What is "Style" now???

What is style now? Throughout this course we have explored the concept of "style" and how it interacts with technology and affects our writing. We've studied some "style" guides that helped us to get a better understanding of the term "style". As we've all learned from our first blog entries, "Style" means many different things to different people. It also depends on the terms of which you are defining style - it could be fashion, interior decorating, writing and much more.

During this semester, style played a huge role in our writing projects. These projects explored how writing has evolved, the connections between words and images and how writing and style work together in the great world wide web. Each of these projects, although somewhat different in their purpose, all involved some aspect of "style".

As we near the end of this course, I still think style has a lot to do with personal opinion and individuality. We learned about "proper" or "correct" writing styles from Williams, Strunk & White and even McCloud, but I also think that real style is a happy medium between what you learn in books such as the styleguides, and a little bit of your own personal flair.

"The Most Important" Web Style Rule

I liked SpiderPro's "DO Use the first screen" rule. I find it very annoying when you visit a sight looking for specific information, and you have to navigate through three to four different pages or use the search command for the sight to even get close to the information you needed. For example, at work, I have to reference a website for ACLASS - an accreditation lab for ISO/IEC 17025 (Quality Control). In order to find the guides that I need that are listed on this sight, I have to usually search for them because there are no quick links on the first page that offer easy navigation. When quick links and sitemaps are presented on the first page, it saves the reader time and prevents them from straying to another website where the information will be easier to find. In revising my website, I kept it simple and included links to my essays and blog at the top of the first screen.

Connecting Paper & Style

Creating or styling web pages and creating written/printed documents have many similarities and differences. Both web style and paper style aim to create a legible, well organized document. In order to do this, the types of backgrounds, whether paper or background on a web page, should be simple and contrast nicely with what ever color text, ink or pencil you are using. A busy background on a web page makes it difficult to concentrate on the text. Using black paper with grey or blue ink would also be difficult to read. The right font size is also important in both paper style and web style. Too small of text or print is difficult to read, whether on screen or on paper. Too large, or all caps text is distracting and often causes misinterpretation.

Creating documents using a web page is very different than creating something on paper. Paper documents are limited to basic text with simple pictures that can lack quality when printed. Web documents have almost limitless possibilities. Graphics, videos and links to other documents can be added and the size/amount of information that can be included on a web is much greater than the confines of paper.

McCloud Blog #2

I chose Beths comic, Ninety-Five. This is an online comic about a father, who apparently travels a lot, coming home from a trip and then reading his daughter a bedtime story. The little girl is looking at the pictures in the book and telling her father what those images mean to her. When the picture of a telephone is presented, she identifies it with the word "daddy". This is an example of interdependent combination or words and images/pictures, according to McCloud. Interdependent combinations of words and pictures is when "words and pictures go hand in hand to convey an idea that neither could convey alone" (155). At first, we can't see the image of the telephone - the online comic is interactive, you have to click on the pink panel and the telephone (or better the picture of the telephone) is then revealed, and it's only once we can see the picture, that we understand the idea behind the comic and the reason the daughter is saying "Daddy!".

Whose Mind is it Anyway

I chose a comic from McCloud's The Morning Improv section on his site. It's a lengthy comic (9 pages) about a homeless guy in Boston who talks to himself. What I liked right from the start is the way McCloud wrote the way people from Boston speak ( I have a few friends from Boston - anyone who has talked to someone from Boston knows what I am talking about). This comic should really be read out loud for the full effect. The second panel says "Yeah? So dress warmah, ya pansy! I like this time a' yee-ah" The main character is Sean, the homeless guy. It starts out with him having a conversation with himself. He sees a girl on a park bench and his other "self" is telling him to go talk to her and he is arguing - with himself - that the girl won't talk to him. He finally gets up the nerve to go talk to her and she is actually nice to him. Turns out that she is homeless too - She just got to Boston a couple days ago - although her accent is identical to Sean's. Her name is Sophie and Sean talks to for a while then convinces her to let him walk her to a homeless shelter for women for the night because it's going to get cold that night. She agrees and they talk as they walk. Sean's other "Self" seems to be gone or quiet when Sophie is near. Once he drops her off, he begins his conversation with the voice in his head again.



