.
Digital Diaries

What is a blog?
How is it similar
to a diary?
How is it
different?

• Think
• Pair
• Share
 Technological Timeline
Diary 1980
Audience: yourself
Purpose: reflection
and release
Tone: whatever you
want
Written since time
immemorial, usually
by hand.
At the dawn of this
millennium, the idea of
individuals being able to self-
publish their thoughts and
feelings to a global audience
was mind-blowing!
Fanzine 2000 Blog
Audience: groups Audience: unlimited
with a shared interest Purpose: to
Purpose: to eulogise communicate
Tone: colloquial thoughts
DIY publications by Tone: informal,
amateur enthusiasts, unauthorised
produced by hand or Truncation of
basic computer “weblog”; an online
software/photocopier medium allowing
. A handful used users to publish text
postal services to and images to the
reach national or Internet without
global audiences but detailed knowledge of
largely localised. HTML or computer
programming.

A blogger is writer, editor and publisher all-in-one.

 Market Saturation
Technology Liberates Amateurs,
Squeezes Professional Journalists
In 2011, there were approximately
156 million public blogs in existence.
By 2014, this was estimated to have What do you make
grown to over 250 million. of this headline?
Microblogs such as Twitter make Give it a more
most of us citizen journalists, tabloid-esque angle.
commenting regularly on our
experiences and the world around us.

Blogs have vast potential but in reality

As a blogger, their audiences are mostly made up of
how could you existing friendship groups because
connect with they lack the clout of the mass media.
your audience? Professional multi-author blogs and
user generated content have helped
integrate blogging into news media.
 Blurred Lines
SUNDAY, MAY 22 [2005]
You hurt me and you hurt me a lot. Therefore I deleted your comments. You
shouldn’t write something like that to me. You don’t know what I am. WHO I AM.
I don’t care about your choice to not be a Muslim. But I do care about
my destiny. I haven’t had a good and happy life, and that was not my option. But I do
have the option to choose how my destiny will be, so I choose to be happy, I choose
to be a Muslim from the second I was born
to my last breath.

Excerpt from IraqiGirl {Diary of a Teenage Girl in Iraq}

IraqiGirl began her blog in July 2004, posting pictures of her pink bedroom and her
Barbies. Then she moved on to recounting the stories between friends at school as the
US occupation of her home city of Mosul began to take its toll: one friend opens the
door to her home and finds a corpse in the street. “That’s nothing,” another responds,
“there was a body without a head on my street”.
As with Anne Frank, her journal became valuable in showing the impact of war from
a young person’s viewpoint. An edited version of her blog was published as a book
in 2009.
How is this blog like a Can you identify its What makes this
typical teenage diary? audience, purpose and tone? writing newsworthy?
 Dear Blog

What is the most • What could you

newsworthy write about that
element of your would reach the
life? largest audience?

Write a series of blog entries Swap with a friend.

on your chosen subject. Write a user comment to one of the
Writing style can be personal entries as if you’d read it online. You
and informal, but keep audience, might like/dislike, agree/disagree or
purpose and tone in mind. give a view of your own.
 Takeaways
What is your main takeaway from this lesson?
Write it on your Tracking Sheet and grade your level of
knowledge and understanding.
Then share your takeaway with the person on either side of you.
Are they the same? Explain your reasoning to each other.