Preface from Alejandro explaining why this book was created…… A good blogger has to have tips from someone who has good experience. Someone, but who? Oh yeah, me! I will tell you some good tips that come up in my brain. Hop on to the T.A.G. (tips are good) Machine. You’ll also hear some great tips from my “Blooming Bloggers” buddies.

You should always let someone check your work before posting it to anyone, even if it’s your baby sister or your friend. So remember that you are always supposed to reread before you give it to anyone. Read your post out loud. it is better then reading in your head. This lets you see if it makes sense or not. Work at making your story more exciting to make the reader want to read it more. You want the reader to actually like it and not look sleepy or look at you with an expression on his or her face, like you don't know how to write anything. Use a dictionary to check your spelling. A dictionary will help you make that word part of your memory. Make sure there are no run-on sentences. This is a sentence that goes on and on and on and has no periods. Your readers will move on and read something else. You want them to stay on your blog.

Write about current events that are happening around the world. Think of writing something really cool that people around the world would love to read. You could also add pictures in your post. You can draw or take the pictures with a camera. Express your opinion! Your readers would want to read how you feel about your topic. Then they can agree or disagree and it will make your blog more engaging. Catch your reader’s attention! Make your first sentence so interesting that your readers will not be able to keep themselves from reading more. Sentence fluency. Your sentences should flow together so that your post is easy to understand. Sentences that do not flow will only confuse the reader.

Be yourself. A good blogger will include their own writing from their brains. DO NOT COPY SOMEONE ELSE’S WORK. Take a break. If you take a break every once in a while and then come back to your blog, your brain will be refreshed with ideas waiting to be used. Let your individuality shine. Include your feelings, reactions and thoughts. If you want people to be absorbed in your blog, sidetrack those boring words and come up with your own expressive words. (Continued on next slide.)

Ask questions. If you don’t have any ideas ask yourself if you have had an experience like the situation you are in. Also ask other people for ideas. Just keep writing. Keep writing until you think that you are done. Record the story and take out what you don’t like. Also, you can add things. Don’t exaggerate the truth. If you are writing a repoet don’t include things that you don’t know are true. However, if you look it up and get information you can add it to your post. Then the facts will be authentic. Don’t give up. If you are frustrated and can’t get a topic. Don’t give up. Start again. If you do this you can get new ideas.

Make your blog entertaining. Readers like blogs that have humor and make them laugh or smile. Use vivid words. Always use higher level thinking words from Bloom's Taxonomy, like organize, describe, group, and paraphrase. A blog that includes words that are not used every day will grab the reader’s attention. Organize your writing with a good beginning, middle, and end. Pretend you are writing to a very important person.

Make your sentences flow and stick to the topic. Get your thinking caps on and always stop, think, and check. If you should get a bad comment, don’t let it sidetrack you. Keep doing the right thing and don’t respond. Stop, tell your teacher, delete, and get back to blogging. Never feel bad about your post. If you like it and feel OK with it, then leave it. When you think you have a great blog, ask yourself the following questions: Did I bump up my work? Did I do my best? Did I reread and check for mistakes? Ask yourself if you have sentence fluency, an organized idea, and an interesting topic. Then your blog will explode with neatness and excitement!

Check Check Check Check It! So if you don't make mistakes readers will think a grownup wrote it. Load your blog with hot topics! This will get the reader to stay and read like a dog in a swimming pool! Finish your posts with questions. That will make the reader think about what you wrote and you can think about what they write back.

Have your own personal voice. Express your personality and have a conversation with a reader. Try not to make the story you wrote boring so that no one will ever read your writing. When I'm talking about your personal voice I mean showing expression in your writing. Be proud of what you write. When your writing on a weblog you should use descriptive writing, punctuation, lots of details, a good lead, vivid vocabulary, organization, and always end it with a thought provoking questions. Place strong words in the beginning of your sentences. This will hook the reader. When I write I always worry a little about what people will think. This is a good thing because you will try to make your writing come alive. Think outside the blog. Trust your own opinions.

Try to leave the reader hanging and wondering what will come next when he or she is reading your post. Make sure you put your details in order or else you might make your readers confused! This is called organization and readers like that. Choose many different topics to write about on your blog. This will keep your readers from being bored. You will also learn more. Remember to always have a great opening. Always believe in yourself! Follow what you think is right. Don’t let anything bad get to you. It is like 2 knights fighting and one of them said the other one was a bad sword fighter. Don’t get discouraged, keep writing and fighting back. Make sure you don’t write about gossip. Only write about the truth. Writing about gossip is misleading and confusing. opinions.

