Oh, So That's Who You Are

For this post I want to reflect upon your responses to the cartoon “American River Ganges.”  Now, my point in asking you to respond to this cartoon was to illustrate how one can use the questions and concerns of readers to make decisions about how to focus a topic and how to generate content about that topic.  

To recap ideas I mentioned elsewhere, if a topic is too broad, researching it can be a nightmare as we confront an overwhelming amount of information.  In research, a focused topic can make the research easier, more efficient and more effective. By having you point to things that caught your attention or puzzled you, I was able to zero in on potential ways to focus my research.  

Second, a common issue for student writers is finding stuff to say (especially when required to meet a certain page length).  That’s when it’s especially tempting to keep the topic Big, because that would seem to guarantee that one can meet that page length.  Five page essay? No problem--I’ll just choose a Huge Topic like Poverty. There are literally millions of articles about that, so filling five pages will be a breeze.  Those five pages probably won’t be very good, but at least they’ll be filled. On the other hand, if we do something such as what I did with The American River Ganges, then we find out what readers need to know and want to know.  In other words, the readers are telling us what specific things we can write about. We’ll still be able to fill those five pages, but at least now we would be filling it with stuff that has a purpose, stuff that’s more focused.

Okay, so what jumps out at me when I take a look at your responses? And assuming I want to write about “The American River Ganges” with you as my readership, what do I need to focus on, what do I need to make sure I write about in order to engage with my readers?  (Remember, writing is about communication, and communication doesn’t happen unless readers understand AND care about what it is that I’m writing.) Well, I don’t have to guess about that--you’re telling me what you’d like to know.

When I look at your responses to the first question--what is the first thing you notice?--two things overwhelmingly jumped out at you: the crocodile-like creatures emerging from the water, and the children being protected from them by the man.  The fact that you overwhelmingly noticed those things tells me that if I have even an ounce of common sense, I better explain and discuss that. Now, I make no claims about this being a brilliant observation on my part, and that’s the point. I don’t need special talents to figure out what I want to focus on here.  As I mention above, you’re telling me what you want to know about. You’re making my life as a writer much easier.

As far as your responses to the second question--what’s your first reaction, etc.?--your responses were very thorough (what I was hoping for) and basically wrote my hypothetical essay about this cartoon for me.  (Not literally--that would be plagiarism.) For many of you the operative word was “confused.” Not surprising, considering we’re looking at something created almost 150 years ago about an aspect of America’s history few people know anything about anymore.  (I happen to know about it because I’ve long been fascinated by and studied late-19th century/early 20th century American culture.) What’s useful for me, though, is not that you were confused, but that you explained what confused or puzzled you. By telling me this, you’re telling me specifically what I need to explain and clarify.  I don’t have to guess about that.  You, the readers, are giving me solid direction about what I need to write.

The purpose of the second question was to dig deeper into what you were thinking when you looked at this.  For instance, Andrea, Cheyenne, Abby and Susan zero in on the buildings in the background (others, like Lynette or Laura, also hinted at that by thinking that this cartoon was somehow government or religion related).  Basically, you were wondering about the political and religious context of this cartoon. So now you’re not only helping me with content, you’re pointing me in the direction of a potential thesis, a central focus for my hypothetical essay (as in “American attitudes towards Catholicism as expressed in Thomas Nast’s cartoon ‘The American River Ganges.’”)

Example of 19th c. American Anti-Catholicism.  Note the first entry in the Opposed To column

The second question also helps me gauge how much factual information my potential readers knew already; that in turn helps me figure out what facts I need to explain.  For example, while many of you detected religious undertones to this cartoon, only Cheyenne and Xhonane specifically made the connection to Catholicism. This suggests to me that few people know about America’s troubled history with Catholicism in the late 19th century (again, no surprise), so I better provide some background before talking about the cartoon itself.  As an other, more basic example, a few of you thought that you saw a guillotine in the background. It’s actually a scaffold for hanging (Susan and Jessica recognized it as such). If I didn’t know that some folks thought it was a guillotine, I may not have said anything about it, so there would be a bunch of readers out there thinking that structure was something that it’s not.  

