From a young age, I have always been fascinated by history. I love watching documentaries, reading books and articles, and writing stories analyzing societies and events of the past that shaped the current world. In my search for interesting blogs that discussed epic happenings and individuals in history, I came across a blog titled Badass of the Week. This site is focused on the subject of historical figures who accomplished amazing, or “badass”, things in their lifetimes. Through the use of a casual tone, funny comparisons to modern day life, bombastic language, and sensational topics, Badass of the Week makes learning about history a greatly enjoyable experience.

When I first read an essay on the Badass blog, the aspect that popped out to me was the use of a very casual and informal style. In previous history blogs and essays I had read, passages were written in a bland scholarly format, mentioning facts and not being vivid or descriptive. Badass of the Week defies this stereotype and addresses the reader directly in a conversational tone, and includes relevant and clever comparisons of life in the annals of history to the present day world. Here is a sentence from one of the blogs that illustrates this point:

“The story of Taksin the Great dates back to the 1760s, at a time when Thailand was known as Siam, Myanmar was known as Burma, and automobiles were known as horses.”

In this one sentence, the author gives historical context for the post, uses parallel structure to make the writing flow, and includes a funny comparison of automobiles and horses in the sentence. This style of writing keeps the reader engaged with the inclusion of humor in otherwise boring topics for the common person who isn’t a history buff.

Another aspect of the writing is the bombastic and often deliberately rude language. Here is another example taken from the same blog post:

“Thoroughly impressed, the Burmese King apparently offered Nai a deal – if you can beat eight more of my men, one after the other, I’ll give you your freedom.  Nai agreed, then proceeded to Black Ninjas the Burmese fighters, kicking their balls through their skulls one after the other until he was surrounded by a giant pile of sweaty shirtless unconscious dudes.  The Burmese King held up his portion of the deal, letting Nai go free and offering him a gift – either a big stack of cash or two hot Burmese wives.  Nai chose the wives, saying that it was a lot easier to make money than it was to meet wives. ”

Throughout this excerpt, the author uses expletives, graphic imagery, and frank language to make events sound extremely dramatic and to convince the reader into keeping reading. I don’t personally want to be as crass, but I would like to include more humor, imagery, and creative writing in my blog posts.

In addition to the writing style, the subject matter of the Badass of the Week blog is extremely interesting. The men and women who are covered in blogs all have done sensational things, for both good and evil, including defeating vast numbers of enemies in combat, using brilliant military tactics, and surviving intense situations in the wild. As far as formatting goes, the site looks like a virtual factbook with “files” on each of the interesting subjects, adding more character to an already flamboyant and fabulous website.

For my website, I would like to use a similar conversational and attention grabbing tone to hook readers and make boring subjects interesting. I will not go as far as Badass of the Week with the language and crude imagery, but I want to include humor and drama in my posts as well. Also, I noticed the site includes pictures to liven up the blogs, something I have been doing as well, and I plan to continue the practice. Overall, I have a lot to learn from Badass of the Week and other history blogs, and I am looking forward to implementing some of these new changes to my writing style.

Website URL: http://www.badassoftheweek.com/index.cgi