The tapping of the keyboard fills the air as Genalena Nou, freshman in pre-business, writes about the events of the day on LiveJournal. Nou is one of many ISU students that write blogs.

Starting Feb. 1, student bloggers will have an opportunity to learn how to improve their blogs at “How to build a better blog,” a workshop that will be taught by Martin Teply, systems support specialist for the English department.

“Everybody’s got a narrative voice inside them, but a lot of times what I see when I look at blogs is basically a lot of laundry lists, shopping lists or what I did in school today,” Teply said.

“I think that’s necessary in a way that people are doing that, but in another way, I want to make blogs much more interesting for people to read than actually use it as more of a memoir, journal or a biography of what we do during life.”

Teply said during the workshop student will set up an account with either Blogger.com or LiveJournal.com.

The focus of the class, he said, is to make the mundane aspects of life, such as eating breakfast and going to class, into something people want to read.

“[Blogging] is taking what we see around us and putting it through our own canvas, our own cameras, our own narrative, and getting that voice and capturing it and putting it out there, and using our past history and our anecdotes, our family histories and things like that,” Teply said.

Nou said she believes blogging has become popular because it is easy to do, and it helps people connect with each other.

She said LiveJournal is her favorite blogging Web site because it allows members to protect their entries from unwanted readers, but it doesn’t send update reminders to bloggers as often as some other sites.

“I blog to record everyday life and to see what I have done and what I could build upon,” said Nou.

“It’s just something to let your emotions out.”

Although identity issues have become a growing concern, Teply said, there are many security features that keep blogs safe from inappropriate use.

Many blogging sites have a feature that allows members to narrow down their audience to invite only.

This feature reassures bloggers of control.

“As far as other people, I think part of it is maybe, with the blogging services, they’re almost anonymous by mass,” Teply said.

“Unless you know somebody’s name or screen name or whatever, to find somebody’s specific blog is a lot more difficult.”

Antonia Balvanz, freshman in philosophy, has had strangers read her blog and send comments, but said she is not concerned by their intentions. Balvanz’s favorite blogging site is GreatestJournal.com.

However, not many of her friends are members of the site, so she writes on Xanga.com often as well.

“People use their computers a lot, so they just write on there instead of paper,” said Meredith Little, freshman in chemical engineering.

Little said she enjoys blogging because it’s a way of recording the events of the day and it feels good to write what she is thinking.

She said MySpace.com is her favorite place to blog, because members can do much more than blog.

Teply said the way writers present the world around them determines whether their blog will be read.

“I think, for the most part, people want to create a daily journal of their lives they can share with their family, friends or strangers,” Teply said.