Finally, the third question leads me to your own questions that you want answered.  As with the other two questions, I look for patterns to see if there are questions that keep recurring, which tells me that it’s probably important for me to answer those questions.  Some questions open up whole avenue of thoughts for me, again helping me to get a focus for my hypothetical essay. Examples of that would be Susan asking “Does this cartoon have something to do with a battle between government and religion?” (yes, it does, specifically with Catholicism) or Cheyenne’s question “Was there a court ruling or legislation passed at the time regarding religious instruction in public schools?” (The concern was more about Catholics establishing their own school system.)  Other questions point me to things I need to explain while discussing my thesis. Examples of that would be Ariana’s question, “Why are most of the victims children?” or a question many of you asked, “Why is the American flag upside down?”

More anti-Catholic bias, in this case Catholic clergy as sexual predators

Now, we’re going to be trying something similar to this with your own topics for your final project (which is why I asked you to post the topic(s) you’re considering).  We’re going to try to crowd-source ideas for your project and see what your target readership needs and wants to know. I will have that particular exercise set up and ready to go by either Sunday or Monday.

Who Are You People?

Who Are You People?

One of the more important factors in good critical/college writing is readership--more specifically, recognizing that someone is going to read what you write, and so adjusting and adapting your language and content accordingly. 

Recognizing the presence of a readership is important because good writing is about communicating.  Communication is NOT just putting words on a page.  Communication is putting words on a page that someone who we likely don't know will understand.  No understanding, no communication.  To use an admittedly flawed analogy, I can explain to my cats in my most eloquent and precise fashion why I think they should not eat spiders, but if the cats don't understand (and they don't), then there is no communication in spite of the glorious way in which I am using language.  Furthermore, since I am the writer/communicator, I am the one who has to adapt how I communicate, not the cats.

Think communicating clearly to your audience doesn't matter?  Enjoy this commercial for Berlitz, featuring a trainee for the German Coast Guard:

 

Now you are not going to be writing to cats, but you are going to be writing to … somebody, or at least that’s how you need to approach your writing.  A major and common problem with college writing is that the writers know that the teacher is likely the only one who is going to be reading a document.  Since Teachers Know Everything, and since Teachers Read as Evaluators, Not as Humans Who Want to be Enlightened and Entertained (or so the perception goes), we’re actually a pretty crappy readership.  We read because we have to read, and we already know the subject, so there’s no compelling need on the part of the writer to be thorough and detailed.  In other words, a problem with college writing is that it can seem as if the burden to actually communicate is lifted off of the shoulders of the writer.

Unfortunately, the teacher thinks differently. The teacher (including me) usually tries to read as a representative of a larger readership and tries to understand how well your writing would communicate to that larger readership.  For example, in some of the assignments in here I ask you to write for a readership of peers: reasonably intelligent college students, who are reading in an academic setting.  When I read, then, I try to put myself in the place of that audience, and evaluate in terms of how well I think you're communicating to them, not me. (Note that I say an audience of college students, not an audience of 17 - 22 year olds.  Yes, the two are often the same, but I’m focused on the peer reader in an academic context, and readers that may include students outside of the traditional age range.) 

In future posts and exercises we’ll get into the finer points of readership.  For now, my message is simple: write to communicate to readers.  This is particularly helpful in dealing with one of the most common problems encountered by college writers: generating content.  Likely most or all of us at one time or another have encountered a problem meeting an assigned length for a college essay.  Ignoring for the moment that double-spaced college essays don't really exist in the world outside of college, we frequently find ourselves falling short of an assigned length.  Usually, then, out comes the filler, which only makes things worse.  Much of this problem extends from a misplaced focus on what we are trying to accomplish as writers.  When we are confronted with the problem of generating content, we commonly ask ourselves "what am I going to write about?" 

This is where readership can help.  Try to reframe the question, so that now the question is: "What do my readers need and want to know?"  Let the readers help generate the content.

