8 Reasons Why You Should Start Blogging at University

Improving your writing

When you blog regularly you will start to learn how to write succinctly; an important skill for essay writing. You will establish efficient methods of researching and criticising information. You never want to spend too long writing a blog post and the more you write, the faster you become – a crucial skill in your busy final year.

Understanding your topic

People have different learning styles.  I would submit that anyone can learn from writing about their topic, however.  They say that you don’t understand something until you can explain it to a six year old, blogging forces you to write in a way that is accessible to all and as a result you discover just how well you know what you’re talking about.

Early (and brutal) feedback

Your lecturers are a lot nicer than your friends and the internet. This shouldn’t put you off though. The feedback you receive about your writing will enable you to edit it in your essay before submission, which could push you up over a grade boundary … worth the possible brutality!

Reflection

A blog can act as a really useful archive of your work, which can be easily used as a basis of reflection and growth; vital for securing that graduate position.

You’ll teach yourself a web-based platform

The world is moving to digital, you can’t stop it.  You are going to stand out to employers if you can demonstrate that you can learn to use a digital platform, regardless of your industry. Which leads neatly onto the next point…

Building your CV

Think like an employer for a second, do you shortlist the graduate, or the graduate who has been blogging about their subject for 2-3 years? Having an online presence – even if no-one reads it – will make you infinitely more attractive to employers.

Networking

After you’ve started blogging for a while, you will start to learn who else blogs about the same subject and you’ll start to build an online network of people. You never know what can come of having contacts, the old saying goes ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know’.

You might make some money

Google AdWords allows you to easily make money from your blog.  There are pros and cons of using it, but it might pay for a packet of pasta* every now and again.

*(I’m sorry, that student stereotype will always exist)

How do I get started?

Pick a blogging platform, Blogger and WordPress are both really popular and simple to use.  They both have countless articles from other bloggers on how to get the most out of them too. If you have a University of Brighton email address, you can get a free edublog, which is powered by WordPress and has a brighton.ac.uk address.

With that said, you may want to think about what your subject is, for example an art student may find it more beneficial to use a platform like Pinterest.

Written by Zac Hill, 2014 graduate, BSc(Hons) Business Management with Placement, Brighton Business School. Find Zac online at This is All or connect on LinkedIn.