Our Citation Philosophy

The posts on our blog so far have been analyses of other blogs. We have read a blog and analyzed its rhetorical features. Now, our focus will shift to more research-based posts. These will be very different from our previous posts. Instead of writing about our own observation, we will have to find facts. In order to do this we will research topics, find reliable sources, and make sure we cite each source used in the post.

When doing a research assignment, it is important to cite the sources where the information was pulled from. This is so whoever reads the research paper knows that the information is valid and came from a credible site. Another reason to cite sources, is to give credit to the original author. If you take credit for someone else's work, the legal problem of plagiarism will arise.

Legal issues that can come from improperly citing sources or not citing them at all can include copy right infringement, being sued, and can sometimes be deemed as a criminal offence and the plagiarizer can be jailed. These are some of the most severe repercussions and many not always happen. More common problems include destroyed academic or professional reputation, trouble with professors or boards of conduct, and monetary repercussions.

Since our blog is an offshoot of our English class, MLA seems to be the best choice for our citation style. This style is widely recognized and adhered to within the realm of academia. For all information coming from outside sources present in our blog, citations will be included at the end of the posts. Credit will be given whenever a direct quotation is used. In-text citations will also be present to guide the reader to the correct source listing at the end of the post. If the site is inaccessible without the URL, the URL will be listed at the end of the post.

To us, the importance of citing is most well seen in the credibility it will give to our blog. It is hoped that all content we choose to use and cite within our posts comes from credible and reputable cites. With the inclusion of information from these types of sources, the credibility of our own blog should increase.

Expert Enough: A Blog Analysis

Expert enough is a blog that focuses on helping you with “the lost art of becoming good at things.” Their goal is to help you gain a little bit of knowledge about a lot of things; “to inspire you to learn more, do more, be more.” The blog was founded, and is currently co-edited, by Corbett Barr and Caleb Wojcik in October of 2011, and is written by them and other contributing authors. The name stems from the fact that you don’t have to know everything about a subject to be considered an “expert” to some people.

Expertise isn’t an absolute. Think of it as a scale, from 1 to 10. If you’re a 3, there are plenty of 1s and 2s out there who you can teach, and probably better than people with more expertise.

Expert Enough uses a minimalistic blog design, multiple authors, and informal language to show the reader that being an expert at something is not necessary to being successful in life, just knowing more than the average person can make you seem like an expert.

The blog’s style, overall, is extremely simple. It has a white background with black font,, the occasional green font, used sparingly for emphasis (such as when an author would normally bold a phrase), very few pictures, and an author bio. There is a common formatting throughout the whole site for all articles: Author picture and bio in the top left corner, featured image in the top center, the body of the article is always centered, and a social media plug for Facebook, Twitter, and Stumbleupon to the right side of the article.

The use of such a simple design allows the reader to focus on the article, along with the only other prominent thing on the page, a large advertisement for one of the blog’s creator’s new project, Lifestyle Business Weekly, which is placed at the bottoms of the page. There are no other advertisements on the site, placing extreme focus on this one. This was most likely a choice made by Barr in an attempt to emphasize the articles to drive home what the specific article is saying and to promote himself, since he is the owner of a web-based business, Fizzle Co., along with the Expert Enough and Lifestyle Business Weekly projects.

Another rhetorical device used by the blog is the use of multiple authors. This helps to illustrate the fact that you do not have to be an expert at everything. The authors come from many different fields and backgrounds “we are experts at a bunch of things, not just one”. Expert Enough has in their archives 187 articles with almost as many authors.

The authors do not appear to only write for Expert Enough and many have their own projects whether they be running a blog, owning a business, or like one author, flying a medevac helicopter in Alaska. Some of their background is in writing, however, most of them do not have a career that involves them sitting in front of a computer writing their lives away. In essence, they are “expert enough” to write an article explaining their chosen topic and not sound foolish or idiotic.

The last main rhetorical strategy used by the authors of the blog is the use of informal language. While all of the different authors have their own writing style “every author has their own secret of success, their own sources of inspiration, their personal tricks to attract and hold their readers”, they all have a very casual manner in which they present their articles. While reading an article on Expert Enough, you get the feeling of watching a TED Talk. The chatty banter and quick wit of most TED Talks is abundantly present while reading these articles. This gives the reader a sense of closeness with the author and helps them retain the information better. This closeness makes the articles feel more like a conversation with a close friend rather than a lecture or sermon.

