Question of the Week: How do you manage your blog voice?

First I want to thank George for suggesting that I prompt students with a question each week. This seems like a great idea. Thinking about my distractedness in class yesterday brings to mind a general principle of life:

We are always on view.

It's tempting to think that we can just be ourselves in social, professional, and academic settings, but it's just not so. We are always on stage, always on display, always potentially being scrutinized. (Facebook candor provides an endless set of lessons on this issue.) By its presence and accessibility, this blog is a public document. We all, students and instructor, continue to build public presences through our postings and comments. Potential employers and professional references might very well chance on this blog.

This leads to my question of the week:

How do you manage your blog voice?

I don't want this question to limit topics: feel free to avoid it. But if you're stuck, this might be a place to start.

On the whole, the blog posts have had the feel of "weekly responses," resembling the kind of informal responses that might be submitted individually in a traditional class. Here's a reading; here's my response. Here's another reading; here's another response. As such, a number of them have the informality (one might say carelessness) of private writings, with little attention to formatting or style. There's nothing necessarily wrong with this approach: it's one way to proceed. And I'm not going to urge you to be more dialogical again -- you know where I stand. What I'd like this question to generate, rather, is a conversation about blogging versus "private" forms such as diaries. Informality can be a kind of voice, including inattention to error. However, if such informality is not deliberate, it runs the risk of mistaking a blog for a private forum.

Respond, or not, as you wish.