The two blogs I am reviewing are The Mahatma X Files and Thoughts.com. Mahatma X Files is a blog by a Social Psychology Professor in Oklahoma.

Mahatma X Files

Thoughts.com

The Mahatma X Files blog is described as "Musings on all things political, as well as jazz, poetry, haiku, Bokononism, and whatever else happens to be on my mind." True to the description, the topics were very eclectic but I focused more on the political entries. The site itself seems visually confusing because there are so many other links and pictures, etc. They all relate and seem relevant but there are just so many directions that one is easily overwhelmed.

I found his writing to be easy to follow, with a logical flow and well supported arguments. Another element that I really liked was that all commentary by others that we wrote about was offset in text boxes so that you could easily distinquish between his writing and someone else's.

His style was distinquishable from normal journalistic writing because he went in depth to discuss current events, and true to his social psychology background, he discussed the background and consequences of the events and issues he was writing about. He also explains the viewpoints that are contrary to his own. This is an excellent approach to persuading others to your viewpoint. 1) It shows that you know and understand the opposing position. 2) It allows you to explain exactly what you agree with and disagree with. 3) You can defend your position even better by showing the flaws in the other arguments. While his blog writing is not academic writing, it is clearly written with academic principles in mind.

The other blog, Thoughts.com is, for the most part, an on-line diary for anyone to read. The posts are entirely random, as evidenced by the tag lists: Blog Broken Heart Children Christian Christianthoughts Christmas Cutting Dating Death Depression Family Friends Friendship Fun Funny God Health Heartbreak Incest Jesus Kids Life Love Matthyew Fritch Music Ngentot Pain Parents Philosophy Poem Poetry Politics Pro Ana Random Relationships Religion Sad School Sex Story Suicide Survey Test Thoughts Truth Twilight Unemployment Virtual Women Work

Contributors range from what appear to be professional writers to middle school girls sharing the drama of their day in the cafeteria. There do not appear to be any similarities between the subjects, contributors or writing styles from thoughts.com to Mahatmas X Files.