These three rhetorical strategies help to convey the purpose of the blog, becoming an “expert”, to to the reader in a way that is simple, clear, and effective. This leaves the reader the tools to help them become an expert in their topic “Expert Enough. Just enough to be dangerous.”

Every College Girl: A Blog

Every College Girl touches on some of the problems a girl in college is in need of solving. The authors write about the common issues every college girl faces in order to connect with the audience and provide them with a solution. For example, how to stay organized, how to arrange your dorm for the maximum space, how to eat healthy, how to save money, and how to create inexpensive gifts. Even though all of this information is helpful in a college girl’s life, especially mine, one big chunk of college life is missing from this blog. Shouldn’t studying be a major focus for college? The authors send a message out to not only college girls, but to society that puts college girls in a stereotypical category by focusing mostly on looks rather than studying, and titling the blog Every College Girl.

When I was looking through this blog, I was intrigued by the title. Every College Girl. I thought, “Well, I’m a college girl, so this blog must be beneficial to me in some way.” As I skimmed through the titles of the articles, it became apparent that this blog connects not only to me, but coincidently to every college girl. The blog includes information about style, gift ideas, healthy eating, and exercise, all while keeping a college budget. What college girl wouldn’t want to know how to do that? This being said, the audience is very clear, college girls. Sure maybe not every single college girl, but the majority of college girls, specifically those who live on campus.

There are many authors that contribute to the blog. Most of the authors have already graduated from college or are upperclassmen in college. That being said, the authors’ claim is ethos, because the authors of this blog have been through college, so they “know the ropes” so to speak. They have experienced first hand the college life of a female, and they know what information is essential to mastering the college life. This adds incredible accuracy to the blog’s information. Some may say that the authors’ claim is pathos. This could be a logical claim because the girls who write the articles for this blog are somewhat writing from emotion because they feel that every college girl needs the information that they lacked during their college days. However, after analyzing this blog thoroughly, I decided it was more of an ethos claim than a pathos claim.

The articles in this blog are mainly about staying fit and stylish while on a budget. For example, one author writes in an article, “It’s always sort of a bummer when the days start getting shorter and summer starts to vanish, but if there’s anything to get you pumped up for the cooler months it’s fall fashion.” Another author writes, “We all know at this point that the Freshman15 is definitely a real(and terrifying) reality. But when you’re stuck on campus eating meal trades or living on your own on a very limited budget, staying healthy can be even more difficult than writing that 7 page paper you should have started a week ago.” These posts are all about appearance rather than studying or academics. It is interesting to me that the author even mentioned the procrastination of a college student but chose to write a post about working out. In a way, this shows us a message. These authors are writing about what they were most concerned about in college and what they wish they knew beforehand. It is a little upsetting to know that they were obsessing over their looks and relationships more than their education. It sent a message to me for sure. From reading this blog, I got a somewhat opposite reaction of what was intended of the authors. I wanted to focus more on my studies than anything else after reading the posts. If I were an author of this blog, I would focus more on study habits and picking a major and career rather than how to do the perfect eye shadow or how to stay in style.

After gathering all of this information, there was one agonizing question that was haunting me. Why is this blog so heavily focused on appearances rather than studies? Afterall, it is college, so it it pretty safe to say that grades are extremely important. However, since the articles are written by former college students about solutions about what bothered them the most while they were in college, they seemed to think that materialistic things were the most important. This to me is very alarming. College should be a time of learning and working toward developing a career. So why is it that college girls are more focused in everything but studies while in college? The society that we live in is very heavily focused on appearances. For example, movie stars are constantly criticized on their figure, hair, and wardrobe. People are also judged in society based on how they look. For example, a man may be turned away from a fancy restaurant if he comes in with jeans on. Therefor, this blog is not only encouraging college girls to keep up a good appearance, but it is also contributing to the growing stereotype of the college/sorority girl. This should be a wake up call to society as a whole.