Let me give you an example.  For the sake of argument, say that I’m writing an essay on the editorial cartoon below, by Thomas Nast, originally published in 1871.  (By the way, this is akin to what I’ll be asking you to do for future writing assignments, so consider this practice.  This is also similar to what I just asked you to do with "(Ya Got) Trouble"):


This cartoon, to quote from the Library of Congress, is “[a]n indictment of sectarianism in the public schools and Tammany's sacrifice of children's education for Catholic votes.”  Sounds good, and maybe I’d just throw the quote into the essay and be done with it (after, of course, properly citing the Library of Congress as the source for both the cartoon and the comment).  The problem is, I would not be doing a very good job of communicating if that’s all I did.  What I would need to do is take a look at the cartoon and ask myself, “What might my readers not know or understand in this cartoon that I should explain.”  It doesn’t matter whether I understand everything or not; what matters is what my readers do or do not understand.  What matters is what I think my readers need to know.

So perhaps I should explain who Thomas Nast is.  Maybe my readers won’t understand what the Ganges is and why Nast is referring to it.  Who or what are those people crawling out of the water?  Who or what exactly is Tammany?  Why is a "U.S. Public School" featured in the top center of the cartoon?  What the heck is going on in the upper right hand of the cartoon; is that a gallows?  The quote from the Library of Congress suggests that in 1871 there were some issues with Catholicism in America—maybe I should find out some information about that, so I can pass it on to my readers who may know nothing about that.

Basically what I’ve just done is generated content—meaningful words and information to put in my essay.  How did I discover that content?  I simply wondered about what my readers might need to know about.  Is it a problem that the questions I have above are questions I may need to answer for myself first?  Of course not.  It’s only a problem if we ask ourselves these questions and decide it’s not worth the effort to find them out. 

Your Turn

Below I have another cartoon.  What I’d like you to do is similar to what I’ve just done: indicate what elements of the cartoon might readers need to know about in order to understand the cartoon.  However, there are ground rules to this exercise.  I want you to ask two questions, one of which pertains to the physical details of the cartoon, the second of which pertains to analytical questions.  Here are your questions: 

1. What specific, concrete detail--no matter how large or small--catches your attention, piques your curiosity, puzzles you, or engages you?  I'm not asking you to identify a detail that's important (though that will happen in many cases); I'm asking you to identify something that puzzles or intrigues you.
2. What question do you think you need to have answered in order to better understand what the cartoon is about, and what it's "message" is?

I want you to enter you responses in the discussion area I set up in Piazza for this post. 

But wait--there's more!  (And no, it's not a stylish free monogrammed carrying case.)   You cannot repeat or duplicate anyone else's response.  Repeating what someone else has said means you don't get credit for participation.  In part this is a clever tactic on my part to get folks to read what others are saying.  However, this is also a way for me to accumulate information with which I can work.  After this part of the exercise is done, I will then take your information and try to demonstrate how, as a writer, I would use it.

What I will tell you is that cartoon is titled “The War Scare in Hogan’s Alley”; the rest of the information I will omit.

Please post your responses to the Piazza site by Thursday, March 13.

You May Wobble, But You Won't Fall Down

In this post I want to walk you through the basic process of using the site where I'm asking you to create your final projects: Weebly.

Some of you may already be familiar with Weebly.  Many instructors use it for class projects--as well as for creating their own sites--for one major reason: Weebly is really easy to use.  While D2L does have a web site creation tool, D2L is not very user-friendly, and even relatively experienced web-page creators can find it frustrating.  Among my students, past and present, who have used Weebly, virtually all find it simple, user-friendly, and an excellent tool for those who are both experienced in creating web sites, and those who have never done that before.

You can find Weebly at http://www.weebly.com

Below I've put together a series of screen shots, as well as a couple of short videos (the videos are flash files), in which I try to walk you through the basic functionality of Weebly.  I don't cover everything; Weebly has its own tutorials, which are perfectly fine for guiding you through its various functions.  What I offer is more of an introduction.

So without further ado, let me introduce you to Weebly.

First, you'll need to create an account.  That will be free.  You can upgrade to a paid account, but for this project that will not be necessary.  Once you've created an account you'll then be prompted to create your site.

















Here let me add one of the short videos I made, in which I show you the drag-and-drop functions of Weebly.  I also talk about those functions in subsequent screenshots, but you may also benefit by actually seeing how it works.

 Basic Drag-and-Drop in Weebly













Here is another short video.  In this one I show you the process of moving content around to create columns, side-by-side images, side-by-side text, etc.  I've also provided screenshots of the process.

Moving Content in Weebly

























The following image describes an important task I want you to do when you create your sites.  Before you do anything else, I want you to create a Blog page for your site.

