Style is the method, the mode and the means of communicating through text. The creator of the text considers these attributes of communication when making choices on how they will express their message. The decisions they make result in the style of the piece. Style is driven by the content of the message and the audience that it addresses.  The creator of the text considers these when making his choices on how the text will be designed and what method he will use to communicate.

No matter what choice the creator of the text makes as to design and method of communication, there are certain conventions that must be attended to in order to maximize the effectiveness of his communication. In writing there are grammar rules and style principles that improve the readability of the written word; with images there is color, perspective, balance, focus and proportion that are used to draw attention to meaning.

Though style may seem to be largely a matter of semantics and syntax, it is ultimately the creator who puts his own bit a self into the work that makes it a unique message. The finished product is a combination of the choices the creator of the text has made in all aspects of the work.  These choices are uniquely his own and come together as a creative expression of meaning.

This is the first class that I’ve taken where peer revision has been such a consistent part of the writing process. Our first revision was on Google Docs. The nature of the technology allowed us to get into the paper and comment on the writing style. Subsequent revisions were basically comments at the end of the paper. Here the advice was more geared toward ideas and flow issues accompanied by general issues about writing style.

After having peer revision incorporated as a regular part of the writing process, I really do see the value in it. Once students become comfortable with giving and receiving input on their writing, it begins to seem like less of an invasion on creativity and more of an opportunity to test concepts, as well as see how others have approached the topic.

Students often cringe at the prospect of writing projects as a means of inquiry or to document learning. Though this process is important and should not be replaced it may be supplemented or at times replaced with other types of creative communicative endeavors that are supported by low bridge technologies. This is by no means a dumbing down of the curriculum, since such assignments require a level of problem solving in order to represent mastery of the content..

These types of projects engage students in new modes of creativity and expression and in doing so foster a sense of creativity that can lead to motivation. If properly implemented into the classroom, projects involving low bridge technologies can heighten the level of learning that takes place, by increasing the level of engagement students have with the subject matter. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is quoted in Daniel Anderson’s article, Low Bridge to High Benefits, as saying, “One needs to grow, to develop new skills, to take on new challenges to maintain a self concept as a fully functioning human being”(44).

Alexandra Juhasz in her article, Why Not Teach on YouTube, cites many limitations of YouTube as a medium for use in the classroom. However, if assignments are carefully crafted with these limitations in mind then assignments using technologies similar to, and including YouTube can be rewarding. Juhasz had structured her classroom to be entirely conducted within the confines of what YouTube has to offer. “All assignments had to be produced as YouTube comments or videos, all research had to be conducted within its pages , and all classes were taped and put on to YouTube”(1). To assume that this class structure could provide a fruitful experience does seem a little far reaching, especially, when considering YouTube as a research environment. Rarely do professors limit their classroom ideas to one text book or to one form of assessment or inquiry. Why then would a professor do that with a low bridge technology such as YouTube.

Overall low bridge technologies should be a strong consideration for incorporation into the classroom. Not only for the creativity, problem solving and motivation that they inherently bring with them, but because they are the way of the future. By giving students exposure to how these technologies are used to communicate ideas, they will be in a better position to respond to the messages they receive as a result of these technologies communication with them. It will also begin to develop the students skills in communicating using the technologies.

This is where writing has the upper hand. As a medium for transmitting knowledge writing promotes objectivity. Because the text is composed of a markings that do not represent anything specific in the physical world they promote objectivity. However, movies reproduce the physical world both in sound and moving images causing us to interpret the scene in terms of the reality it represents. Consequently, objectivity is removed from the messages in movies. These thoughts have their inception from the writing of Walter Ong.

