Favorite meaningful blogging strategy

After reviewing the 14 steps to a meaningful student blog, I first note that all of the steps are very important and crucial to creating a true blog. However, the one that stuck out the most to me was number 11: Don't Grade. Maybe it's just because I was always graded on everything that I wrote, but I just don't feel that students' free thoughts and opinions should be graded. Yes, grammar and language should be emphasized on during class time; however, no student should receive a "b" or "c" just because they have terrible spelling but really good content. I feel that allowing students to freely express thoughts and opinions and know that they aren't being graded will encourage more critical thinking and allow those that are quiet to say anything they feel. It will bring out more expression, and people can learn more about others because no one is afraid of getting a bad grade for saying what is on their mind. I would have loved something like this in high school. I don't know if this would be an effective assessment, but it might be interesting giving students blogging tests, to get a better feel for what the students know.