ATTENTION - Hot Text
Finding a website that has the ability to catch you're attention is definitely a difficult task. As Price and Price say on page 81 "Simplicity saves attention" and this couldn't be more true. Yes, while flashy websites tend to be more eye catching there is no flow through the website that readers are able to follow. I find that I tend to get lost in the flashiness of websites if there are too many distractions. But when a website offers a flow to it I can certainly navigate it better. Take this site for example. It is cleanly organized with the posts coming through the middle of the screen and if someone needs to find a post there is an index on the side. There is the ability for the site to get more complicated with more photos. However, the melding of photos and textual contend is a fine art.
The Mix of Text and Photos - Writing Space
Integrating text and visuals has a way of emphasizing a piece of written text. Hypertext can also link photos to other sites or the text to other photos. Having photos in text breaks up the text and offers an increase in visual appeal. The most important thing is to make the text and visual, pictorial, or audio/visual content have a common theme and not vary in content. The linking of text and picture content needs to offer a stronger argument than what you are making the picture and the text has to compliment each other and make the argument increasingly stronger.
Sports Writing
I am in sports writing class and recently had to do a story about the men's volleyball team winning against Windsor on Friday night. The content of the story discussed the abilities of the team member and which ones excelled over the other players. I feel that having photographical content would greatly enhance and honor the players who did exceptionally well. This is why I enjoy reading bio's about players at Western who have had outstanding performances and actually know who they are.
When I write anything for the web I feel that adding photos or videos will grab the attention of the readers.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Hypertext
Price and Price have very set ideas that online writing and writing for books and print media are two very different things. As they said the writing in print on pages is 2500 pixels where on screen, which is much harder, to read is only 75. When writing in print and on the computer people find that the more trusty worthy writing (according to Price and Price) is in print. They say that anyone can write on the Internet but there are less people who have the ability to get published.
I had no idea what hypertext was until I read about it in Bolter. Hypertext is the highlighted text within text on the web that someone can click to get to a related link. I think that Wikipedia has to be one of the best examples of the hypertext that Bolter is discussing in this chapter. “Writing as we think” is what hypertext allows us to do, when we are writing down a thought and don’t explain the original thought it is then, that hyper text has the ability to swoop in and make our thinking full. I mean full as in we will be able to understand concepts fully.
I personally am a very linear thinking and once I get on a track I need to stick to it, this is why hypertext and linking is an increasingly desirable tool. The adaption of hypertext into all forms of writing offer an increased understanding of concepts that can be linked. Above the highlighted words are examples of hypertext. I find that when I learn new things I have to practice to fully understand.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
From the Beginning
The books that I am going to be talking about through the semester are Writing Space by David Bolter, and Hot Text by Jonathan and Lisa Price.
So far I have read up to chapter two in both texts.
Writing Space talks about the development of writing and the changes that it has endured over its existence from the beginning of time.
Writing is truly one of the most changing elements of human existence. Every few hundred years, and even more so now, we are experiencing a change in how people communicate. Almost every form of communication has to do with written text. Cave drawings, written words in books, carved in stone, or today's digital writing on computers, the internet and phone texting.
Remediation is what Bolter would refer to in these changes. I would have to say that my FAVORITE remediation of writing in the western world would have to be the move from paper writing to online writing or even just the ability to type rather than print on paper.
I have troubles writing with a pen because I could never figure out how to hold the pen properly, but with typing on a keyboard I am able to type much faster than a lot of people can write.
I feel this is remediation because it is a whole new form offered to me dealing with textual communication. Yes it is still text that we read and write but it just offers a new form of writing (typing) and reading (off a screen rather than a paper page).
Digital technology according to Bolter is "one of the more traumatic remediations in the history of Western writing," because it is such a dramatic move. Let me explain further, writing for the past 2000 recorded years has been in pictographs on cave walls, or writing on papyrus, or in libraries and done by monks. But writing digitally opens up a world of possibilities, so many more people have the opportunities to express themselves.
Writing has changed as time has changed. I wonder where writing will move next?
So far I have read up to chapter two in both texts.
Writing Space talks about the development of writing and the changes that it has endured over its existence from the beginning of time.
Writing is truly one of the most changing elements of human existence. Every few hundred years, and even more so now, we are experiencing a change in how people communicate. Almost every form of communication has to do with written text. Cave drawings, written words in books, carved in stone, or today's digital writing on computers, the internet and phone texting.
Remediation is what Bolter would refer to in these changes. I would have to say that my FAVORITE remediation of writing in the western world would have to be the move from paper writing to online writing or even just the ability to type rather than print on paper.
I have troubles writing with a pen because I could never figure out how to hold the pen properly, but with typing on a keyboard I am able to type much faster than a lot of people can write.
I feel this is remediation because it is a whole new form offered to me dealing with textual communication. Yes it is still text that we read and write but it just offers a new form of writing (typing) and reading (off a screen rather than a paper page).
Digital technology according to Bolter is "one of the more traumatic remediations in the history of Western writing," because it is such a dramatic move. Let me explain further, writing for the past 2000 recorded years has been in pictographs on cave walls, or writing on papyrus, or in libraries and done by monks. But writing digitally opens up a world of possibilities, so many more people have the opportunities to express themselves.
Writing has changed as time has changed. I wonder where writing will move next?
What to do, what to do?
Direct from the Prof's mouth!
Every week you will be expected to write a web journal entry that does
twothings. Each web journal post should
1) summarize most important ideas from the the two readings
2) offer a brief meditation on a topic related to the readings
• Length: 3-5 paragraphs
• Style: Informal but concise, elegant, and error-free
• Location: You may use WebCTor you may start a journal
on Wordpressor Blogspot, but no support will be
provided, sorry. (If you Choose a weblog you must send
me your name and URL. The blog must
be set to “PUBLIC” so I can access it)
• The weekly web journal topic will be
provided on the weekly PDF slide Web journal.
This is what I will be doing as assigned by my professor.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
My First Post
First off I wanted to introduce myself:
My name is Laura, I am a forth year student at the University of Western Ontario. I am taking a major in Media, Information, and Technoculture (technology culture), and a minor in writing.
The purpose for me to write this blog is because it is a requirement for the course that I am taking called URL: Writing for the Web.
I've decided to do a blog rather than a private journal because I feel that if I am taking a course about writing for the web, that I should start writing on the web rather than keeping it private. I don't want to divulge my whole life on the Internet, but a glimpse into my life isn't something I am opposed to.
As for my style choice, red happens to be my favorite colour. I enjoy having something look simple, and have the words be the thing that jumps off the page. I took a blogging class in my second year of university that taught me how to write for blogs, and how to design a blog to attract people, and I know that I will need to add more photos and interesting things through out the process of my blogging semester. My font style is georgia because for some reason I find it to be easy to read since reading off a computer screen is hard enough to deal with.
I look forward to posting more during the semester. Talk to you soon.
LD
As for my style choice, red happens to be my favorite colour. I enjoy having something look simple, and have the words be the thing that jumps off the page. I took a blogging class in my second year of university that taught me how to write for blogs, and how to design a blog to attract people, and I know that I will need to add more photos and interesting things through out the process of my blogging semester. My font style is georgia because for some reason I find it to be easy to read since reading off a computer screen is hard enough to deal with.
I look forward to posting more during the semester. Talk to you soon.
LD
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