When one considers movie making as a sequel to writing, one can understand that one of the basic technologies used to complete a movie is writing. But much more goes into the movie than the ideas of the script writer. Unlike a book or a poem that can be conceived in one mind and then communicated to many, the movie is a collaborative effort where the ideas in the script are interpreted by every individual that participates in the making of the movie, actors, producers, lighting, sound, costume and editor. What results from this synergy is usually different than the initial impressions of any one of the participants. In this respect it is the creative efforts of the movie making team that promotes objectivity, because each player on the team inputs their conceptual idea into the work. These ideas stemming from different sources come together to create the finished product. In this scenario, one could say that what is known, the finished product, is distanced from the knower, the individual ideas of those participants making the movie.

Unlike Debbie who doesn’t like to have her grammar errors corrected (she does a final run through at the end to clean those matters up), I really appreciate attention to those details, because I’m rather lame at grammar.

I think maybe it is better if peer revision is governed by assigned groups because then you are sure to get some feedback. My favorite method of peer revision for this class was Google Doc’s. I feel that the site is most efficient at allowing the reviser to put his comments near the point in question. This may lead to more thorough revision, because the revisor can input his comments as he reads.

Thanks to Debbie and Jordon who helped me out on the Visual Rhetoric Essay.

Bethany has done a wonderful job of first establishing that it is a comic. She sites McCloud’s definition, ” Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer” (20). But Bethany struggles with what kind of sequence transitionst McCloud uses in My Obsession with Chess.

She lists them as follows in her blog, citing McCloud’s book, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art ;

:type 1: moment-to-moment panel transitions,

type 2: action-to-action panel transitions,

type 3: subject-to-subject panel transitions,

type 4: scene-to-scene panel transitions,

type 5: aspect-to-aspect panel transitions,

and type 6: non-sequitur panel transitions (70-74).

According to my analysis the first three panels of the comic would be considered aspect-to-aspect transitions because they all support the description of a chess clock. I chose this transition type because according to McCloud this type of transition “bypassess time for the most part and sets a wandering eye on different aspects of the place, idea or mood(72). These panes explore the idea of what a chess clock is, how it works and how it’s used. Time does not transpire between the panels.

The next two panels depict subject-to-subject transitions. These types of transition take place within a scene or idea and require much reader involvement to render the transition meaningful. This scene in, My Obsession with Chess, shows McCloud’s brother at the chess board making a move and in the next scene he is swiftly putting a chess piece into a cup of coffee. The reader must supply the idea that the brother took his opponents chess piece then went to hit the clock but got the cup of coffee instead.

The alarm clock sequence is a great example of a moment to moment transition. This type of transition requires very little closure. This means that the reader need not supply his own interpretation, everything is spelled out minute by minute. In panel one the alarm clock buzzes, in panel 2 he reaches toward the clock. Panel three is divided into three pictures which show his hand over the clock, grabbing the clock and then turning it off. Panel 4 shows his hand pulling away.

There is so much in this comic, I can see why Bethany chose it for analysis. I highly recommend that you check it out along with Bethany’s blog.

Bethany’s blog http://bethanydfulton.wordpress.com/

My Obsession with Chess http://scottmccloud.com/1-webcomics/chess/chess.html

Porphyria’s Love is a unique comic created by Scott McCloud. It is a poem set to a series of sequential pictures that elevates the potential of “the comic” to a level of high art. Through the use of poetic structures simile, rhyme, meter, and sophisticated language, McCloud weaves a narrative poem that is dark and shocking. He accompanies the words with pictures that add to the drama and intensify the tension through their use of expressionism, representing emotions which are invisible through pictures and synaesthetics, appealing to the senses through pictures.

The narrative depicts Porphyria meeting her lover for the purpose of ending their relationship, because she does not want to be intimate with him. In a moment of passion the lover kills Porphyria, by choking her with her own hair. He then sits with her till morning, as her head rests upon his shoulder, thinking now he has her love.

The comic is not read from left to right but is read by following the trail left by a line that connects the panels. The line flow does have a definite pattern. It goes down, up and left, down, down, and right and down. The line is curvy and flowing giving it a Romantic feel. It divides the poem into stanzas of five lines, because after every five lines of the poem the line that connects the frame is configured into an ornate arrangement that somewhat resembles a paragraph mark.