Creating a Little Elbow Room

Oh, give me land, lots of land
Under starry skies above. 
Don't fence me in.
                --Cole Porter

Depending upon the images you use for your final project, you may run into a problem that won't affect your content, but can affect the appearance and readability of your site.

Shark and Remora Buddy.

Many images don't have margins around them.  Consequently, if you insert the image into your text that does not have a margin, and have the text wrap around the image, what you'll see is that your text will cling to the edge of that image like a remora clinging to a shark (see example below).  D2L does not automatically place a buffer between the image and the text (as Blogger does, as you can see to your left).  Now, you may not run into this issue if your images already have margins.  (You'll be able to tell if an image has a margin if you see some space between the edge of the image and the text.)  And as I mentioned before, this is not necessarily going to affect your content, but it is visually jarring. 




There is, however, a way to rectify the situation.  Below you'll see a series of screenshots I composed that show you step-by-step how to create spacing between your images and your text.

 

I Chunk, You Chunk, We All Chunk, Part 2

Let's Recap

In Part 1 of this post, I had explained that reading text online is a different experience from reading text in conventional print format, such as we might see in a book, magazine or traditional term paper.  Online, readers typically scan text rather than read it, and their eyes move in an F-pattern rather than the more familiar Z- or Zigzag-Pattern.   

Z-Pattern

This leads us to two key points for anyone (in this case, you) about composing online:

F-Pattern

• Presenting readers with large, plain blocks of text is a good way to make sure that readers won't read what you write.
• In order to better the chance (not guarantee) that readers will read what you write online, you need to compose text that accommodates the way people read online.

Don't Choke On It 

Let me begin with an analogy.  If someone were to give you a doughnut, you likely won't cram the whole thing into your mouth all at once.  You likely would break or bite off a piece, chew it, then break or bite off another piece, etc.  Similarly, if someone were to place a 3-pound pot roast on the dinner table in front of you, I expect that you would not stab the roast with a fork and shove the entire thing into your mouth.  You would likely slice it into smaller pieces, place a few pieces on your plate, and slice them into even smaller pieces.  (Some of you may remember the Seinfeld episode in which the character George Costanza uses a knife and fork to slice a Snickers Bar--same principle as the two examples I mention above.)

We can use another term to describe what you've done with your food: Chunking.

George Chunking His Snickers Bar

Chunking Explained

In online composition, "chunking" refers to the act of breaking large blocks of text into smaller pieces of text--"chunks."  The amount of text isn't reduced;  the text is simply presented to the reader in multiple, smaller units, rather than a few very large units.  

Chunking is a technique for accommodating the way readers read when they read online text.  By presenting text in smaller units, one "tricks" the eye and brain into thinking that there isn't a whole lot to read, and so betters the chances that readers will, in fact, read all of the words.  (As I mentioned in Part 1, readers will read complete text online--if that text is presented in a way that is not visually overwhelming.)  Chunking also helps readers retain what they read online better.  Ideally a "chunk" is a sharply focused unit of information--one chunk equals one idea.

Chunking Is a Visual Act

Chunking does not alter the basics of good writing.  What you have learned over the years about what constitutes good writing, what has been true about good writing for centuries--logical progression of ideas, clear and detailed explanations, analysis that goes below the surface, a main focus, accounting for readership, solid research, good grammar, punctuation and syntax--still holds true in online composition.  So you do not need to re-learn how to write when writing online and chunking information.

What you do have to think about , however, is how to visually present that information online.  Actually, like the concept of chunking itself, this is pretty simple:

• Use short paragraphs.  Online, even one-sentence paragraphs can be acceptable.
• Use line-skips between paragraphs.  The white space between paragraphs helps emphasize the idea that there isn't an overwhelming amount of text to read.
• Use section headings (and when appropriate, subheadings) to label sections of your text.  Good headings help readers know what to expect in a section, and that encourages them to read.  Headings also provide breaks in text.  Headings also help readers who scan find the information they need, and encourages them to return and read sections they may initially skip.
• Use visuals to provide visual relief.  Visuals should be relevant to the content, and when used well will help enhance the content.  But they also can provide visual relief to the reader, and again help emphasize the idea that there isn't an overwhelming amount of text to read.   Use captions for your visuals when appropriate.
• Use hyperlinks to help readers navigate to external sites.  Don't just provide the URL; make sure the URL is live.
• Use hyperlinks to help readers navigate internally--through your site or even through a page.  For example, if you are at the bottom of your page, instead of making readers scroll back to the top (readers typically don't like to scroll) add a "Back to Top" internal hyperlink.