The message that Every College Girl is trying to get across is that you can still stay stylish, fit, and healthy while in college. However, the message that I took from it is that society sees female college students as wannabe Barbie dolls. The titles of some of the articles manifests this, “Why You Should Wear Hats”, “5 Nail Shades of Summer”, and “4 Subtle Traits of a Keeper.” There is nothing wrong with wanting to keep up your appearance, and it is especially hard to do in college, however the fact that the blog is so heavily emphasized on it, just gives off a bad message to girls in general. It also gives a stereotype that every college girl is so concerned with her appearance. If Every College Girl had included more articles about studying habits or if the title of the blog was changed, it would not have given off a stereotypical message.

Makezine: A Blog Site Analysis

What is a “maker?” What does it take to be considered a “maker?” For this blog post I will be analyzing the blog makezine.com, this blog is about the maker scene. It is written by many different authors that are sharing about what they have made and how they made it. These authors all come from many backgrounds and they are not all the same. They each have their own personalities and have their own individual preferences. A lot of them are very technology oriented people, that are in with the latest and greatest tech innovations of the current time, while others are more very traditional in your garage workshop type of person. These authors differ greatly from mechanical engineering to computer savvy individuals to artists to parents making something great for their children, they all differ in some way or another but they have come together for this blog to share what they have made. They are trying to show their audience that anyone can be a part of the growing maker community, it does not matter what your background or knowledge is, if you can imagine it, you can probably make it.

The site is presented in a way that show articles by many different authors on the front page. When you click on one of these post, they for the most part are showing off a creation made by someone or even made by the author of the blog post. An interesting to note about how the blog this blog is presented is in the way that once you scroll to the bottom of a blog post instead of it ending, the blog post is seamlessly connected to the next blog post. Although these blog post are not the same, the blog site seamlessly connects them together. When reading through this blog and start on one post about making a self feeding fire pit, you will continue on to read about a motorized fish bowl that moves based on tracking the location of where the fish is inside the bowl. Then after scrolling to the end of the fish bowl blog post, the next blog post about 3D printing a superhero mask appears right after it. The breaks between blog post is completely non existent and there is no transition between blog post.

While scrolling through the blog post that a person would be interested in, when they are finished they are presented with another blog post that does not relate to the one that they had been reading. The next blog post will simply appear right at the end of last blog post that you have read and will keep continuing as you scroll down more. One very essential point to make here is that the next blog post is completely irrelevant to the last one you were reading, it is written by a different author and may or may not be in a different format from the last blog post. The topics discussed in the last post will be unrelated to the next blog post. One blog post could be a tutorial on how to make a certain do it yourself weekend project, then it will seamlessly continue on about an experience the next author had in seeing a another maker’s great invention. Then it will continue on to the next blog post that is written by another author with a different writing style than the last two authors.

This blog has many different authors for each of their blog post. Sometimes you will have an author showcasing their invention, other times it will be an author making a tutorial on how they were able to efficiently store their tools in their garage, or sometimes it is an artist that is show what they made for their art piece. One instance it was a parent that made their child a transforming Optimus Prime cake for their birthday. The authors of this blog come from a variety of different backgrounds. They all have different personalities and styles in how they write and present their blog post, and they all come from different disciplines and perspectives such as science, engineering, music, and other topics. But they all share one common interest in making and see themselves as part of the “maker” community.

I think this is the reason why the blog opted to make their blog post to keep continuing to the next blog post, even if they are completely different topics. The blog as a whole is trying to show their audience that the maker community is made of many different types of people with different ideas and backgrounds, but they all have the same passion for making things and sharing it to the rest of the community.

Zen Habits: A Blog Site Analysis

Zen Habits is a Top 25 blog authored by Leo Babauta, a “simplicity blogger and author”. Originally from Guam, Babauta now lives in the San Francisco area with his wife and six children. As the title suggest, Zen Habits is a blog that focuses on how Babauta has implemented elements of Zen into his lifestyle, and what impact these habits have had on his life. However, instead of advocating full-fledged Zen Buddhism in his articles, Babauta skillfully extracts the essential practices of Zen—such as organization, decluttering, goal-setting, meditation, frugal living, happiness, healthy diet, and stress management—and makes them easy for his more than one million readers to implement into their Western lifestyles. Babauta never claims to be a Zen monk or even a Zen practitioner; rather, he simply uses the term to describe his personal lifestyle philosophy of simplicity and mindfulness. Leo Babauta's goal through Zen Habits is to improve other people's daily habits and lifestyle choices–a goal accomplished through the description how his lifestyle supports and validates his teaching, the use of a simple, basic website, and the access given to hundreds of concise, yet well-written posts.

