Sunday, February 6, 2011

Week 5 (January 31- February 6)



Finding stuff to write about isn’t really difficult for me. In fact I rather like the idea of finding different things to write about. However, do my readers just want random information? NO. and this is what chapter 11 of Price and Price’s Hot Text is really hitting on. You are writing for the reader and not the other way around. Engaging the readers in your writing, answering their questions and writing in a style that they can understand is a way of keeping readers.
The way in which Price and Price are explaining genres and websites is to make it idiot proof. Let me explain, by idiot proof I mean incredibly easy to navigate. Help should be offered where needed, information should be explained and if you need someone’s information that should be explained as well. Embedding links and hypertext to explain your idea’s is a great way to keep the audience coming back because they know they can get their information and it will have reliable sources, which, are proven through the links.

Main lesson: Customer first. Make them understand everything, and if they don’t, HELP THEM!

The move to electronic writing
How cool would it have been if we were able to go back in time and see what life would be like with out electronic means of writing? Originally, as Bolter says, people wrote on 25 foot long pieces of papyrus. There weren’t mass produced books, no one had the option of continually reading and rereading books. People had the option to listen to a writer read his book. Now we have books printed in mass, we have encyclopedia’s and we have online everything. I think it would be safe to say that the digital age is here to stay.


I WENT TO THE LIBRARY!  

Like Bolter was saying in chapter 5, there has been so much change since the beginning of time and the act of writing, reading, and the distribution of texts.

I went to the Weldon Library yesterday and went to the 2nd floor found one of the larger books, around 700 pages, picked it up, cracked it open and took a wiff. From the Sex and the City movie, I am a lot like Carrie. She uses the public library and takes out books and just loves the smell – as do I. While the smell might be mould there is something about the old pages that really turns my crank.
Then I went through all the steps it would take to produce a book that was produced in the 1800s. A person would either have to conduct the research himself/herself or, find another book that had already done the research and figure out facts. The book would have to be written, sent to a publisher, be printed, distributed, and then sent to the library. Libraries weren’t always categorized the way they are now. The Dewey Decimal system wasn’t invented until 1876 and has since been greatly modified. Needless to say, I feel our society has become increasingly lazy and innovative. Thusly we have to do things with the least effort possible… aka use the internet for everything (at least this is the way I feel about most of the Western culture) 

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