Everyday Chunking Just as you commonly use visuals to represent text, so too are you familiar with chunking in your daily life.  For example, what’s the difference between: 123947762 and 123-94-7762 They represent a social security number (not a real number), except that one is rendered as a single block of numerals, while the other is chunked into three smaller units.  Similarly, what’s the difference between: 8145557762 and (814) 555-7762 Again, they both represent the same phone number, except one is a single block of numerals, while the other is chunked into three smaller units. This chunking is not accidental.  Chunking helps our brains better retain information.  We likely know our social security numbers, perhaps dozens of phone numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, etc.  How in the world can we remember all of those numbers, especially since the numbers are widely varied and often pretty random?  Chunking the numbers is what helps us to remember. There is even a sonic pattern to chunking.  If someone asks you for your phone number, for example, think about how you say the number.  Likely you don't just recite seven numbers without pause; likely you break the numbers into sound bites: pum-pum-pum ... pum-pum ... pum-pum.

Chunking in Action

You may have noticed that in this post and in Part 1 I made a conscious effort to chunk information.  The actions I describe in the bullet points above are actions I tried to incorporate here.

However, below you'll find illustrations of student-created sites that display the principles of chunking.  The first two images are from examples of research into early American documentary photographs (a slightly different assignment from the one I'm asking you to do).  In these examples the writers were researching a photographer/writer named Jacob Riis.

Image 1

Riis Chunked

Image 2

Riis Chunked Again

_______________________________________________


Next is a student-created page that uses more visuals, and chunks the text.  The page is not perfect, but overall it's a good page in both content and how it chunks information.  Also note that the following example was created using Weebly.

A Chunked Narrative History

Call

Send SMS

Add to Skype

You'll need Skype CreditFree via Skype

I Chunk, You Chunk, We All Chunk, Part 1

People read differently online.  They jump around and read short amounts....  We needed to label and organize information into logical groupings....
                                                                      --Annika Tamura, Design Director, Boston.com

(WARNING!  This post contains material that may seem to have no practical purpose, and perhaps indicates that the writer needs a vacation.  While all that may be true, the purpose of this post is to provide a foundation for the next post, which will contain material more practical for your final project.)

What You Get Is What You See

In recent years teachers and colleges (including this one) have been placing more and more emphasis on something we call Visual Literacy.  In a nutshell, what we mean by Visual Literacy is the ability to process traditional textual information (i.e., words and numbers) into visual form.  It's like a more complex version of the "If you could be any animal in the world, what animal would you be" icebreaker: instead of using words to describe abstract personal qualities, you use a visual (the animal) to represent those qualities.

Many instructors have scrapped the traditional term paper in favor of having students produce what's called an Infographic as the final project.  The students still do research, and quite rigorous research; however, they present their findings in a visual/textual form, rather than strictly textual.

As an example, a fairly common topic for college research writing these days is childhood obesity.  In the olden days (5 years ago or so) the student would have researched the topic, written a standard double-spaced essay, turned it in and more likely than not, completely forgot everything he/she researched.  But what happens if the student, instead of simply rehashing what someone else has said, has to actively and critically think about how to present that information?  Well, you can see the result below--a research project on childhood obesity that was submitted, not as yet another mind-numbing essay, but as an Infographic; that is, information presented in graphic form:

 Infographic on Childhood Obesity

Note that in this infographic text doesn't go away.  However, text does have to share space with visuals, and both have to learn to play well together.

Think you could never do a visual representation of text?  You probably already do.  The next time you end a sentence with :) or :[, or at the end of a message to a loved one type @)---,  take a second and realize that what you have just texted is a visual representation of a phrase or word.

Life Was So Much Easier in Black and White

So is all this happening because teachers have finally discovered the Insert Image tool in Microsoft Word?  No.  There are a number of reasons why, most of which really don't concern us.  One major reason, however, is simple: we have become a visual culture (or at least a more visual culture).  Whether we approve of that or not is irrelevant.  The fact is, the ability to communicate successfully with visuals has become an essential college skill, and more importantly, an essential workplace skill.