Make your ideas and content so understandable and satisfying that they show your personality and your writing can be a way for students to learn. Use your voice. Ask this question: “Can I hear my voice in this writing?” Before you write brainstorm all your ideas. Then organize your writing so your sentences flow, and choose words that make sense so your readers can understand your writing. Personality works! A good blogger always shows her true colors by expressing genuine feelings. A Blogger’s Word Choice! Use any word that you need to make the writing come alive. Make the readers want to keep reading more and more and more!

Be open-minded. A good blogger has to learn from his or her mistakes. This will make you more experienced. It means you are willing to take suggestions. Make the readers' eyes stick to your post like glue with a catchy lead. Here is a catchy lead from Alejandro. Hey would you like to transform your writing into a masterpiece? His lead made me want to read his post. A catchy lead will make the readers hang on to every word you're saying. Use hyperlinks when you take a paragraph or sentence from another person's writing and give credit to them. You also respond to the sentence. Weblogging has changed my life in many ways. One of the changes is that I have my own voice. Weblogging has also made me a better thinker and writer. Be prepared for anything. You never know what will turn up on your comments. Almost all th e time you will get good comments. An occasional bad comment can always be deleted. Comments let you have fascinating conversations with other people from around the world.

Spend time on answering your comments. I get to answer people’s comments and they get to talk back to my answers to their comments. So, it's like having a conversation on the computer! Cool, isn't it? It helps you learn so pay attention to comments. You must use words that make it seem like you’re talking to the reader. Just talk like you normally talk. Don't talk like the reader wants you to talk. Talk with feeling. Let them feel like you're right beside the person. When you"re writing you can't just write what your teacher would like. Instead put yourself into the story. You must be the words. You must understand the story.

Words are important! You won’t have a lot of success if you use the same dull words over and over again. A successful blogger enjoys writing and putting everything they can in their writing. Make sure your paper sticks to your topic. Always talk about the same thing using different ideas. Make sure your details are in sequence. That makes it easy to read and follow the ideas you are sharing. Put quotes from other people in your posts. That will make your writing have other voices in it.

Never let anyone discourage your writing. If they say bad thing about your writing, just ignore it. Have fun with your writing, make it show your voice, it is apart of you. Weblogging is when you can have the freedom to express yourself, and write about whatever you want to! You have to be careful when you write because you could be writing in front of the whole world! You want to be a role model for other school bloggers. When you proof-read your writing, add in extra and more exciting things. Then read your story over and over again until you KNOW it is the right one. Think long and short. Include a variety of sentences and details. Make sure your sentences are complete and you don’t have sentence fragments. This means that you have checked your writing and it’s ready to be shown in public.

Use words that make your writing seem as if it comes alive to the reader. Make sure that you write as you would talk. This will make your writing understandable and people will feel like they know you. Write about something your are interested or else it makes your writing seem boring. Research! When you are writing always make sure that you have enough information to make it interesting and accurate.

Six Traits of Writing We brainstormed each of the six traits of writing and came up with questions to ask ourselves about the six traits. We will strive to apply this to our writing.

Ideas and Content What is my topic? Is my paper clear? Did I try to make my writing come alive? Do I have enough details? Do I have a good beginning, middle and end? Does my reader understand what I am trying to say? Have I included any dialogue? What about writing my ideas down and choosing the best one? Do I have an organization? Do I have enough ideas?

Organization How does my topic start? Are the details in order? Is my paper easy to read? Is my paper in time order? Does my writing have a good beginning? Are all the details in the correct sequence? Do my links go with my message? How does my topic end?

Voice Is this interesting to me? Did I give my opinion? Did I say everything I wanted to? What did I like the most? Did my readers feel like they heard my voice? Do I like what I wrote? Am I comfortable with what I wrote? Does the story match my attitude? How do I want my readers to feel?

Word Choice Does your writing flow? Have I used any exciting words? Did you use vivid vocabulary? Did I use different or interesting words? Will they make a good comment? Do you have descriptive words? Did I grab my readers attention with my words? Are my words in the right place?

Sentence Fluency Did I use a lot of sentences? Did I use complete sentences? Did I use correct sentences? Do my sentence beginnings have big and different ideas? Do my sentences make sense? Does my story sound real? Did I complete what I was trying to say? Did I use the same starting words? Does my paper sound smooth as I read it aloud? Did I use some long and some short sentences?

Conventions Do my words have spaces between them? Does my title go with my story? Does my punctuation show my sentence expressions? Do I have spelling errors? Do I have the correct capitalization in my sentences? Can people understand my writing? Does my paper have a main idea? Is my paper understandable? Did I use correct punctuation?