It was a thrilling journey to discover what is inside the blog EFL Notes. As I barely had any previous experience with blogging or bloggers’ posts, I initially stumbled to comprehend the embedded purposes behind the contents and navigation tools. When my primary period of astonishment was over, I gradually started to realize the power of blogging as well as its mesmerizing utilities in projecting writers’ thoughts and presenting informative reflections for the purpose of facilitating the readers with the best possible knowledge by employing the best possible modes (like written texts, images, audios, videos and more!).
Organization and Layout
The mentioned blog is not organized based on the classical concepts of providing the blogger’s name in the heading and signposting all relevant tags on the homepage. Many topics are hidden under the Menu and some topics are signposted under different threads like hot off the noggin, posts IM diggin, posts U digging, eat me, and the like. In this regard, a comparison with other blogs may be useful to understand key issues related to organization and layout. For instance, Sam Shepherd and Sandy Millin’s blogs follow a comparatively simpler organizational pattern and a clearer layout which helps the readers to find out any topic very easily. In this regard, the following screenshots would be useful to locate differences in organization and layout among the mentioned three blogs:
 |
| EFL Notes |
 |
| Sam Shepherd's blog |
 |
| Sandy Millin’s blog |
Contents and Features
The posts of EFL Notes are featured in categories as diverse as cognitive linguistics, applied linguistics, logical positivism, English grammar, tech-skills and what not! Moreover, the writer reported on different studies conducted on various disciplines like cognitive semantics, collocation, corpus/corpora and more. Not only that, the posts also disseminate technical knowledge like labeling pictures and creating interactive transcripts for audio and video. One interesting feature of the posts is the employment of a formal citation and reference pattern like that of academic papers. Besides, several audios, videos, and images are embedded into the posts which make the relevant contents more informative, authentic, practical, and workable.
Ease of Use and Navigation
Sometimes I became so overwhelmed by too many topics, sub-topics, tags, and labels that I almost lost my way through the reading. Therefore, for me, it was not that easy to navigate through EFL Notes. Moreover, it was also a bit challenging for me to discover under which tag or label I could find introductory information about the blog or the blogger.
Audience
The blog seems to address the interests of language teachers, applied linguists, and ELT practitioners. In some of the posts, the comments are interactive and awakening.
Summary
The blog EFL Notes is a professional one and the writer is also an expert blogger. Therefore, there are many practical things that can be learned about incorporating a professional touch into a blog. Moreover, in the crowd of several blogs and posts, Mura Nava, the writer of EFL Notes, shows how we can add our own voice as presented in the following marked labels:
 |
| EFL Notes |
Again, this blog presents a good example of embedding images, audios, and videos at the appropriate places without overwhelming the readers with too many of those. Overall, the blog shows diversity not only in offering a wide range of subject matters to be explored but also in organizing the layout with an authentic touch from the writer.
Finally, for a novice blogger like me, some
initial blogging tips can be really helpful in selecting and shaping the
primary concepts of writing and organizing the contents of blog posts. Here is
a video which you may find useful:
.png)