Again let me point out what I mention above: text isn't going away, nor will it go away.  People will not gradually stop knowing how to read, nor will people gradually stop knowing how to write.  This is not about visuals replacing text; this is about visuals and text complementing and supporting each other to create, ideally, a more dynamic learning experience.

A Good Reason Why Maybe Paper Should Go Away

The Three Mantras for Your Final Projects

While I'd like to say that repeating these mantras will make your task absurdly easy, it won't.  I can say, however, that they can help you stay focused on the fact that your final project is both textual and visual.

1. You're creating a web page.  "Web page," of course, can sound intimidating, because building them historically (if I can use that term to refer to a process that hasn't been around that long) required a High Techno-Geek Factor.  It also doesn't help that likely all of us spend a significant amount of time navigating to professionally-developed web sites with a lot of Wow to them. 
2. Web sites are highly visual.  That is, while they do contain content and text as we typically understand them, they also contain a heck of a lot of pictures and graphics and boxes and animation.  It's probably virtually impossible now to find a web site that does not have high visual content.  Some sites, such as Pinterest, present you with pretty much nothing but visuals at first, and you have to access the content through the visuals.  Think of the sites you visit frequently--how many do not have visuals?  My bet would be on none.
3. When you compose online, you need to think about both the information that you present and how you're going to present it.  While the content of a page (including yours) is the most important factor, no matter how good the content is, it's useless if no one actually reads it.  And in order to get someone to read an online document, one needs to think about how to incorporate visuals into the text, and how to arrange and present the text in a visually-attractive manner.  (What we call reader-friendly.)  

The good news is this: creating a web page that is visually attractive and reader-friendly is simple, and requires little to no technical skills beyond what you already have.  

But before I get into the practical stuff, let's first understand how people read when they read online.  That, I think, will make it easier to understand the rationale of what I will talk about in the next post.

© Despair.com

In An Online World, Most of Us Get Fs

My guess would be that few, if any, have ever thought about how different the online reading experience is (and consequently, how different the online writing experience is, beyond the technical stuff).

The simplest way to explain how people read online is to say that online readers don't read--they scan.  They look for bits of information that interest them or are relevant to their needs, and ignore that which isn't.  A study done in 2008 showed that up to 80% of those who read online scan rather than read, and spend between 25 - 80 seconds on a page (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, "How Little Do Users Read?")

Neuroscientists using eye-tracking devices have tracked how our eyes move when we read a standard print text as compared to reading text on a web page, and found a significant difference.  When we read a book, magazine or newspaper sitting in our laps, we (at least in Western cultures) read in a classic Z or Zigzag pattern, like so:

 

Zigzag Reading Pattern

We start left, move across the line to the right margin, snap back to the left, move across the line to the right margin, rinse, repeat.

Those who read online, however, follow a very different pattern.  (Note that this pattern refers to reading text online, and not to looking at images).  Eye-tracking devices indicate that when we read online, we follow an F pattern, like so:

 

 F-Reading Pattern

We again start left, move across the line to the right margin, snap back to the left ... then read only a portion of the line.  We snap back to the left ... then read an even smaller portion of the line, and so on and so forth until we're pretty much doing no reading as we get towards the bottom of the page.  We don't even necessarily read all the lines.  In other words, we're scanning rather than reading.

How Does This Matter When Composing a Web Page?

First, we know that when reading online, readers have little patience for conventional linear reading (the Z-pattern).  So the larger the block of text a reader confronts online, the more likely the reader will simply ignore most of the text.  Readers will read a longer document online--but not if the document is presented to them in large, visually-daunting blocks.

Second, online readers are scanning, which means they are looking for places for their eyes to settle.  Online writers need to use visual cues to tell readers "stop here and read this."  Again, readers will read long documents online--as long as writers provide cues for readers to stop.

That's enough for this post.  In the next post, I'll take these ideas and give them a practical purpose, specifically for your projects.  I will also show you a page that adopts these ideas for a project just like the one you're doing.  You'll see a page that you can use as a template for both the content of your own projects and the design of your own projects.

Stay tuned.  Stay chunky.