9) Classmate Blog Critique: Elizabeth Nalley

Elizabeth's blog is one not like many I've seen in a blog class. While everyone surely does a great job in these blog classes, Elizabeth's is especially interesting in how in depth she goes into everything. Most of her blogs tend to run long, but in a good way. She segments her blogs with subheadings that do a deep dive into a certain aspect of whatever her topic may be.

For example, in her review of Jeremy Jahns' channel, she'll first look at what the guy is all about, his channel, his style of review, and what the future may hold for him. Or in her vegan blog for Lifestyle and Popular Culture or the piece she wrote regarding Plexus and food technologies. She breaks up different aspects of certain topics which allows a specified look into her topic and also an easier read to know that she is going to jump to a different angle on the same topic. This is in contrast to me where I can tend to go on and on about some things in my blogs.

One thing she does that I don't do as much (and probably should) is she has a diverse set of topics in her blog. I tend to use movies, tv, and superheroes almost as a crutch sometimes so that I don't have to do as much research or, at least, my research feel like something I would have done anyways even if I didn't have a blog due. The way Elizabeth does it in her blog is you can tell she figures out what her topic is and starts peeling back the layers of everything surrounding that topic. (Best example of this is her dive into Bollywood films)

Elizabeth's interactivity is also pretty great. Not only does she use a lot of images and useful links in her blogs, like we are to do for the class anyways, but she'll take quotes and enlarge and bold them in the blog to bring special attention to it, not unlike a newspaper or magazine. This is something I don't think I've seen in many other blogs, and it is a fresh take on something I personally have become very familiar with over the years. In a way it seems so much more professional. It isn't something terribly hard to do, but the fact she took the time to do it shows some effort that I personally never thought to put into my own work (not to poo poo on myself, I try!)

Elizabeth is also a DC superhero fan. Me being a Marvel, you'd think we would butt heads, but that isn't the case. In fact, in her blog about Reign of the Supermen, I saw a lot of similarities between me and her and how we both grew up digging superheroes and it's pretty cool and something I wouldn't have pegged looking at her blog (whereas I'm hard pressed to not mention Spider-Man every other sentence.)

I think the most that I take away from Elizabeth's blog is that it looks and reads really professional like (that's good grammar right?) In some ways I'm almost jealous of how her blog looks and feels aesthetically especially with the way each one collapses and, even if it might not seem like a huge deal to some, I legit am impressed with the magazine look some of the blogs have. It looks pretty professional and I'm eager to see where her work goes in the future.