Foremost, Leo validates his work by practicing what he preaches. One of the most integral aspects of a blog is the ethos of the author, and it is clear that Leo is qualified to write on lifestyle improvement. Before he started his blog, Leo was in debt, overweight, unhealthy, and generally unsatisfied with his life. However, since he decided to make a lifestyle change towards simplicity and mindfulness, he would now say that his life is filled with meaning and purpose. He has gained financial independence, lost over 70 pounds, run an ultramarathon, and quit smoking. So not only does his life story provide validation to his work, but it also provides a pathetic appeal to his readers. His story is inspirational and motivating, which can conjure emotions of excitement and determination in his audience. He intends to write to anyone who is willing to change their daily habits and to those who hope to improve their lives by jettisoning the unnecessary and embracing a simple, meaningful life. Leo presents himself to his audience as a simple, successful man who lives a life of meaning and purpose. But more importantly, he admits that he is still a work-in-progress, and always will be. He is vulnerable with his readers, admitting to many failures along with his successes. He comes across as a mentor who is on a journey with his readers, rather than a condescending teacher with a “been there, done that” attitude.

After just a cursory glance at the home page of Zen Habits, the overarching theme of the blog is clear: simplicity. There is a home page, a bio page, an archive, a book list page, and a link to his other site. All of his articles are listed on one page, in a long list, only separated by date. There are no distractions, no advertisements, no unnecessary decorations, and no elaborate formatting. The site no longer has ads due to the financial support Babauta now receives through the books he has written and the courses he offers on another site, called Sea Change. His blogspace is a continually evolution that revolves around the changes in his own life. The easy navigation of his site along with categorizing his articles by date lends to the conclusion that Babauta has a large faithful following who continually check back in for new content.

Zen Habits appeals to an audience of self-improvers. Many of the articles are directed towards the betterment of one’s self, which will, in turn, be manifested to others through attitudes and behaviors. A prevalent feature of many blogs that is missing here is a comments section. The only voice heard within this blog is Babauta’s. The following statement is written under his contact section, “I’m not able to personally respond to emails, and I don’t take guest posts, advertising, or requests to promote anything.” With as transparent as Babauta is in regards to sharing his life with his readers, he is unavailable for any personal contact to them. This goes against the grain of many blogs these days which place their emphasis on getting to know their followers. Babauta lets his writing speak for itself. He so strongly believes in the sharing of his ideas, he has released all copyright to his blog material and to his ebook, Zen to None. He offers a relatively thorough analysis of the pros and cons to open source blogging via the following link: Open Source Blogging: Feel Free to Steal My Content.

Zen Habits holds a substantial amount of content. Babauta started the blog back in 2007 and has consistently posted content ever since then. When he writes, every keystroke is made with purpose. There is no fluff or filler. His writing style is straight forward, yet artistic and creative, producing an overall sense of confidence and clarity with undertones of subtle boldness throughout his articles. A recurring frame of thought veining many his articles is the need to pause before responding or reacting. This idea is something that our culture is moving farther and farther away from, instead embracing spontaneous decisions.

Zen Habits manages to come across as relevant and significant, even though its content often fights what today’s society broadcasts. To many, a slower-paced life equals an unsuccessful life. It is because of Babauta and many other writers like him that this perception is slowly being changed. Babauta has and is still making significant contributions to his domain. His writings are credible and original–two characteristics that are made more clear by the absence of any other voices on his blog and the use of his own life as a springboard for a majority of his content.

Nine years ago, Babauta branched out and created a blog space that is in complete agreement with the lifestyle he has chosen to live. Because of the success of this original space, Babauta developed the name recognition to be able to pen and publish books to support himself and his family, even without the personal interaction he has chosen to forgo with his blog readers. His model shows that it is possible to make a large impact solely through the content you write. Babauta’s purpose in life is to improve other people's’ lives by highlighting the power of daily habits, suggesting many intentional lifestyle choices, and stressing the importance of mindfulness and singleness of thought. Zen Habits accomplishes these goals by describing how Babauta’s lifestyle supports and validates his teaching, by creating a simple, basic website, and by offering hundreds of concise, yet well written posts.