The comic was interesting - funny at times, sad at others. It was like a short story - not what I would consider a comic to be like. Check the comic out here: http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/mi/mi-25/mi-25-1.html

I thought some parts of this comic could have been omitted. There was a lot of one on one conversation between Sean and his "mind" that seemed to add material that took away from the "less is more"(83) theory. As McCloud states, "...finding the balance between too much and too little is crucial to comics creators the world over"(85). The author of "whose mind is it anyway" could have still had a great comic if he left out some of the overly descript conversations between Sean and his "mind". I realize most of these conversations were crucial to the point of the comic - but I believe in the "less is more" and think less would have had a better effect on the comic as a whole.

What Others Are Saying...

This was a fun assignment because I love to look at other student's blogs and read their writings. I think the general thoughts on S&W and Williams were that both books had effective points, yet for college students in an upper level english class, William's advice was more beneficial. I thought Jennifer's post on What others were saying was a great post and I especially like her end comments about the differences between S&W and Williams as far as beginning a paragraph with a topic sentence. Even though I thought the Strunk & White book was an easier read, this point, or rule (Rule #9), is unclear and much better written in William's book, in my opinion. As I write that sentence, I wonder if it is an un-concise sentence of 20 words or more...LOL. Although Jennifer thought it was more clear as explained by S&W, I appreciated her comments on the same "rule", I just felt that Williams, while "lengthening" the point, explained the argument more clearly.
Rebecca's blog also caught my eye because I am constantly wondering about my correct use of it's and its. The opening chapter in S&W was the most informative to me because it has been a while since I've studied the Elementary Rules of Usage (Third Edition, S&W). This was a great refresher for me - the possessive singular of nouns especially. In her blog, Rebecca states, "I absolutely hate when anyone writes the contraction "it's" when they really mean the possessive "its". I was so happy to see that handled right at the very beginning as being a commonly made mistake, and addressing how it should be corrected". It's great that she is comfortable with the difference, but I think a lot of people struggle with it - or it wouldn't be the first topic in S&W. Although I think S&W's book is somewhat elementary and basic (redundant??) in its rules, when speaking in terms of perfect writing, as I think both books are promoting, its a nice refresher.

Strunk & White vs. Williams

Williams book was a much more difficult read than Strunk & White but I feel Williams was a more appropriate writing guide for college students than S&W. Keeping in mind that I have the third version of S&W, I feel the book is a helpful refresher of some basic grammatical rules, but it is somewhat outdated. I think Williams gives a perfect comparison of the two books in his opening statement when he says that his book explains how to write more clearly. I think S&W more or less tells us to write more clearly. It doesn't explain how to write more clearly as well as Williams book does.

Williams book is longer and therefore gives an impression that it will be more in depth. When looking at the main chapters in each book, even the titles are more clear and descriptive in Willaims than in S&W. The third edition of S&W has five chapters with titles such as Elementary Rules of Usage and A Few Matters of Form. Willaims has ten chapters and the titles are simple and self explanatory -- Clarity, Concision, and Length. While I'm able to understand what each of the chapters of both books covers because I read them, at first glance, Williams titles are more clear.

At first, I thought I'd like S&W's book better because it seemed short and to the point. After reading both books, I like Williams book, even though it was a tougher read. It offers more helpful writing guidelines for a college student in upper level english courses. I liked the chapters on coherence and concision the best. Concision offered great point about redundancy. This is one area where I get discouraged when reading. I have an early American Lit course as well and find it frustrating when the author uses useless words. His point is much better understood if redundant pairs, modifiers and categories are omitted. I also thought the section on "Not the Negative" as helpful. It's so much easier and better understood when just one word is used instead of 3 or more.