McCloud uses his idea that “all lines carry with them an expressive potential”(124). In the first four panels of the comic, he uses abstract lines to set the somber stormy back ground of the poem, by depicting a stormy night. He also uses yellow wavy lines to portray Porphyria’s hair.

McCloud uses a variety of pictorial representations from the realistic to the very abstract. One panel is a solid red, and represents the dead Porphyria blushing under her lovers kiss. He uses icons to represent love and intimacy. The lover is always depicted abstractly and he is a very dark gray black. Porphyria is depicted from very realistic to very minimal lines.

McCloud uses expressionism to represent the invisible . Two of the panels picture ovaries. They are created through color on a black background. They are blurred to abstract them, and are colored like the sun’s deep orange and yellow, making them look hot. This is the center of the tension in the poem. Porphyria is leaving her lover because she does not want to give herself physically to him. Something that might be missed with only the verbal representation of the poem. The way they are represented in the comic intensifies the tension beyond any capacity for words alone.

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HarperCollins, 1994

The zoo will be opening a new attraction called Summers Neighborhood this summer. To emphasize the number of days left til it opens the designers have chosen a white font which is slightly larger than the surrounding font with a link underneath that is a bright blue font. This is the only place these font colors are used on the main part of the web page. There is some white font used on some of the icon links.

On the left hand side of the screen there is a pane that rotates through a series of pictures of some of the animals at the zoo. This is a narration of what the zoo has to offer in terms of the animals that are available for viewing. It tells the story of some of the things that can be seen at the zoo.

The icons and banner tags classify the information that can be retrieved by clicking on them. The banner tags use words to accomplish this, but the icons use both words and pictures to communicate the type of information that can be retrieved by clicking on them.

Pattern is also part of the web site. The banner and the footer create a pattern of color and design which, as I’ve said, frames and unifies the page. The footer contains yet another pattern of color that creates images of animals and a tree. Yet another pattern of color shows the continents. This communicates that the animals at the zoo are from around the world.

Grammar is one of the editing tasks, I always appreciate.

I still need to analyze some of the suggestions to see if I will indeed adopt the proposed solution or not. It could be that the passage was so unclear that they were on yet, a different wave length. What I will know though is that there is a problem with the section and some revision is necessary.

I believe that I’ve gotten better insight into the entire process by revising as well. I definitely learned some grammar. Thanks guys!

And a big THANK YOU TO

Bethany

Rose didn’t care for either of the books and I must agree they don’t make very good bed time stories. She says Williams gives “us what I like to call the Chinese water torture of style tips; droning on and on about the subtlest of nuances in style and giving page long “examples”.” No one can argue with that. I fell asleep several times reading the book and like Rose, I could not make heads or tails of the examples referring to, what not to do. They just didn’t make any sense to me. I wondered if he made them up or found them in a very poorly written essay. The sentences seemed more like long lists of unrelated words. That’s probably why I fell asleep. If I ever have insomnia I’ll pull out the book and read chapter one. On the same note when you consider The elements of Style who want’s to read 65 pages of dry rules complete with examples – boring.

Rose doesn’t say if she sees any value at all in the books, but I do, and that’s where I agree with Jordan. The books are good resources to refer to when writing or revising. His blog contained many of the same thematic threads as my blog did. The books serve different purposes. Strunk and White’s book is more of a quick reference for grammar and usage rules and Williams is a guide to help the reader make choices about how to use grammar and usage to arrive at clear and graceful writing. I’m not sure that I would assign the book to high school students though. An advanced class might be ready for some of the concepts in the book, but the teacher would have to break them down and explain them in simpler terms. Also, I’m not sure that they wrote the books for different reasons. I think they just had different notions as to what creates style in writing. I think the books sort of complete each other, so that with both we have a solid resource that will help us with different aspects of our writing