The Hungry Runner Girl: A Blog Analysis

The blog I close to analyze is Hungry Runner Girl. This is a blog written by a woman named Janae about some of her favorite things: running, food, and her family. She writes in a very informal manner to create a feeling of friendship and closeness with the reader. The overall style of the blog is bright and fun, making it feel somewhat like a Facebook page. The author also shows her credibility through posting her running times, work out plans, and pictures of her runs and workouts. 

The specific article I chose to focus on is “22 (My Favorite Number) Tips to Help You With Your Long Runs and Sunday Stuff!” I feel that this article represents the author’s style the best because it has the running tips the reader would expect and the updates on seemingly random parts of the author’s life that make the posts feel like they are updates from a close friend. To further this feeling of closeness at the end of her articles the author posts questions for the readers to respond to. This article’s questions involve running, favorite numbers, and the last question is “What was the best part about your Sunday?”. This coupled with the author responding to a lot of the reader’s comments really drives home the feeling of friendship.

Another stylistic choice the author makes is that she commonly uses lists to convey information to her readers. This is very effective because it breaks down information that could be hard to remember all of into smaller chunks that are much easier to process. In January, the author wrote eight out of the almost daily articles that were written in list format.

The other choice the author makes to help people feel close and makes the blog feel like a Facebook page is that she talks about her family, mainly her daughter, and her personal life in all of her posts. In “22 (my favorite number) tips to help you with your long runs and Sunday stuff!” her daughter is mentioned a few times “Brooke might be a weather woman when she grows up because she goes straight to the window each morning to check out the current conditions.”, along with the author’s parents ”thanks again Dad for all of those runs”, and other relatives “My niece treats me real well and makes sure I am nice and cozy”. This insight to the author’s life makes the reader feel like they know Janae and Brooke ( the author’s daughter) very well.

The author displays her credibility all over the website. She has her marathon times and sponsors on the side bar, pictures in most of her articles of her working out, and refers to her bachelors in health science in her “About me” section. She does mention however that even with her degree that she is “by no means an expert” and the reader should “Do what is best for YOU and your dietary/exercise needs”. She says this due to the fact that running can cause injuries and she does not want to be held liable for someone’s potential injuries.

A stylistic choice that the author makes is to include a lot of pictures in her posts. This allows the reader to visualize what the author is writing about and helps to reinforce the Facebook-like feeling of the rest of the blog.

Overall the author produces a very successful blog. She does a good job of conveying her running, general fitness, and personal experiences while still portraying her personality and keeping it relevant to the readers. You can tell that the author is very passionate at what she does and that in turn makes the reader very passionate and want to continue reading the blog.

Nerd Fitness: A Blog Analsis

The blog that I will be analyzing for this assignment is a self-improvement blog, called Nerd Fitness. The specific post that will be analyzed is titled, “How Star Wars made me a Better Person.” This blog is run by a man named Steve who wants to help people “level up their lives,” with his main goal being to “inspire the hell out of you to make positive changes and live a better life.” The blogs targeted audience as described by Steve are the “nerds, average Joes and desk jockeys” that are trying to improve their lives for the better.

Most of the blog posts on Nerd Fitness are written by Steve with the intent of trying to motivate someone or try to educate them on valuable life skills. Nerd Fitness blog post are for the most part written in first person view. Since the majority of these blog post are written in first person view this allows Steve to have a style of writing that is somewhat casual in tone and also relatable to his target audience. Steve’s writing style includes a lot of references to popular culture that includes movies, games, comics, and Legos. The people that are part of his targeted audience would probably have knowledge of the references he makes in his blog post.

The blog post titled, “How Star Wars made me a Better Person,’’ is a recollection of how the popular movie franchise, Star Wars, has impacted and molded him to how he is today. This blog post was written in first person view to make it more relatable to Steve’s target audience. Having it in first person view allows Steve to make this blog post a lot more personal. This is because he uses his real life experiences to relate to his audience. Relating to his audience with his life experiences and pop culture references allows Steve to better convey his main points across to his target audience.

