The schema of the edutainment blog proved difficult for me to use in my writing process. Do to the lack of required elements built into the schema, I was often unsure of what I should include in each section of the blog post. I began writing my post within XML and composed my entire first draft in that manner, leaving many errors in the document unaddressed at the time. I was more focuses on determining the specific content that I wanted to discuss in the post, and did not really focus on what elements in the schema each part of the blog best represented.
I didn’t find the schema constraining, but I felt very unsure about how to use it most effectively. I was surprised when errors started popping up as I did not believe certain elements were required in each section. I have since gone back and am working to address those issues. I have since decided to write my post in a word document to decide how I want to organize it and will then work to incorporate it into the existing schema. I believe that writing it this way will allow my post to have better flow and determine which scientific information is necessary to include.
Reading my peer’s post and his peer review of my own work really helped me determine what I needed to do to improve my own blog entry. Leo first determined what content he wanted to include in his post and I realized I should have created an outline outside of XML, to determine how in depth I wanted to discuss the mechanics of solar panels. I also have yet to find visuals to go alongside my explanations and know I need to include them in my final draft.
I think the schema could be made clearer by listing what elements are required in each section, and those that are optional. Using a schema I did help develop proved much more difficult as I did not have a great understanding of the specific elements in the schema. I was unsure how the schema should be constructed and how the optional elements in the background and answer sections were usually arranged. I think a more careful study of the schema before I started writing would have been very helpful to me in my writing process, instead of doing it in the reverse order.
- List required elements under each section/add a place within the schema to make it clearer.
- add clearer definitions to each of the optional element to help the writers understand how they are typically used and in what order
