Article Summaries

Common Visual Design

Scrolling through, this article was definitely more appealing to the eye than was the moving to the public article, however this article was more difficult to understand due to the dense and intricate language used. From what I could get from this article, it was mainly breaking down the different areas of the visual blog and using a study to see what areas bloggers were concentrating more on and which areas were being untouched. The authors of this article definitely made their point that bloggers are not using all the aspects of the visual design on blogs and that this is due to the fact that they are uncomfortable with customization. They say that as the blogging world increases in popularity, the lack of visual customization will still remain the same. The authors came to this conclusion by taking up a study of 154 different weblogs and collecting what percentages of these weblogs customized a certain aspect of their blog. They say that after looking at the blogs most bloggers are not making substantial changes structurally. Weblogs are supposed to be a way to express your individuality and creativity, yet most people are not accepting the full range of benefits of the blogging world. In the past, blogs were mainly used just for text but in society today, this is changing. Weblogs are no longer used just to post large quantities of text, it is more about expressing what you want to say and your personality in a visual way. The authors feel that the majority of the public is stuck in the past and needs to move forward creatively to keep up with the changing times.

Moving To The Public

Moving to the public was a fairly easy to read article and the authors tried to use bullet points and highlighted boxes to break up their article. This article was mainly about incorporating the use of blogs into a student’s curriculum. The authors feel that by exposing children to a more public style of writing they will be more perceptive to how they write due to the larger audience their writing it for. The larger audience will not only force the students to be more perceptive and careful in their writing, but it will also be more of a support system for them. By students being able to put their work out for the public to read and for others to be able to comment on their work, they will gain more confidence in their writing. The more that a student has to write publically, the less anxiety they will have about publishing their work. Also, it will give students the chance to comment on and be supportive with other students writing, which will help them learn how to collaborate with other people.

 Another point that the authors of this article brought up was that through the use of the blogs, students will learn at an earlier age how to use a blog and learn more about the internet as a whole.  Since blogs are not as formal as a regular paper format, students are able to be more creative in their work and it inspires a sense of individuality in their writing style. Their work can be their own, they don’t have to transform it to fit the typical essay style and therefore they can create a voice beyond their fellow classmates. The authors of this article feel that a blog is merely a great tool to connect students to the public, with one another, and with themselves to find their individuality.