Steve begins this blog post by immediately referencing the Star Wars intro and how excited he gets every time he sees it. The post then continues on to recount his experience of watching the recently released Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, and how as a 31 year old he felt as if he was five again. Steve uses the themes presented in the movies to drive his points across such as “you always have a choice.” This blog post presents Steve in a way that shows his personal life in as story to go along with his life tips. Presenting his writing in this manner allows Steve to directly relate his experience in life to support his advice to reader. Steve's life experiences are used as ethos to show his credibility in giving these life advice to his audience.

The structure of this blog post is presented in a way that uses three themes shown in the movies as its three main subheadings. With each theme being a different advice to the reader. Steve uses these three different subheading as his main points to take away from reading this blog post. Under each different subheading he uses relatable situations and Star Wars references to back up his points and reach his audience. With the way the blog is structured, it allows his target audience to go through it some

In this specific blog post Steve primarily uses logos and pathos to persuade his readers into making a positive change to better their lives. An example of Steve’s use of logos would be when he mentions how if Luke had immediately fought Darth Vader; Luke would certainly lose since he would not have the training. Steve then continues to use logos to convince the reader by implying that if you want to make a positive change in your life, these changes will take time and gradually will become a habit. This is logical since changes happens gradually and not instantaneously. Steve is informing his target audience that it will take time to make theses changes and to not expect any results immediately.

Plastic Surgery Post: A Blog Analysis

This analysis is on a blog titled Plastic Surgery Post. This blog is about different aspects of plastic surgery, including surgery procedures, results, and safety precautions. The article that I chose to write about is the article on a surgical procedure called body contouring, titled “Body Contouring Completes Weight Loss Journey.” The choices that the author made in this article includes, first person writing, the message that he is trying to get across, the way he credits himself, and the way he adds background info on the procedure. The message that the author is trying to get across is the process of the surgery, and also the steps that must be taken before and after surgery. There is also a hidden message, which is advertising. He is somewhat trying to lure patients to his office. This is shown when the author writes, “Unfortunately, many bariatric surgeons are trying to provide many of these procedures themselves for financial reasons. This can lead to less than desirable outcomes and even unnecessary deaths because they lack the training and the important principles of body contouring procedures, which can only be learned in a plastic and reconstructive surgical residency.” By describing the other surgeons as “bariatric” he is suggesting that he always does a well and thorough job, which brings me to another choice the author makes of crediting himself. The author concludes his post with, “If you have lost significant weight either from bariatric surgery or from diet and exercise alone and are experiencing the burdens of carrying around excess lose hanging skin that is affecting your quality of life, please contact me – Jay H. Lucas, MD, at the Lucas Center, Plastic Surgery, PLLC – for a consultation to begin your rejuvenation as soon as possible.” Some people may say that he is only providing his services to those who need it and it being helpful, but from reading this post and breaking it down, you can draw the conclusion that he is trying to get more clients into his office.

 The title, “Body Contouring Completes Weight Loss Journey”, is a manifest in itself to try to pull in clients. From this title the audience thinks that if they lose a lot of weight and have excess skin, body contouring is what you have to do in order for you to look your absolute best and complete the weight loss process. In my opinion, the author is trying to convince those who have excessive skin from weight loss to have plastic surgery, I am also convinced that he truly cares about his patient’s well-being. I am drawing this conclusion the author’s own words, “My response to this is as follows: Patients who did not have the motivation to lose weight in the first place are the ones who get surgical weight loss procedures. If their body contouring procedures are covered by someone else, then what is the incentive for the patient to maintain their new lifestyle? If they have had to save their money for several expensive operations, that in summation equal the cost of an expensive car, then the patient is less likely to give up on their lifestyle in order to maintain their costly investment in themselves. I also tell my patients that an expensive new car devalues over time very quickly, but if you take an active interest in your new body it can last a long and meaningful time. People always act differently if they have some skin in the game (pun intended).” This not only shows his deep thoughts and concerns to ward his patients, but also his humor.

The author’s style of writing is very informative and personal. He talks in first person and shares information about his thoughts and ideas like the example given in the first paragraph. This gives off a personal vibe. The way that he writes reminds me exactly of how I would hear from a doctor in person. They are level headed, knowledgeable, personable, and informative. It is interesting that the author chose to write about a background of why someone would need or want body contouring first, followed by the actual procedure. I think it was a wise choice in structuring the article like this because body contouring sounds a bit barbaric and unnecessary, but with the explanation of why someone would want it brings light to the situation.

The audience that this article is geared toward is someone who wants to have body contouring done, or someone who is just simply curious about the process. I know if I was wanting to have this procedure done, I would definitely do some research on the surgery before I saw a doctor. This article would be perfect for someone who would want to do that. The reason why I say that this is also geared toward people who are simply curious is because when I went to the blog, I was trying to pick which procedure I wanted to read up on and one that I thought would be interesting. When I saw body contouring, it sparked my interest and I was immediately interested in what body contouring was and exactly what takes place during the surgery.

Overall, I think the goal of the article was to inform those who are curious about what body contouring is and to provide an overview of what a potential patient could expect from the surgery.

The Minimalists: A Blog Analysis

The Minimalists is a blog run by two men, Ryan Nicodemus and Joshua Fields Millburn, who have chosen to live minimalistic lifestyles. In 2011, Millburn quit his six-figure salary job in pursuit of a new, more fulfilling lifestyle. It is here that he began approaching life from a more minimalistic mindset. He now supports himself as a full-time writer. All that said, Millburn is actually a writer without a college degree. To some, this may mean he lacks the needed credibility. This concern is addressed on their blog by their choice to include a brief bio about themselves as writers at the top of every page. This bio demonstrates their ethos to the readers through their mentioning of all the places their writing has been featured, such as, ABC, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. The Minimalists blog utilizes unique wording, a subjective writing style, and clean formatting to focus on their personal attempts to change their lifestyles and to share these changes in a simple, effective, and educating way.

One main choice the authors of this blog have made is in calling of their blog posts essays. They explain this choice by saying that they did not know of the term blog post when they first started writing. Millburn elaborates on this choice saying, “We stuck with calling them essays... because we believed it better categorized what we were writing. The word essay derives from the French infinitive essayer, ‘to try’ or ‘to attempt,’ and we were writing about the changes we were attempting to make in our lives.” This choice, although missed by many, clearly showcases their intent for their blog. By sharing their own life choices and experiences, they hope to inspire others to embark upon the same path.

The post titled "Not Busy, Focused" is written by Joshua Fields Millburn. Millburn writes mainly from a personal and belief-centered point of view. Within this essay, Millburn shows his evolution of thought that stems from Henry David Thoreau’s words, “It is not enough to be busy. The question is: what are we busy about?” Millburn adapts the quote to the say the following, “It is not enough to be busy. The question is: what are we focused on?” To some, this distinction between busy and focused may be minimal, but to Millburn, he believes so strongly in the distinction he has taken the time to write and post about it. He has found living a focused life to work best for him and his frame of mind is evident within all of his writing. In this essay, he utilizes the first person pronoun "we" along with the second person pronoun "you". This contributes to his subjective type of writing; his posts are not to inform the reader of various approaches to topics but to educate the reader on the one he has selected.

Overall, the blog is simple in design. The authors have chosen to display the blog in black and white and include only a single picture with each post. In addition, there are no ads across the site. This choices reflect their aim of leading a simple life. They keep the focus on the ideas they are presenting, rather than the flashiness of a blog. This contributes to the blog’s clarity; no outside sources are present to distract the reader. As authors, these two men are passionate about making significant and original contributions to their domain, namely, the disciplines involved in the living of a minimalist life.

In contrast, if the authors had chosen to create a blog space filled with outside sources and many images and other media, this would have directly contradicted the message they are striving to convey. Readers would be sent mixed signals, those readers well-versed in the minimalistic lifestyle and those exploring it for the first time. This blog would appeal to both types of readers due to the content ranging from the personal journeys of the authors to the writings that dive deeper into minimalistic habits and lifestyle approaches.

By sharing their life journeys over the past few years, Nicodemus and Millburn have created a simple yet effective platform for their writing. Every post is intentional and original; their writing is constantly evolving. The simplicity and unique choices employed on The Minimalists blog help create a space that is a visual representation of the minimalistic ideas being presented within.

“I believe the meaning of life is growth and contribution. If whatever I’m doing 
doesn’t serve one—or both—of these things, then it’s a waste of time. 
Each year I grow; the more I grow, the more I have to give.” 

-JFM